Paris in the Rain

Right after we booked our room in Paris, we found out it was forecast to rain the entire time so we resigned ourselves to 3 days of ducking in and out of metro stops, running straight to museums and testing our parenting creativity to figure out ways to keep the baby dry. Last night there was torrential rain, so loud that the rain itself the woke me, and I figured our fate was sealed.  So, I was delighted to find that the skies had emptied by morning and we had a beautiful crisp day. 

Paris is a city that suits me.  I love the way each neighborhood really has its own personality.  I love the way the old is blended with the new.  I love that you are never more than a few blocks from metro (though with Lilah it is more difficult because she has to be carried the entire time and even the nifty frame pack gets difficult after a couple hours). 

 Bean City on the Metro

Yesterday, we did some window shopping at Galleries Lafayette.  We tried to look at the Holiday window displays but the entire place was packed since it was a weekend afternoon.  After shopping, we went to visit Lilah's friend Pierre Elie in the 9th.  His mom is a friend of mine from my New Mommy's Group and she was also going to be loaning a travel crib for LL.  We thought PE might qualify as her first French boyfriend but then remembered that, having been born in the US, he was also American. 

 Note the Linked Arms

Interestingly, he does have a French citizenship as well so they were surprised when we told them that the twins we met did not have dual citizenship.  It was nice to catch up with his Mommy and meet her husband.  PE is also formula fed so she and I did a little celebration that our days of spending over $20 a week on formula are winding down to single digits. 

Today we saw:
The Flower Market (boring, only Christmas trees for sale)

The Botanical Gardens (really nice, however not many plants or animals except in one area that was muddy from the rain and crawling with little kids on a school trip)

Huge Raven

Luxemburg Gardens (I love that place).  I could spend an entire day there walking around and stopping to read and relax.  I'm gonna have to do that sometime.  Also, we visited the huge playground that we read about online.  It was the size of 4 playgrounds put together and had every playground thing imaginable including a zipline contraption.  We had to pay 1.50 to get in and it was worth it!

Champs Elysees (All done up for Christmas). 

At night they have this cute show where they have rigged a cable high in the sky where Santa's sled and the reindeer go by.  Im surprised Ive never seen anywhere else do this.  The kids LOVED it. 

Also, we went to the Mercedes dealership to look at the concept cars since Chris loves Mercedes.  We think he might not be the first in the family to get one though. 

We have decided that as we are in Paris and have been in France for a while and are sick of bread and cheese (heretics, I know), we are not going to eat any French food while we are here.  Last night, Chris picked up some take out from a Canadian sports bar which was very tasty and, at least my dish, surprisingly healthy.  (Chris' dish not so much as it involved fries covered in gravy with two kinds of meat.)  We had Chinese food for lunch which was so-so however I think they put some sort of drugs (MSG?) in the food because when we stopped off in the apartment to grab something, I went to lie down "just for a minute" and couldnt get up for an hour and a half. 

Dinner was much more successful.  We did some research online and found a well reviewed Indian restaurant a few metro stops away.  We left the frame carrier at home and I used a scarf to create a sling and just carried Lilah the whole way.  We were the only people dinning there and the proprietor was just amazing with Lilah.  He encouraged us to let her romp around even overturned some things to create an obstacle course for her.  He also scoured the restaurant to find things for her to play with and kept coming over to visit her.  The food was great!  Authentic and not gringo style at all.  It was very expensive for Indian, but this is Paris so I cant complain. 

Tomorrow:  Depends on rain.  Musee de Orsay for sure.  Wish they rented strollers there.  That would be the best!!  I remember they used to do that at some places in the SF area but Im guessing in our litigious society, they dont anymore.

Also tomorrow.  Announcement re Higgs particle.  Might have to go to Science Bar (like a sports bar but with science on tv??  J/K) to hear the press conference.