Locks, Parks, Treats, Metro!

On the foot bridge connecting the Musee D'Orsay and the Tuileries, we found this:

locks of love. How sweet is that? I read that they have these at another bigger bridge in Paris, and that the Parisians aren't too thrilled about it. But of course, these are the same people who thought the Eiffel Tower was an eyesore. Anyway, apparently this phenomenon happens in other cities around the world too, like London and Moscow (I'll have to look for it). And in China, they throw their locks off a cliff.

Now go play trivial pursuit.

One thing I knew to look for in Paris (and I wasn't disappointed) were little playgrounds in parks all over the city.

After our Two-Art-Museum-Morning, we stopped at this one in the Tuileries to kill some time before lunch. The fun little off balance spinning disc was the kids' favorite thing. Owen got stuck up high in that rope thing, and would not move. There were about 20 girls behind him, so I couldn't get up there to help him. Eventually he figured it out.

The kids asked for ice cream at 9:00 in the morning, and Dave said yes. I convinced them to wait until after lunch. This place on the Place de la Concord just in front of the Tuileries was the best (and we would know - we had ice cream five times in three days), except, of course for Berthilon, but I'll tell you more about that later.

Dave and I had crepes, which the kids refused to call crepes. They call them blini, which is the Russian version, and to be honest, I was a little mad about it. They are not blini! They are crepes!

And then the metro back to our hotel for naps.

I loved the metro.

(I promise I did not ask my kids to pose this way, by the way.)

It was really the same as any other metro that I've ridden in any other big city, but to be honest, I like riding the metro in any big city. I guess I probably just don't ride it often enough (or during rush hour ever), but it makes me feel all big city and cool, so I like it.

Just keepin' it real folks.