Paris ~ Venice
Laser tag & rue Cler
Quiet start to Sunday morning before Charles off to a laser tag birthday party – a guaranteed winner with 7 and 8 year olds world-wide. This one comes with an “immersion guarantee” – comforting news for parents that your child is guaranteed to be obsessively immersed in a world of guns and team hunting for the next couple of hours!
Meanwhile Aisling heading out for a scoot in the park, as a patch of sun makes the Tour Eiffel shine gold against a grey sky.
Then a meander along fashionable rue Cler, with a mix of (mostly) gourmet food shops set along a cobbled pedestrianised zone for a few blocks.
Looking stylish as always in our pink wheels…
Coming out of laser tag we passed a cafe with an impressive seafood display. Inspired us to grab some take-away oysters from the restaurant Suffren across the road from our apartment. Charles was Chef’s assistant to the master shucker. Aisling meanwhile more impressed by the seaweed than the bivalves…
Neighbourhood sights
Our walk to school always offers something interesting to explore. This week, it’s how the Parisians move house: almost always through the (French!) windows and into the street via a portable elevator.
Cars and trucks parked on the footpaths are a standard occurrence. What’s a little less commonplace are skiers on the footpaths, but this week there was one, complete with a chairlift seat. Just in time to get us in the mood for a school holiday ski trip…
At the end of Charles’ first week of school we stopped in to the Merci Jérôme patisserie for a celebratory treat.
On hearing it was Charles’ first week in school in Paris, the lady behind the counter refused to let us pay for the treat, and Merci Jérôme immediately became our patisserie of choice in the neighbourhood.
Of violins and Luthiers
Charles has been continuing with his violin and piano in Paris, with Aisling starting on piano. We found teachers using the great Apprentus app.
All that was needed now was a piano and a violin. Piano proved trickier than you would think, since while piano rental shops abound, they are suspicious of renters, as they worry they will skip the country leaving them unable to retrieve the piano from the apartment’s owners. Various proofs of residency and utility bills required which are a bit tricky when you’ve just touched down, but we negotiated our way through it.
For a violin, no need to lower ourselves to showing up at a musical instrument emporium. This is Europe and some vestiges of the older professions continue – we were able to stroll about 15 minutes to our local luthier in the quarter in his little workshop that has clearly been there longer than any of the surrounding establishments. He was delighted to interrupt his violin repairs to rent Charles a violin he had personally restored. Payment by cheque of course…
Simon and Niamh’s pursuits
Simon’s Tuesday evening sculpture classes meanwhile continuing to bump along. Change of strategy for getting there this week: a stroll through the champ de mars in the evening and a bus across paris to avoid the peak hour crush on the metro. Wire frames for his cliffs and rock faces ready to go!
Simon’s strolling podcasts of choice: AI
Niamh meanwhile enjoying wandering the streets of Paris (suspect she may never tire of it!) and racking up long miles each day with camera in hand. Treasures uncovered range from street art to stumbling upon a Chipotle and imaging she’s in Salt Lake City for a few hours.
Niamh’s podcasts of choice: the endless entertainment of US politics.
Mahalia!
No, not a Hawaiian greeting, but a family friend and relative of the Brown-Lums who happened to be passing through Paris on holiday and came to stay for a couple of nights.
An instant hit with Aisling who was stuck onto her within about 10 seconds, Mahalia was incredibly patient as Aisling showed her some of her favourite places around Paris, including the playground in les jardins des Tuileries.
Lunching
A treat on Wednesday as uncle Rob and aunt Glenys back from trip to Germany and hosted us all for lunch at rue du marché st honore.
Mireille Huchon and two grandkids were also there which was wonderful, though Gerard was unfortunately ill.
An amazing spread as always, and a great treat to have an extended family lunch so far from home. All topped off with a bit of post-lunch sofa shopping.
Thursday saw the kids back and school and Niamh and Simon freed up for a bit of 1:1 lunching. Niamh had done her homework and selected Comice, just over the river from us and run by a Canadian couple and receiving excellent reviews.
Chilly day as we crossed over a still-flooded Seine past the statue of liberty (Paris version).
Once again the reviews were spot on. An excellent meal in a warm and welcoming little out of the way spot.
Venezia
Sometimes parents do mad things. Other times they do really mad things – like planning a weekend trip to Carnival in Venice in the middle of winter with two young kids. What could go wrong??.
Off to Orly airport where a prescient Aisling was filling the sky with storm clouds on the interactive kiddy screens at the gates.
When Aisling was 2, as we were going through an airport one day, she hopped on top of a rolling carry-on bag, and has been thus travelling in style through airports ever since, to the constant laughter of fellow travellers.
We may need to get a larger rolling suitcase soon however…
Made it to Marco Polo airport, where we spoiled ourselves with a water taxi transfer to Venice. Almost surreal landscapes of carved stone facades reflected in the water of criss-crossing canals
Made it to our cozy little hotel with two very tired children. Dad went out to get some take-away food for the parent’s picnic dinner in bed as the kids crashed out after the excitement of the day.
View from hotel window with blue laser lights shining out from Piazza San Marco a sign that Carnival is about to get into full swing.
Umbrellas at ten paces
Saturday morning we had booked a walking tour with our friendly and very informative guide Elena. Sadly the weather din’t fully cooperate: freezing cold, rainy and windy – not an ideal combination for a walking tour! Luckily we had rented a stroller for Aisling from mamarent.com which came with a plastic rain cover, creating a little bubble shelter for our 4-year-old, complete with iPad, while the rest of us zipped up our coats, stomped our feet and tried to duck the worst of the rain.
Despite the weather we really enjoyed the tour, taking in the early morning fish markets with black squid and scorfani fish, complete with antique carved price lists…
Charles meanwhile delighted the guide by being the questioner-in-chief throughout the tour:
Gondolieri
The end of the walking tour and time to thaw out frozen fingers and toes in a cafe, complete with outfit worn by Madonna on her Australian tour – somehow fitting! Managed to find hot chocolates so rich and heavy, both kids defeated!
Then off on a gondola ride, elements be damned. The water (an amazingly clear turquoise colour) was up, so our talented gondolier had us moving about the boat to tilt it over to squeeze under low-slung bridges as we navigated past ever-changing sights
Sights and tastes of Venice
After the gondola ride, lunch provided some comic relief in the form of a pizza and pasta restaurant where the overwhelmed wait staff served up a comedy of errors and highly entertaining repartee of arguments between each other, the chefs and the patrons. We were delighted to sit back, take it all in and wait for the rain to stop.
Aisling invented yet another version of balloon tennis over lunch, to go along with the corridor balloon tennis popular in Killorglin: bread stick tennis. Sure to be an olympic sport before long. Niamh meanwhile was enjoying a limoncello on the house – perhaps as we were the only table not complaining but rather just enjoying the free circus show.
After lunch, out exploring the streets. Costumes starting to appear for Carnival, and Charles contemplating his next Italian car purchase. Apparently it’s not going to be a Fiat…
Dinner on Saturday night was more about good food than impromptu waiter comedy. Bistro de Venise with its beautiful stained glass sign and decorated interiors, serving traditional Venetian fare stretching back down the ages.
Finally after dinner the skies had cleared to a perfectly still, cloudless night – the promise of better weather for Sunday at Carnival!