Musée des Arts et Métiers

Last Wednesday, we visited the Musée des Arts et Métiers.  It is the museum of inventions and we thought is was really cool.  Lillian took a two and a half hour workshop on automatons.  Think The Invention of Hugo Cabret and you have the right idea.  Automatons (les automats en français) are the mechanical precursors to robots.

 

 Look who we found right outside the museum!  Lady Liberty!

 The museum is in the  Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs an amazing medieval structure.

 The wings fold, are very light, and a strong gust of wind meant its first flight was its last.  Its wings are scalloped like bats' wings.

 Our favorite German was in town to cheer her sister on as she succeeded in defending her thesis.  Sylvia spent many hours swimming in Wisconsin with my German sister and was thrilled to see her again.

There is an example of  Foucault's pendulum in the museum.  It proves that the earth rotates;

Here are some of the automatons.  Most of them were fragile or broken and were not taken out of the cases.  However, we did get to see a few in action.  I am not a fan of dolls, or clowns, and I found these super creepy.  So far, no nightmares.  Lillian made a very cool windmill that works with cranks and rubber bands.

Defending a thesis at the Sorbonne

 Congratulations!
I was invited to watch my German exchange sister's sister defend her thesis at the Sorbonee.  As you can see from all of the smiles and bubbly, she was successful. 

Although her jury was supposed to be very rough on her, they were such fans that they had a hard time criticizing.

 Her mother made five different kinds of cake and brought them from Germany to France.  Her sister was a little more nervous than she was.

 The supportive men poured the champagne.

MMMM!  And I got to take some home to my family.

Jardin d'Acclimatation--again

Last weekend the girls and I returned to the Jardin d'Acclimatation.  The weather here has been very changeable; there has been lots of rain and some sun.  Sunday it was sunny and I thought we had better get outside and take advantage of the lovely day.  I was also trying to give Pierre some down time because he is fighting an awful cold and it is busy at work.

 

 You pay a small fee to enter the park and then there is a mix of activities you pay more for, like jumping on the trampoline, and free activities like playing on play structures.  The trampolines are a big favorite!

The Jardin d'Acclimatation is in the Bois de Boulogne.  It is a short metro ride from our apartment, but it is a whole lot more bucolic out here.

 

We also rode on a terrifying roller coaster.  The roller coaster cars were shaped like teacups and spun when you were least expecting it.  Right as you were rounding a curve, the teacup would spin and make you feel as if you were going to be dumped right off the track.  I hated this, Lillian did not like it, and Sylvia loved it.

 

The girls spent a lot of time playing on various swings and play structures and we got a good dose of fresh(er) air.

New activities and routines

 

School started one month ago and we are starting to get in the groove.  The girls are staying for lunch on two days and sometimes even trying the fish on Fridays.  Next week, they will both start one after school activity once a week.  Sylvia is doing dance and Lillian is doing la cirque (the circus).  I am not really sure what la cirque involves, but we will soon know.

 

The two days of all day school give me a lot more flexibility and I am trying to take advantage of it.  I have signed up for several one time classes, some French classes, and a French conversation group.

 

This post is a mishmash of all of the photos that didn't quite fit anywhere.



Pépé is what the girls call Pierre's dad.  They are also a brand of jeans from London.  I keep seeing men wearing Pépé Jeans t-shirts on the metro and think that maybe I should pick some up for the next family photo shoot.  Will Mémé jeans be next?

I was coming home from book club and noticed that there were two very famous monuments lit up and nearby.

I surreptitiously took this photo.
The Parisiens and Parisiennes are still smoking a lot.  Fumer tue means smoking kills.  I still can't get over everyone smoking--grandparents pushing strollers, very young teens, moms with four kids. 

This is the lovely street where the girls go to school.  The building on the left with the French flags is their school.  It is four stories high and there are about 500 students.

It was once a boys school, but now it is a co-ed public elementary school.

Paris has a car rental program much like the popular Velib' bike rental.  The cars are electric and there are some right by the girls' school.

 October readers

Double rainbow out our window!

This weekend is going to be busy with Daisies and Brownies!  We are also looking forward to celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving!

Family Sports Day

Sunday we went to the Champs de Mars to check out famillathlon.  All sorts of organizations set up to introduce kids to all sorts of different sports.  It was enormous and it was really cool.  Our girls took a free skating lesson.

Pierre is great at finding out about these events.

Neither Lil or Sylv had skated before, but all of the ice skating in Ottawa must have helped because they did get the hang of it.

Skating is very popular here. Friday night, there is even a time when the streets are closed and hundreds of people skate through Paris.
http://www.pari-roller.com/index.php?p=101

 The set up was great.  They had skates, pads, helmets, instructors, etc.

Archer Lillian

Ping pong is also big here.  Most public parks have permanent ping pong tables and they are often in use.

 

Sylvia went to the circus with her class last year and took a circus workshop.  She still wanted more and tried the tightrope.

The girls participated in a game of wheelchair basketball.  I was impressed that they were able to maneuver.

I took these photos trying to show how big an area it was.  In this direction you can see L'école Militaire and in the other direction is the Eiffel Tower.

I was very impressed by this event; it was a fun day and it got the girls interested in trying some new things. 

We finished off our day by going to the American Library, which is nearby, and stocking up for the week.

Musée de la Marine

We decided this suit did not look too comfortable.

Right up the street at Palais de Chaillot is Musée National de la Marine.

Here is one of Napoleon's vessels.  This is just the frame.  You will have to imagine all of the rowers and oars.

 



There were lots of model ships and lots of paintings of ships.  Once upon a time, there was a lot of navel warfare.  Check out those cannons!

We also went to the special exhibit on lighthouses.  My favorite part was all of the old lighthouse lights at the entrance of the exhibit.  Augustin-Jean Fresnel invented this kind of lens, which made the light from the lighthouse visible from a lot further away.  

 

Our original plan had been to eat lasagna at our house.  After making the lasagnas, our fridge died and so did the unrefrigerated lasagna.
Plan B was a trip to the Italian restaurant in our neighbourhood.  Notice that the big kids are sharing a dessert.  Sylvia is enjoying a mousse au chocolat and Lillian is having some lemon gelato.  Yum!  Thanks for hanging out with us, big kids.



Friday on a Velib' and Saturday at the Market

 

Now that the girls are spending a couple of full days at school, I have more freedom to explore.  "La cantine" is far from a hit, but it is the only option.  The girls are still coming home for lunch two days and all day on Wednesday.

 

My friend, Lori, is a brave bicyclist and I am attempting to follow her lead.  Paris was one of the first cities to adopt the massive bike rental systems that now seem to be the rage in many cities.  I have a yearly pass and it is a deal.  It is also possible to use the bikes as a tourist, so pack your bike helmet.

http://en.velib.paris.fr/

 

Lori and I headed to Le Marais because it is one of my favorite parts of town and I needed to pick up some overpriced canned pumpkin at the American store there.  The store is appropriately called Thanksgiving.  We started out at Musée Carnavalet the city museum that covers the history of Paris.  I have visited several times because it is huge and it is free.

I took this photo for Lillian who is Harry Potter crazy. 

 

We wandered through the museum and I did not take a lot of photos.  One of my favorite areas in the museum covers the Revolution.  Of course, this part of the museum was closed for the day.  The area with the dugout canoes was closed until 1:30.  This is very French.  Things are closed all of the time with no explanation and no one seems very worried about it.  I often make my way across town to go somewhere and there will be a sign taped to the door that says something like, "I should be back in about two hours."

We were sad about these areas being closed until we went and ate some falafel and drank some beer.

 

On the way back to our bikes, we saw this lovely window.  Those colorful squares above are different flavors of marshmallows.



 

We jumped on our bikes and headed to the Hotel de Ville  for the exhibit  Paris, Vu Par Hollywood

This regal guy and his friend guarded one of the doors.

 

The exhibit was not great.  If you have actually seen all of the old movies, or are huge movie buff you would probably enjoy it.  I was glad to get inside city hall and gawk.  We had a rainy ride home and I had to use some colorful language with a motorcyclist who got a little too close.

 



Saturday: to market to market to buy 3 pains au chocolat for 2 Euros!  Thanks, Sylvia!

 

 Crepes for lunch!  A great option anytime...especially when your fridge is out of commission.

 Look who bought me some flowers, Sweet Sylvia.

Orchids are the rage here and there are two different stores in our neighborhood that sell nothing but orchids.



Every time I walk into the kitchen and see the door of the fridge open, an alarm goes off in my head.  Friday, our fridge stopped working.  I noticed that the kitchen began smelling of bananas, Yes, all of the frozen bananas waiting to become banana bread were no longer frozen.  The motor of our six month old fridge is dead.  We are very happy that it is under guaranty  We are not so happy that the new motor will not arrive until Wednesday.  If you have any great dinner ideas, please send them my way.