In which we meet some Americans

Blaise knows many philosophers and historians of mathematics who are in France right now. Many (in fact, most) of them are here because they are French, or because they have permanent positions in France. Others are Americans who are working here as post docs or graduate students with money from his graduate advisor, who has a substantial 4 year grant from the French government. At least one is spending a sabbatical year working with Microsoft just outside of Paris.

This particular friend lives in Pittsburgh, and so I had never met him before. He and his wife have 3 daughters, ages 10, 8, and 5. Last week they proposed that we meet them at the playground in the Jardin de Luxembourg. They had met another American couple, also here for a year with their children, the previous weekend at the playground, and so all three families met up at the playground Saturday afternoon.

The eight kids mostly played together. Sapphire and Ezio joined up with the Avigads' two older daughters, and their youngest played with another 5 year old. The two 3 year olds kind of did their own things, not too surprisingly I suppose. Cherry is often not particularly interested in other kids her own age; she prefers kids Sapphire's age. And I got to talk to other grown ups, in English, without feeling like I was putting some sort of an unfair burden on them. Normally I either feel guilty about other people having to speak English, or I muddle through in French, neither of which leads to particularly fulfilling conversations.

As seems to be the norm at large playgrounds here, the bathroom had two stalls with normal sized facilities, and one with a pint sized toilet. Of course, once Cherry discovered the little potty, we had to wait for it to be free every time she needed to use the bathroom. This lead to a great deal of standing around and waiting, since she was not the only small child who wanted to use the little potty.