Sunday in Paris

Sunday, we got up in the nick of time to walk to church.  Sacrament meeting included two confirmations of a couple who were baptized the day before.  They were at church with their three adorable children.  I understood more of the testimonies than I thought I would.  It was fun, but drafty!  Freestone wouldn't admit that he understood the French.  If I asked him what someone said, he shrugged.  But if I asked him a specific question about what they said, he answered.  You had to catch him off-guard.  During a talk, I would say, "Does this guy live in Paris?' and before he knew what he was saying, he'd answer, "No, he's visiting a friend."  I love his cute French accent.

After church it was raining steadily, so we decided rather than walking a lot, we would go to the Musee d'Orsay.  We walked over to it, since the bus was out of service, and the line was insanely long.  So we walked down rue Jacob and ended up walking all the way back to the apartment.  We walked five miles.  Tziporah was drenched.  She started shouting like, "Hello?!  I'm soaking wet!  Is anyone going to get me in out of the rain?"  We got gyros at our favorite gyro place and went home for lunch.  After a brief rest at the apartment to dry off, we set off on another adventure which started with a quick jaunt to Freestone's glass shop to purchase a lizard and ended with a long walk up St. Germain de Pres to a faraway bus stop.  We rode Bus 63 to one end (near the Bois de Bologne and back to the other end at Gare St. Lazare, then back to St. Germain de Pres and home, drenched again.  The bus ride was toasty and warm, and we loved looking out the windows and watching people react to Tziporah's adorableness.

We can't relax for long, so Scott, Freestone, Trajan, Tziporah and I went to Pont Neuf to see the Eiffel Tower light up and sparkle, then got gelato.  We met Dad at the glass store on our way back (Yes, the glass store again!) and Dad and I and Tizzy went for a walk along the river and through Place Dauphin.   It was neat to walk the streets with my dad.  He loves any adventure and is always willing to go anywhere, even if his bad ankle tries to stop him. The ankle never wins.  Tziporah nodded off and was snoozing by the time we bought crepes and went back to the apt.  By that time, Scott was ready to go for a romantic walk with his wife.  We admired Notre Dame and the Seine. How many nights do we get to walk along the Seine?  Not many, so when you do, you have to take it all in.  That way when you're deep in suburbia with all the minutiae closing in, you can close your eyes and imagine the golden light and the stately buildings that have been there for much longer than your tiny problems.

When Scott and I traveled around Europe for two months right after we got married, we spent a few days in Paris.  It was definitely a student-budget trip, so we thought we were in heaven when we discovered the gyro stands near St. Michel.  For like five bucks, you can get a juicy gyro with french fries in it!  French fries IN IT!  I know!  Yum!  I think that area is still my very favorite in Paris because there is so much night life there, with all the ethnic diversity, the immigrant vibe, the jazz club culture and the proliferation of languages spoken on the street.  We tried to eat as many gyros as we could because we knew we would crave them when we got home...and we do!  If only there were a gyro stand on the corner of our street, right next to a crepe stand that's open until midnight.  I literally would never cook again.  Not that I'm good in that department anyway.  As we speak, Ari is making pizza for dinner because it's cook or die around here.  When Marlene asked me what Golda has for breakfast in preparation for taking care of our kids, I almost said, "I don't know!  She gets up at six!  I've never checked."  If only we had a crepe stand, the kids could stop there on their way to school and get a steaming ham and cheese crepe for breakfast from a nice Turkish man.

The Eiffel Tower sparkles for five minutes at the top of each hour.

Amarino Gelato sparkles with goodness all the time.

Freestone had to get mango every time.  Once he didn't and he kept saying he felt guilty.  OCD much?

A wonderful violinist playing for coins.

We watched those glass-blowing videos a half-dozen times.  They never ceased to amaze us, especially Freestone.

Freestone keeps saying funny things.  He also keeps saying, "This is fun."  He never stops talking.  Sometimes we have to remind him to give it a rest!  :)  One of his conversation starters was, "What if you were fighting with a robot and he pushed you down to the center of the earth and you got lava in your mouth and you somehow got back up to the surface of the earth and the robot was like what's that red stuff coming out of your mouth?!"  My response to Freestone is never, "I was just wondering the same thing."  Because I wasn't.  Thank heavens he has Harry Potter to settle him down when we're at the apartment.  Except that he keeps staring at walls on the Metro like he's seriously thinking of running into them to see if he can get to Hogwarts.  I told him that Paris is actually a virtual reality and that we were still in Kaysville, but he was asleep.  He may have believed me.  Whatever reality we're in, Freestone is a great kid to be with.  the glass store became a ritual of browsing, choosing and procuring.  One night Free has somehow convinced us that he should buy two glass animals instead of one.  He walked into the shop and said to the glass animals, "Two more of you are going home tonight!"  He loves his little collection.