~ Paris ~
New home ~ new school!
Sunday was a day for resting and exploring our new environment in the very west of the 7th arrondissement. Just 50m from the park at the champ de mars, and a 15 minute walk (or scoot!) to school.
It also called for some testing of the local patisserie’s capabilities…
Aisling was still recovering from the bug she picked up at the kids play group in Saas Fee.
You can sleep OK in bed, but sometimes a snooze down the back of the couch is just what the doctor ordered! We also trust in the healing powers of porridge… Most importantly, Aisling also acquired some hot new wheels for her trips to & from school each day. Looking stylish!
Charles also getting ready to blend in on the streets of Paris, and discovering a great second hand shop on the way home from school in the afternoons with different kick knacks (“bibelots”) to browse through each day.
Charles was naturally a bit nervous about his new school, but came out from day 1 saying “actually it wasn’t too bad!”. Part of that might have been the lunch menu. When asked what he chose in the cafeteria the answer was “mashed potatoes and chocolate mousse”!
Charles is in an “adaptation” class at a french school, where the class is a mix of second and third classes, composed of kids who are spending a year improving their French to the point they’re ready to go into the main French part of the school. In practice many of the kids in Charles’ class come from French families, but have been living overseas for a number of years and have now come back to France.
What all the kids have in common is that they’ve only just arrived in Paris which is great for making new friends from all over the world.
Aisling was still a bit under the weather the first week, so didn’t make it to school, particularly given it was quite cold and wet.
She was however feeling well enough by Friday for an outing to the shops with mum & dad.
What’s that blue stuffed animal on the shelf??
We even passed a jigsaw shop with a lady in the window cutting jigsaws with a jigsaw while we watched. Careful of those fingers!
Sculpting class!
Simon meanwhile had been practising his drawing in prep for his Tuesday evening culture classes. Both skills that he last exercised at the age of 12 or so!
Learning drawing using his grandmother Dulcie’s book “Drawing on the right side of the brain”, a best seller in 1978 🙂
Sculpture class is from 7-10pm on Tuesday evenings, a couple of metro rides across Paris. The teacher Brigitte is an accomplished sculptor who runs classes for a regular small group of students in the evenings. The others have all been at it with her for many years (in some cases more than 10!), using a variety of techniques, most of them plaster-based.
A very authentic experience, they are kind to welcome a strange Aussie man with no experience to speak of into their fold. Tuesday nights promise to be an interesting voyage of discovery, with lovely Paris street views on the way home.
Play date!
Meanwhile the big excitement of the week was having visitors from Sydney. Charles’ school friend Benji and his family Will, Wennie, Lilian and Natalie were in London on holidays can came across to Paris to visit for a few days.
We soon hit our straps with some Aussie soccer skills on display in the champ de mars…
… followed by a scenic ride on the Place de la Concorde ferris wheel (aka La Grande Roue de Paris)
Then off to the Luxembourg gardens for more adventures. We’re getting used to buskers on the metro (many of them very good), but the one on this journey was something else. A guy who started off doing some rapping, then cleared a little area for himself in the carriage and was doing full back flips in the moving train. Quite a spectacle!
Great fun in the playground at Luxembourg, one of the best in Paris…
Including of course a trip to the puppet show in the park, which has been in operation since 1933, with over 2,500 puppets in the attic and a (highly!) dedicated (obsessive?), jovial and rotund frenchman running the show. Great fun had by all.
And as if things couldn’t get any more exciting, gelato flowers on the way home…
Ned!
Ned also joined our family in the first week. Ned is what they affectionately call a “donkey” in Ireland, but in France is either a “chariot de course” or a “pousette de marche”.
An essential item when all shopping is done by foot rather than by car, for ferrying your purchases home. a sturdy Ned will make all the difference to your daily routine…
Le weekend! ~ Uncle Rob and auntie Glenys
Somehow we made it through our first week in Paris! Hooray!
This called for a Friday night dinner celebration out at a local restaurant. The one about 20 steps from our front door seemed like a logical choice with very tired children…
The wait staff were super accommodating – our waitress also has a 7 year old boy and could empathise with reaching the end of a big first week 🙂
First piece of exciting news for the weekend, uncle Rob and auntie Glenys are in town from Adelaide!
So we set out to do a bit of exploring at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, which is essentially a museum of invention, spanning multiple centuries. Fantastic collection of machines, inventions and automata to explore, perfect for a 7 year old boy.
On the metro on the way, delighted to see the beer ad includes Coopers in the list of worldly beers any sophisticated Parisien should enjoy…
At the museum, Charles sizing up the improvements in bicycle technology down the ages
Charles and auntie Glenys sizing up one of the more impressive exhibits: an early flying machine designed to run with a super-lightweight steam engine. Note so sure it ever got off the ground, but it makes an impressive sight!
From the museum it was straight to our first school birthday party, for Deniz from Turkey who was turning 8, and lives right across the park from us.
Great time had by all and an opportunity to get to know a few of the other parents. Turns out Nick Leeder’s successor at Google has a daughter in Charles’ class – small world.
After the party, a moonlit scoot across the champ de mars in front of a beautifully lit tour Eiffel. Wonderful way to round out a wonderful week…