A Walk Along the Seine

After 3 glasses of wine, any story I tell is bound to be entertaining. For me at any rate. Maybe you. Couldn't hurt if you had three glasses too. I'll wait.

If you've been reading this whole time, you might get the impression that we drink a lot of wine. You're right. It's far cheaper than any drink here...and tasty.

But enough wining! (that was some lowbrow engineer punning for Jeremy if he's reading...)

We started the day with bugs. A Bug's Life of Course. Beth and Ben watched that while I worked through the end of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Proposes a Toast and Miracles.

After, we headed to the park, where we found sticks to be trains (man, we need to find a train!), and made hills and tunnels for the trains to go through. Again and again. You see, as Ben runs the train in a circle, he turns and kicks down the tunnel. If you haven't rebuilt it by the time he turns around, you're in for a small meltdown.

Came home for lunch and a nap.

Ben woke up, we played dinosaurs, then headed to the Seine to wander.

And found Notre Dame! Who knew?

Beth says there are many Notre Dame's in France, but apparently this is the famous one for these reasons: http://www.enotes.com/history-fact-finder/culture-recreation/why-cathedral-notre-dame-famous

I would have liked to venture in, but the line was too long...after all, nothing else is open in Paris on Sunday except tourist attractions. Ben and I will try to check it out on the next rainy day.

We then walked along the side of the church and found a little..."playground"...consisting of 4 springy toys. That, combined with the dad this morning at the other park reading the paper while his 1 year old sat in a stroller and his 5 year old threw sticks at a pigeon, most likely after the guy has had his kids with a nanny all week (conjecture, but very very common practice in Paris), I really wonder how kids in Paris manage to grow up at all.

Anyway, Ben bonked his head on the springy toy, so we went home. That was bad handling of a springy toy, it was not bad parenting! I swear it!!

On the walk home along the Seine we saw all these wooden boxes along the bridge. I wondered what they were till I saw a bunch open in a row. Apparently they are like stands for street vendors to sell items. Each one gets a lock, and when opened, they are like little shops that sell art, or books, or other stuff. None of it seemed like very quality material though.

Steak and potatoes for dinner. I fried the steak in olive oil and red wine, but I now know I have to just sear these thin French steaks or they get overdone way too fast.

Oh ya, and don't forget we had wine!