Trying out some new activities...

It's strange because I am starting to understand what it's like for parents to only have a glimpse of one fraction of their child's life. As you can imagine from my blogs, I was a very detailed kid. I told my mom everything that happened during the day. Like now, back then I would get so frustrated if she didn't remember my friends when I talked about them. She's say "Who is Amanda?" and I would respond with "MY BEST FRIEND!" I find myself in that same role being with these kids. They come home from school, which is where they spend most of their time, and then they will go to their activities. I have no idea what their lives look like outside of the home.

Last weekend Balthazar had a volleyball tournament. No one went to it to watch. I didn't find out till the last minute or else I would have gone. I felt so badly. Last night he was about to go to practice and I asked if I could come watch sometime. He said, "Tonight? Sure!" I thought he would be embarrassed and not want me to come, but it was quite the opposite. So that's what I did. Once I got off of work at 8pm, I hopped on the metro for one stop, then went to The Racing Club, through the electric doors, up the stairs to the fourth floor, and into the gym. It was entertaining. There were all heights of boys playing. Balthazar was, of course, the tallest at 6'5. I found myself sitting there and slightly moving in my seat, as if my body were in some sort of alternate volleyball game. I wanted to play so badly and coach a little bit. During one of their sets, he went over to his coach and began talking. The coach looked at me and I knew I was part of the conversation. Balthazar told him that I really liked to play and that I was good, and asked if there was a team I could play on. After their practice, the coach came over and told with difficult English that there were a couple of teams...then he grabbed one of the bilingual kids to translate for us. Now I know. I will probably start playing on Monday night with a co-ed team. I am pretty nervous as I am sure my lack of French will inhibit others from liking me. I guess I will have to sacrifice my body for the ball and show them that I am a valuable player. We'll see.
Today after school I decided to let Zac have a little playdate with his new buddy Adrien. This is a playdate for me as well since Alexia and I have become such close chums, and when I say close chums, I mean inseparable. The boys ate their gouter (after school snack), talked and laughed the whole time. Adrien asked if he be excused from the table to turn on the radio. He turned it on and he grabbed Zac and ran with him into the kitchen. Then they came back hand-in-hand dancing. Absolutely hilarious! They know what makes us laugh. Then they just began to let loose and dance their little booties off.
Tonight after work I took the metro to the 15th arrondissement to meet up with Adeline at this old church. Her sister plays the harp and had a concert. I love that I can go to free classical concerts in old majestic churches on a weeknight, and it only takes me 15 minutes to get there. We sat near Adeline's sister so that we could watch her. I have never known of anyone that could play the harp. It is one of the most beautiful instruments. We only stayed for one piece, but it was incredible. The acoustics in the church were better than any modern venue I've been to.
Please excuse my mobile phone documentation. It's really hard to haul my massive camera around with me everywhere.

Hurricane Harbor, Food Court, Sporting Goods store, and Movies - All in One.

This is my new favorite place. Saturday night I was walking down my street Rue de Grenelle with Alexia when we saw the family pull out on their way to a dinner. The parents told me that the next day was a bit hectic and they might need my help getting Zac to a birthday party. I just had to be at the house at 12:15pm ready to go.

I went over there to pick up Zac. I was given some money for us to go to a restaurant on our way. The destination is a place called Aquaboulevard. I've heard of this place, but never knew what it was. It's not too far from us, just south on line 8 in the 15th arrondissement. We were already running a bit late, so I knew that a restaurant was out of the question. However, when we got there, I noticed that there was a McDonald's inside. That was suffice.

Zac and I entered and THAT'S when I fell in love. Upon entering, you see Decathlon to your right. It's the equivalent of Oshman's or Academy in the States. Then, you look to your left and it's the entrance to the indoor waterpark. WHAT? Then you go up an escalator and there are signs that tells you to go straight for the food court. Once you get to the food court, you see the 14 screen cinema. Then you look to the right and you see the water park. Oh it was an overload of the senses.Zac and I waited in line for about 20 minutes at McDo. The French tend to make fun of American ways, but there more people eating McDonald's here than I have ever seen at home. I ordered the Filet 'o Fish and got Zac some nuggets. The fries come with ketchup AND a mayonnaise-type condiment. I've actually sold out to it. I don't necessarily prefer it to ketchup, but it's in a close second.

I love him.
Afterwards, I took Zac to the entrance to meet up with his friends. Then I twirled around Decathlon for bit before buying the kids some more swimming skivvies. His are a little run-down and see-through. It was time for a new pair. I went to check out which movies were playing. I noticed that all of them were VF, which stands for "version francais". This also means that I won't understand it. After a little bit of defeat, I went home to relax (aka nap) for a couple of hours before hopping back on the train to pick him up from the party.

We are making plans to spend our next free Wednesday at Aquaboulevard. I am not sure if it's going to happen, but it will at some point. Fantasy Island I will call it.

Galeries Lafayette

Saturday mornings. This is something I love. I slept in with no guilt. I could see the sunlight beaming through my windows and new it was a day that I would have to spend outside. I called Alexia with no avail. We thought about going to some Paris flea markets, but we could do that any time. I called Jenny who said she wanted to go to a sale at store that was owned by Zara, one of my favorite stores. I got ready and met her around 2:00 on line 9, metro Chaussee d'Antin La Fayette. We spent a bit of time in the store. She walked away with a coat and jeans and I was empty-handed. We walked around a bit and I saw Galeries Lafayette and told her I had never been inside. She was shocked. Then she insisted we go inside.
Then I was shocked. It was the most beautiful place of consumerism I've ever seen. Imagine shopping in an opera house with balconies and skylights and stained-glass and gold everywhere. Yes, that is Galeries Lafayette.For a while, I have wanted a simple Longchamp bag. It's the thing to own if you are a woman in Paris. I saw them everywhere when I moved here and thought "What's the big deal?" Now I was buying into it. We waited in line to get into the store. It's that busy! I looked for about ten minutes and found my black little tote.

Afterwards, Jenny took me up to the roof of Galeries Lafayette. It's a really great view. It doesn't beat the Arch de Triomph or Sacre Coeur, but it was a good one. It's situation right behind Opera and in front of Sacre Coeur. The air was clear and the skies were blue. I wish I had a picnic basket because I could have spent all day there.A mediocre view of Sacre Coeur, but it is still beautiful!A view of the back of Opera
La Tour EiffelJenny, my cajun friend. Not really, she is from Louisiana, but totally Parisian.
Me and my new Longchamp!
Once we left, we went back outside and saw a band outside of Opera. It sounded like something you would hear at a Friday night football game. Bizarre.I began my trek back home. I decided to get out at Invalides rather than the usual Varenne. It's a longer walk, but absolutely breath-taking at dusk. Do the pictures help you understand what I am talking about?

Americans Unite.

My friend Brian went home to North Carolina for a month. He called after he got back in town and we made plans to meet up and hang out. He is from Washington D.C. and currently a student at AUP (The American University of Paris). He doesn't live far away from me at all; maybe less than a mile and across the street from the Eiffel Tower. Yes, I am jealous. Plus he has an actually kitchen, living room, and bedroom. Oh the luxury!

We met up at La Tour Maubourg, which is close to a half-way point for us. Then we walked to a little bar/grill type place at Rue Cler. We both had the French Onion soup. It's really an experience to eat French Onion soup in France. We don't really know how to do it in the States. It's funny because a new law just went into effect at the beginning of 2008 which says that all business establishments are smoke free. Considering that 99.9% of Frenchies smoke, this is a HUGE deal. It's strange to see half of a restaurant empty, because most of the customers are outside the front door getting their fix, even the waiters.

We walked back to Brian's to watch a movie or something. Instead we caught up on holidays and he showed me pictures of his travels on his new mac. I love macs. Anyway, instead of a movie, I began a new series - Arrested Development. That show isn't half bad. It's really funny once you get into it. We only watched a couple episodes, but I took season 1 home with me.

I love taking pictures on this walk. It's one of my favorites in Paris, especially at night. There is something about walking the city at night. It's cool, calm, and romantic. It is the city of lights. I have taken some of these same pictures before, but I it's my favorite walk, so you are going to see it again.

Outside of Brian's building.Rue de Bourdonnais at Rue Saint-Dominique - Cafe Le Champ de MarsThe entrance of the famous market street Rue Cler as seen from Rue Saint-DominiqueWould you want to buy quality fruits and vegetables from a place called Harry Cover?
Getting close to home!One of my favorite flower shops. My favorite is actually downstairs from my flat.Invalides
La Grande Palais
It was a good night. I can have the worst day, but walking around Paris at night fixes everything :)

Alvin et Les Chipmunks

Well it was another Wednesday when Zac didn't have school. I always have him tell me if he has an idea of what he would like to do. We still have a few in store; The Dome of Invalides, the top of Montparnasse, Aquaboulevard, and the zoo. Well today he wanted to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. It's so cute because for days now I have been working with him on his pronunciation of it. He keeps saying "Alvon in de Chimpmonks". I have to say "It's not ChiMpmOnks Zac - they are not half monkey, half meditator. It is like the chips that you eat." He finally got it.

I asked my friend Alexia if she would like to bring Adrian, her little guy to the movie also. I met Alexia at Zac's school. The little boy she nannies is a year younger than Zac. For months we've been trying to get the two to become friends. Zac has told me, "Connie, I will NEVA be fwiends wit him. Neva. It will not happen." I was beginning to give up. Until today.

We arrived at the metro station first. I told Zac that Alexia was coming, but never mentioned that Adrian was. He really loves Alexia, and he couldn't wait to see her. He stood at the top of the escalator waiting. They showed up and the looks on the two boys' faces was priceless. They both rolled their eyes and basically hid from each other. We got into the cinema and I could tell they wanted to play so badly, but not enough to appear uncool. Status quo remained. We got into the room and found some seats. Alexia and I sat next to each other, Zac was in front of me and Adrian was about two rows back. They wouldn't sit next to each other.

The movie was cute. I understood about one-fourth of it, but that's okay, I need to watch more movies in French or else I will never catch on. Once it ended, I began cleaning our area and found myself holding our two Coca Light bottles. I gave one to Zac and one to Adrian and told them to play "swords" with them. That was it! They were beating each other and laughing and couldn't get enough. They were instant friends. All they needed was a little "boy aggression" to break the ice. We left and got on the metro and found ourselves amazed and relieved at how quickly they had taken a liking to each other. Best friends in five minutes. As well, Alexia and I have spent quite a bit of time hanging out. She lives just a few blocks from me which is really nice. There are some definitely photoshoots coming up with the two of us. I guarantee it.

Pony Lessons and Photos

I received a call Friday night that I would have to take Verena to her pony lesson on Saturday. It's kind of nice going there, so I didn't mind much. This time I remembered to take my camera. It's near Bois de Boulogne, so there would be some opportunities to practice. While I was there, I capture some pictures of Neuilly, the suburb of Paris. Although the city does look much different from Paris, the feel is quite a bit different, slower.We walked from the metro station, Pont de Neuilly, to the Jardin d'Acclimation where her lessons are held. She ran in to pick her pony, then I walked around to take some pictures. I was pretty satisfied with what I got. It was wet out and kind of cloudy, but perfect. Winter has turned out to be quite mild this year.I tried to get some shots of the equestrian grounds, but only got a few random shots for you...
The same trottinette that Zac rides.Verena's riding hat.I know that the majority of you never make it down this far on my blog. You look for the pretty picture and make up your own stories that go with them. Yes, I've had a few people admit this to me. It was a good day and I hope I am able to take more time out to practice on the photography. Let me know what you think.