In which Sapphire is at camp

Sapphire left for camp early on the morning of Monday, July 5th. Since that time, I have been huddled in a panicky ball in the corner of my bedroom, hoping that she somehow manages to make it safely home.

OK, that isn't true. So what have we been doing?

Well, the day that Sapphire left, Blaise had to go to a talk in Paris. Once he was done with the talk, he called us and the kids and I took the train into the city and met him in the Marais. We had dinner at l'As du Fallafel, which is perhaps the most famous falafel restaurant in Paris. After dinner, we walked to the Place de Vosges, where Cherry and Ezio played in the sandbox until a couple of teenage degenerates decided that it would be fun to have a sandball fight. Then we headed over to the slides and bouncy toys for a while.

Tuesday, the kids and I went to the playground for a while, and picked blackberries in the woods at the Parc des Epivans. Then we went to the American Library to check out our last complement of books, at least until we return to Paris, because our membership is going to expire on the 25th of July, and it doesn't make sense to pay for a renewal given that we're leaving the country on the 5th of August.

Wednesday we actually didn't do anything, except go to the playground and play soccer outside on the grass.

Thursday the kids and I went to the Parc Floral to play on the playground. We also wanted to go to the butterfly house, but discovered after we got there that it wouldn't be opening until 1:30, so we decided to stay until then. Unfortunately, I didn't bring lunch, since I figured that we'd play until we got hungry and then take the bus back home to eat, so we were reduced to eating ice cream bars from the snack stand when we got hungry around 12:30. The butterflies were very pretty though, and so well worth the wait.

Friday, a few of Cherry's friends came over for a combination farewell and birthday party. Blaise took Ezio into Paris to the Galeries Lafayette, and they spent a couple of hours wandering through the toy department, largely because the major department stores are all air conditioned. I meticulously planned all sorts of games and activities for the party, and then the kids spent the entire two hours playing with PlayDoh and Duplos. It was with great difficulty that I dragged them away so that they could eat their cookies and drink their juice.

Saturday, we (all of us) went into Paris to the Cimetière de Montparnasse, where we searched for famous peoples' graves: Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Paul Sartre, Henri Poincaré, Baudelaire, Porfirio Díaz, and a few others. Then we wandered around the area by the Tour Montparnasse until we found a reasonable looking (and not too terribly touristy) crêperie, where we had galettes, hard cider, and crêpes for lunch. Afterwards, we headed to the Jardin Atlantique, which is a Parisian park built on top of the Gare Montparnasse. The kids played on the playground until it started to rain, and Blaise and I talked and listened to the announcements floating up from the train station.

Sunday, we went to the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace in Le Bourget, to the NE of Paris. After a few adventures getting there (the first bus line we tried to take wasn't running, the second didn't actually stop at the RER station but instead stopped a couple of blocks (and a couple of turns) away), we spent close to 5 hours at the museum. I can now say that I've been inside a 747 (and seen a car in its cargo bay), a Dakota military transport, and not one but two Concordes. Unfortunately, none of them were airborne. We also saw lots and lots of planes from WWI and WWII, and some very interesting attempts at flight from the end of the 19th century. Then we tried to go to some really nice bookstores in Paris, but they were closed, so we bought pastries and ate them in the gardens at the Musée du Cluny.

Monday we had friends of Blaise's over for dinner.

Tuesday, the kids and I went to Fontenay sous Soleil, which is a set up by the city of Fontenay to provide an opportunity for those who aren't leaving over the summer to participate in various summer activities. Ezio and I played badminton. Ezio and Cherry jumped on the trampolines. The kids played in the giant sandboxes (complete with lots of really cool sand toys). We all ran through the sprayers. That evening, we watched the fireworks display from our balcony. Cherry was so excited about watching her first ever fireworks show (that she was actually awake for) that she refused to get up to use the toilet during it. And she was sitting on my lap. Fortunately, we have a washing machine.

Wednesday was rainy, and so we stayed in most of the day. We did watch the Bastille Day parade on television, but that was about the most ambitious thing that we managed.

Thursday evening we went into Paris to go to the bookstore which we had tried (and failed) to go to on Sunday. Ezio and Blaise looked at the bandes dessinées (comic books) and Cherry and I looked at the picture books. Then we all looked at the cookbooks, but we didn't get anything. Next, we walked over to the Église Saint-Gervais Saint-Protais. Unfortunately, they were doing restoration work, and there was a service in progress, so we were unable to do more than stick our heads in the door and look around a little bit. Afterwards, we stopped by a bakery for bread and then had a dinner of bread and plums and water in the courtyard of the Église Saint Medard. Finally, we walked over to the Arene de Lutece and watched the petanque players until it was time to go home.

Friday, we spent a few hours at Fontenay-sous-Soleil. Since we were there later in the day, the Ludotheque station was set up, and the kids spent a long time playing at the water station, and then driving cars on the town mat. We also played some badminton and thought about playing petanque, but there didn't seem to be any marker balls available to start the game with. Once we got home, it was time to set up for dinner, since we had some Notre Dame graduate students coming over to eat with us. Strangely enough, one of them was a Calvin grad, so we played a little bit of Dutch bingo. No matches though.

Saturday we went into the city and went to the Parc de Bercy and then to Bercy Village. Ezio convinced Cherry that the bubbles in the water were caused by the crocodiles that lived there. We walked through Bercy village, which is really just a mall, sadly enough. (Bercy used to be where most wine entered Paris, via barges on the Seine. Alas, it is no longer.)

Sunday was Cherry's birthday (and Sapphire's too, of course, but she wasn't there to celebrate it). We started out by going back to Sadahuru Aoki for macarons, which we ate in the Jardin de Luxembourg. Then we found a little garden with sandboxes and wading pools, where my children had a splashing battle with a little French girl, which resulted in three extremely wet children, though I, fortunately, only had to deal with two of them. We wandered over to the bassin, where children sail little boats, and watched for awhile. I debated renting a boat for the kids to use, but as it seemed as if all one did was put it into the water at one end of the bassin and then fish it out again at the other (repeat until your time is up), that we would probably get just as much enjoyment out of watching other people sailing their boats. Then the kids and I headed over to the playground while Blaise found a shady spot to sit and people watch. Afterwards, we stopped at Pierre Hermé for a very fancy (and very expensive) birthday cake: a gigantic rose, litchi, and strawberry macaron.

Monday we headed to Parc Disneyland with José, a friend of Blaise, and his family. José and his family and Ezio and Blaise started the day at the studios, where Ezio got to, at last, ride the Rock and Roller Coaster (he's finally 120 cm). In the meantime, Cherry and I went to the Magic Kingdom (since she's too short to ride almost everything at the studios) and rode Buzz Lightyear, and the Storybook Boats, and Small World, and the Carrousel, and wandered through the maze. After we all ate lunch together, Blaise and José and José's oldest daughter rode Space Mountain while the rest of us rode the rockets (which I do not like). Then we split up again until dinner, this time by family. After dinner, we went on Autopia and then they stayed for the parade and fireworks, and we headed home.