Paris jolie

A. and K. were generous enough to put us up for eight days in their cozy Parisian apartment nestled in the 6th arrondissement high above a swanky shopping district. Within walking distance to everything and with excellent views of a hotel across the way where people took pictures from their wrought iron balconies and paraded around in their underpants.

I was totally unprepared for how easy it was to fall for the city. I had only been there once before for two days, totally broke and tired, at the end of the post-college European tour. I think we went to the Louvre. Ate some bagguetes. And for some (unknown) reason I am pretty sure we made the treck to Jim Morrison’s grave? All in all, my final impression was sort of an, eh.

This time, I had a little more patience, time, and guidance. So different from Berlin, the tiny streets, the range of languages and people, the butter (I loved the butter. After 1+ years of yellow, soft (even when taken directly out of the refrigerator), oily Berlin butter, I was SO happy with the French stuff), the wooden shutters. Beautiful store window displays, flowers, lingerie, chocolate, wigs, cheeses; always tasteful with an unerring aesthetic eye.

The girls and I did a lot of walking around. In the pretty Jardin des Plantes we visited the animals in the ménagerie (in search of that taunting tiger from Madeline, but the Cat house seemed to be under serious renovations) and found the hedge labyrinth featured in Simon & Adelle.

Author/Illustrator: Barbara McClintock; photo from Macmillan.com

A grey and rainy day found us at the Roman amphitheater ruins, Arenes de Lutece, which seemed sort of appropriate. Swarming with teenagers in black on their lunch hour. Daunting in its size and its thick ringed wall with no way out but one; can’t help but picture being stuck in there with a hungry lion. Prior to that, we had spent the morning at the Centre de la Mer et des Eaux, a little museum established in 1906 by the Prince of Monaco, boasting five aquariums and some hands-on oceanography displays. My favorite below.

Especially relevant because Greta has become interested in the food chain. Lots of talk of vegetarianism (except that she is very German and can not give up her wurst), and coming to terms with the fact that it is not because some animals are mean that they eat others. She has had a recent and sudden about face in the faces of her once beloved fairies and princesses and has returned to her first obsession: the animal kingdom. She is particularly keen on the lion family, an interest which was much catered to in France as statues of stately royals lions (often eating lesser beasts) abound.

Visited the Orangerie and though Simone had a fever and was being a monster, it was really lovely. I like the tiny but intense scope of the museum. Allowing you to focus on the small collection of the big guns of impressionist painting. Also fun to see how engaged Greta was, asking all about the idea of impressionism (I did my best) and borrowing the camera to take photos of the paintings that especially caught her eye. I pointed out the blue eyed Modiglianis. She enjoyed Renior’s paintings of his daughters and other paintings of girls.

Another highlight of our visit was the courtyard of the building, where Greta and Simone met a trio of beautiful sisters who would play Cat & Mouse (similar to freeze tag from what I could tell) outside every afternoon after school. They invited Greta to play with them and plied Simone and Greta both with chocolate cookie upon cookie. The sisters were so sweet and happy to have new playmates, and Greta would lean out her bedroom window to say Bonne Nuit as everyone began to go inside in the evening.

Still so much we did not get to do. Would love to go back with the girls. Would love to go back with A. Would love to go back alone!

Travels, Part II: Rhodes, Greece

The second part of the catch-up travel reporting is our trip in June of 2009 to Greece. Memories of which are nice to revisit, given that it is frigid here in Berlin right now; the sidewalks are pure ice which results in Greta and Simone tumbling and skating their way to the kita. So we were there for the CSCL conference which was held at an “all inclusive” hotel on the island of Rhodes. Though we did not have to actually stay in that hotel, I was totally into the ludicrously low price given that kids, drinks, and food were included and it seemed to be the easiest way for me to both attend the conference and see A. and girls. Turns out it was basically a Russian family Club-Med destination, which is a crazy place to be (a) attending a conference and (b) vacationing with your pale skinny American family. Who knew? No real way to get out of the maze of buildings without getting a taxi and driving through the dusty hilly surroundings, which seemed to be littered with half-completed cement structures now overrun with wild dogs. The place itself was a grand scheme of pools, hotel buildings, restaurants (I think there were 9), and shops.

Dance music pumped throughout the complex 24 hours a day. Imposing extremely tan Ukrainian women in gold bikinis played cards and drank glowing green cocktails on the beach while their huge solid also tan husbands lolled around the outdoor bars wearing very small bathing suits.

And the many many kids there, spent the days with the child care providers in the special children’s areas, ’til the mini-disko started. After that they were busy getting their parents’ drinks so the adults could avoid the lines. Greta loved the mini-disko.

The light was beautiful, we had our own porch and the pool for our building was rarely used by anyone else, there was direct access to the beach, and so much people watching! I don’t feel like I really was in Greece, but it was very fun.

Lisboa

We just returned from our urban conference (csedu) jaunt to Portugal. Warm, beautiful, old. The large luxury conference hotel was on the outskirts of the city and we walked each day on the path on the side of the highway to get to the nearest subway stop. Lots of hills with surprising views of the water, which sort of reminded us of San Francisco, but the many well placed funiculars and elevators made the city much easier and more fun to get around without a car. Sweets are very popular and abundantly available. It was difficult to find salads and vegetables (Simone ate bread and fruit for 5 days), but easy to find all sorts of deserts.

Every section we visited seemed to have its own unique character, even though they were just meters apart. Some were very old world European with winding cobble stone streets and fountain plazas:

Others seemed like I imagine Cairo to be with cramped apartment buildings wall to wall and clean laundry billowing out windows.

In each neighborhood, even with two kids who were constantly being dragged around over busy roads in the heat without a nap, it was really amazing. See more pictures here.