In which we enjoy the lovely weather

For the last several days, the weather here in Paris has been truly
gorgeous: warm and sunny, with blue skies unmarred by vapor trails.
(Notice that the last part is nice only because we have no need to fly
anywhere for many weeks. The flight cancellations, especially in
conjunction with the ongoing rail strike, are wreaking havoc with the
spring break plans of the French.). To celebrate, the kids and I
have been spending a lot of time outside, enjoying the warmth and the
flowers while Blaise enjoys the ensuing quiet, which allows him to "get
something done."

He felt that it was necessary for him to work all day on Saturday, but
suggested that perhaps he was in a position to take part of Sunday
afternoon off, and that, given the weather, it might be a good day to
go back to the Parc Floral.

Accordingly, we set off for the nearest bus stop late Sunday
afternoon, and headed for the Parc Floral. By the time we had ridden
the bus route, walked the three blocks to the entrance to the Parc,
and the half kilometer or so back to the playground, it was past
4:30. It was also quite clear that we were not the only people in
Paris who thought it was a good day for a trip there. (Or, perhaps,
we were joined by everyone who had intended to fly somewhere during
the vacance but had had their vacation plans thwarted by the volcano.).
In any case, the playground was swarming with so many kids that it
almost wasn't fun anymore. The big kids' favorite structure was so
covered with kids that it wasn't clear where one could put any more of
them, and Cherry was shoved out of the way twice when she tried to
go down the octopus slide. Even the little kids' section was
astoundingly busy, though at least the kids were being somewhat better
supervised. Eventually, we all ended up at the mega sandbox, which
was surprisingly calm, and Sapphire and Ezio had a contest to see who
could dig the deepest hole. That contest was abruptly terminated when
Ezio's hole reached his armpit and a wandering toddler got stuck up to his
crotch in Sapphire's hole. Then the big kids had a sand castle contest
and Cherry proceeded to fill her socks with sand, until we decided
that perhaps it was time to head for home. We thought though, that
we might try walking back off the main path to see whether we could
find some of the park's namesake flowers.

We took the first turn off the main path and found that we were in the
middle of a collection raised beds of tulips of every style and color
imaginable: pink, red, yellow, purple, orange, and multicolored;
ordinary, double, parrot, and fringed blooms. After we had passed a few beds, Sapphire decided to see whether or not they smelled as nice as they looked. She decided that they (mostly) did not, but from then on, Cherry felt obligated to smell a sample from each bed we passed. Fortunately, she didn't fall into any flower beds, though I was a bit worried a few times. We wended our way through a wooded garden and over a tiny footbridge, and then found ourselves back on the main thoroughfare through the park, along with hundreds of other people, and headed for the exit.