A surprise visit

My sister and her family showed up at our door last Saturday. Unannounced. From North Carolina. Everyone thinks I am lying when I say I thought they were coming. I could swear I overheard a voice message on Marc's phone that said they were an hour or so away. And I could swear I saw a smirk on Marc's face that indicated he was in on the whole thing. But he wasn't and there wasn't such a voice message. So I am just chalking it up to keen intuitions.

For three days we walked around and had picnics. We also made it to IKEA and Amy Ruth's. And sometimes we all cuddled on the couch with our kids.

We didn't make it to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for the fifth year in a row. Since we don't know any better, we think the blossoms near Gracie Mansion are just as lovely.

Free delivery

Eating out

Fast Annie

A Day in Dublin

On our way home from France we had a connection in Dublin. Which we missed. So Marc missed a day of work, and I missed another Monday in New York. It was all very annoying. Here we are on our extra day of vacation in a city we had never considered visiting trying to make the most of our situation.

Harper chases more pigeons.

It was a lovely day in Dublin. Except for the cold. Which everyone in Dublin mistook for a warm summer day. The man in the yellow shorts did not look strange, but we did, wearing winter coats, hats, and long pants.

Thank goodness these guys were playing in the street or we wouldn't be able to join the conversations about listening to good Irish music in Dublin.

Dublin Spire. At 120 metres this is the tallest sculpture in the world. No guidebook was needed to find this tourist attraction.

Bon App'tit

Each night on our way home from touring Paris we walked by a hole in the wall called Au P'tit Grec. There was always an enormous crowd outside waiting for their crepes. We finally got around to trying them on our last night in town and wished we had another week to spend there so we could try one of each.

Nutella Banana from start to finish.

Bouquet of crepes for dinner.

Final scenes from Paris.

Halle, this one's for you.

The Last Hurrah

For our last day of vacation we rented bikes and rode around Paris to see what we had missed earlier in the week. Luxembourg Gardens. The Rodin museum. Montmartre. Other places. It rained pretty constantly, but lightly, all day.

The Luxembourg Garden was by far the loveliest garden we visited. And that's saying a lot since every garden we visited was really lovely.

Harper was a good sport in the rain. And we're glad the guy at the bike shop loaned us his rain poncho or one of us wouldn't have been a good sport in the rain.

Pausing by the statue of a gold head.

Posing by the statue of a thinker.

There must be a French gardening handbook that says all parks and gardens must have long corridors of trees pruned in the shapes of squares. And there must be something hardwired in us that tells us long corridors with trees pruned in the shapes of squares are really lovely.

The Burghers of Calais

This picture makes me sad. Poor little Harper. What were we thinking dragging you all over the city on a bike in the (light) rain?

We stopped at a classic French restaurant, Bouillon Chartier, for refreshment and reprieve from the rains. I had raped carrots and a sausage made out of intestines. If I could name more body parts in French I probably wouldn't have ordered it. Nothing a side of ketchup couldn't fix, though. Marc had a trout and an avocado and shrimp. Harper had French fries, and dried blueberries from Costco. With a little lunch inside all of us, we were ready for the rest of the bike tour.

Here's the happy Harper we know and love.

And here's the tour guide that planned and reworked plans every day of the week so we could see and do interesting and fun things. I would hire this guy again.

Fontainebleau

Marc welcomes us to the chateau de Fontainebleau.

Hiding out in a cranny at the chateau de Fontainebleau.

Another picnic. This time in the forest at Fontainebleau.

Even without fellow physical challengers Marc was able to pull off a couple challenges on his own. I held my breath at the bottom and was grateful I was in a country where I could speak the language to emergency personnel should the need have arisen.

Marc was so pleased when Harper wanted to climb on all the rocks. He believes that one way to instill confidence in our kids is to make them rock climbers. I believe in it. And I want to believe this is why I am so insecure.

With chateaux and countryside and the Eiffel Tower to see, we rushed around from one to the other. Harper didn't seem to care for any of it. But there were screams of delight when we happened upon this playground.

Boats and the Arc and the Eiffel

We rented a sailboat for Harper in or near the Tuileries Garden. I can't remember which. Two euros for half an hour. The nice man gave back one of the euros when we returned our boat fifteen minutes later. It turns out Harper can't stay focused on one thing for that long.

I wasn't the only one that couldn't get this street's namesake catchy tune out of my head. Wandering down the Champs-Elysees we actually heard people whistling the old song:

Aux Champs-Elysees, aux Champs-Elysees
Au soleil, sous la pluie, a midi ou a minuit
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux Champs-Elysees

(M)Arc de Triomphe

Harper isn't playing peek-a-boo.

Scenes from on top of the Arc

Avenue des Champs Elysees and one part of the largest roundabout in the world

I don't think there was anything I wanted to see more than this tower when we arrived in Paris. And when we did see it, I didn't think it was that cool. It looked so industrial. So metal. And it glittered like a strobe light every night. And there were mobs of people taking pictures of it, riding the elevator to the top, buying trinkets and doodads in its likeness. And then I figured it out and featured it in lots of photos, and oohed at its glittering lights, and bought a tea towel with a picture of it on the front.

284 steps down from the top of the Arc. (And 284 steps up.)

We took a boat tour on the Seine at 10:30pm one night later in the week. By then Harper had it all figured out and asked to sit in the stroller so she could go to sleep.