We find almost impossible to force ourselves to have down time. It is too hard, when the whole city of Paris is out there, to stay in our apartment and rest, especially when even otherwise mundane tasks are exciting and novel — like returning something to FNAC, the big electronics/book store, which Suzie and I did on Friday afternoon — an experience which provided further evidence to my hypothesis that the French will add as many steps to a transaction as they can, such as requiring someone wishing to return an item to go to one window, take a ticket, wait for an open window, participate in a transaction with one person, who will take the item and then give you a piece of paper showing you have returned the item, which you then must take to a regular cashier (and this stand in the long check-out lines with everyone buying something) in order to have your credit card credited. Why? Why not just have the first person apply the credit? A mystery, that.
That evening, instead of relaxing at home after a long week, Suzie had arranged to meet another family for a picnic at Parc Montsouris, which ended up being a very nice experience. (I had met the wife, a woman named Meryl, on the Metro one day after class, because her son is attending the same language school as me and the boys.) Both the husband and the wife were very fun, nice, and interesting (he is a particle physicist doing research for 2 months in France; when he asked what I did and I said I was an attorney for the County of Sonoma, it seemed like a really small job). The park was mostly empty, and it was refreshing to sit in a lush, green spot, away from the sounds and the bustle of the city, and just eat, talk, and throw the Frisbee around a little bit. We stayed a long, long time, and hope to get together with them again.
Today we all got up relatively early, and inspired by the fact that Suzie had found a gym and was going to leave to sign up and have her first workout, I decided to go for a run. Which turned out to be a half-run, half-walk, in part because I haven’t had an aerobic exercise since we left California, and in part because I wanted to start slowly to see if my aged flat feet can take the stress. I ran down to Parc Montsouris, around the park a couple of times (a good workout because it is hilly), then did some stretches, sit-ups, and push-ups and walked home. It all took a little over an hour, and it felt great to have that feeling you get from the endorphins after you exercise hard.
Then, as is usually the case (what, me resentful?), we spent most of the rest of the day accommodating what the boys wanted to do, which was to go to a big stakepark called “Parislide” with their friend Fernando. This required a lot of planning, meeting Fernando at the Place d’Italie Metro stop, then taking a long, circuitous Metro route to the Bois de Vincennes, on the southeastern side of Paris. More particularly, to a place called the Pelouse de Reuilly, which was a big, flat, semi-paved area that looked like it was set aside for traveling carnavals or big shows where people would set up large tents. (As a strange aside, the only other place I’d ever heard that word, “pelouse” was is a sports context, since one of the Pac Ten schools, Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, is located in an area that they call “the Pelouse,” and so whenever they played at home, the announcers would say “welcome to the Pelouse.” “Pelouse” is the French word for “lawn,” and I suspect that’s what the area we went to was before they paved it over.)
We had to walk a long way to get to the Parislide facility … and were amazed when we got there. It was a large facility set up by the City of Paris with a ton of activities — a huge half-pipe for skaters, a smaller half-pipe for skaters, various and sundry other jumps and things for skaters, a trampoline area, a “beach sports” area filled with sand and volleyball nets, a BMX bicycle area. Not only was there no charge to get into the facility, but If you didn’t have any equipment, you could get equipment there — skateboards, roller blades, bikes, helmets, pads, etc. — absolutely free. Plus, the people who worked there were extremely friendly. We got into a couple of extended conversations with the young man who looked like he was in charge of the whole thing, and he went out of his way to tell us about other things in Paris we should check out, both stake-related and not. Andrew was in skateboard heaven, and Fernando put on rollerblades, but unfortunately Will’s size 14 plus feet would not fit in them, although he eventually migrated to the BMX bikes, and even tried out a unicycle.
After getting the boys settled at the Pariskate, Suzie and I took the Metro to the Marais area, and wandered around aimlessly. We found by accident one of the great meal deals in Paris, at a Chinese place that sold food by the kilo either to go or to eat in, so we were able to get exactly the right amount of food for a late afternoon snack-plus for 4.50 euros. An excellent find. We shopped a little, and walked a little more, before deciding it was time to head back and pick up the kids. A few pictures from our excursion follow. A beautiful, pleasant area, the Marais, if a little touristy.
Back at the Palouse de Reuilly, we called the kids and asked them to meet us at front of the Palouse, to avoid having to walk all the way in to the skate facility. Of course they didn’t come and they didn’t come, but for most of the time we didn’t care, because we were sitting in an uncrowded, quiet (despite the nearby freeway, see below), wide-open area, and after all the running (me) working out (Suzie) and walking (both of us) we’d done during the day, we were happy just to sit. Which we ended up doing for longer than we really wanted, because the boys were having fun and didn’t want to leave, although they finally did (after the fourth call to them).
The trip back home was one of the worst I’ve ever taken on the Metro — long (we couldn’t take the direct route because they were doing work on one section), crowded (lots of tourists), hot, stuffy, and more than a little ripe (I hope it wasn’t me but I am still not sure, ugh). Never was I so happy to get off the Metro and get a blast of cool air from the above-ground world as I was about two hours ago.
Now I’m whipped, dead tired, and ready to sleep. My legs ache, my feet are tender, and I know it is highly likely that tomorrow will be another day of go go go go go.
Categories: Travel -- France
Tags: France, Marais, Paris, Parislide