Family in Paris

Dear Liza,

After a few days in Paris, walking and seeing and eating, we got to add another verb… hanging out with family! Auntie Katie and Cousins Jasper and Kestrel joined us as part of their own whirlwind visit to Europe.

Auntie Katie and Auntie Bridgett both love comics, so they found Aaapoum Bapoum and had a nice conversation with the fellow who runs the place. It was wonderful seeing all the comic characters we know (and a whole bunch more that we don’t know) speaking French.

After a while, some of us moved on to a quiet café, and spent a long afternoon chatting and introducing Jasper to Grandpa Nelson’s favorite French food, the Dame Blanche. You know it as a hot fudge sundae.

And that night at dinner, the family got even bigger! Auntie Olga came to enjoy a week in Paris with us.

The next day found us all at le Jardin de Luxembourg. We had taken snacks and wandered about, finding tiny bits of spring just beginning to pop up. Katie and Kestrel worked on a story we started, then headed off to the sailboat pond.

This is something that Parisian kids have been doing for generations, renting little sailboats and sending them off across the pond. Who knew you could have so much fun with just a boat and a stick?

Cousin Jasper wanted to head off in search of Space Invaders, so I went along. This is a game started by an artist who applies little tiled images to buildings. The object is to wander the city, find and photograph the images, and see how many you can get.

It was a fine adventure, plowing through the crowded streets of Paris in search of things most folks didn’t even know were there. Keeping up with Jasper at full speed sure got me my exercise for the day!

At the end of a long, happy day, we headed back to our own quiet rooms and recharged for the next adventure.

Love,

Grandma Judy