Sapphire and Cherry celebrate a birthday

Well, there are many days in Europe that are now passed, and probably I ought to write about them. Perhaps at some point I will, but for now I'll jump in where I am, or almost where I am at any rate.

Saturday, July 18th was Sapphire's 9th birthday and Cherry's 3rd birthday. Sapphire had requested pastries for breakfast, so we set off to the boulangerie on the edge of our apartment complex to pick up some pastries. Afterwards, both girls opened gifts. Because of the small size of our apartment, and the fact that everything we accumulate here will have to either be discarded or shipped home at the end of our visit, presents were fairly minimal. Sapphire got mostly craft and coloring supplies, and Cherry got PlayDoh and a toy tea set.

After lunch, we set off to find the Bois de Vincennes, about a 30 minute walk from our apartment. Blaise had walked there earlier in the week, and told us about a playground with a cool brownish rope structure for climbing which he had passed along the way. Since we’re always on the lookout for new playgrounds, especially those appropriate for older kids, we were looking forward to discovering this one. In addition, he had told us there were a number of boucheries (butcher shops) and patisseries in that part of Fontenay sous Bois. Since most of the food near me in at the Auchan, our local hypermarche (think Super Walmart, French style), I was excited about having the chance to locate other food options. I was particularly interested now because we needed to
a) Find a birthday cake (or tart), and the boulangerie near us doesn’t sell cakes, and sells tarts only by the slice;
b) Find the proper sausage for the lentil soup that Sapphire had selected for her birthday dinner.

First we passed the playground Blaise had been talking about, and discovered, much to our disappointment that the climbing structure was on a playground that we had already been to a couple of times, and that Blaise’s idea of brown and my idea of red are pretty much the same. A short block later, we reached the crest of a hill, and were able to see the top third of the Eiffel tower, peeking out between tree branches and apartment buildings. The area was beginning to feel more like Paris, instead of the apartment complexes that dominate where we’re living. The bakeries and butcher shops were all closed for lunch, but since it was already three o’clock, we knew they’d be open again before we came back through. Ten minutes later, we were in the Bois de Vincennes. We had walked to Paris.

The Bois de Vincennes is huge, as we knew from previous visits to Paris. Near to our town is a lake called the Lac des Minimes. It's basically a big circle with some islands in it, so we walked around it and watched the ducks and geese and people rowing boats on it. Cherry was scared of the dogs, so we had to develop a new rule. You only get picked up if the dog is big or off a leash. If the dog is a leashed Yorkie, you're just going to have to deal with it.

Back through the center of town to pick up the sausage, then a raspberry gateau that Sapphire picked out for dessert. [I suggested that Sapphire might like to choose charlotte aux fraises, basically strawberry shortcake, but Cherry insisted that Sapphire would have to choose carmen aux fraises; the charlotte aux fraises was for her!]

We had green lentil soup with smoked sausage and fresh bread for dinner, with sirop to drink. (Basically, you take fruit (or flower) flavored syrup, the most common example in the States is grenadine, and mix with sparkling water.) Then cake for dessert. We finally got to use the "9" candle that we brought with us from the US.