A Nearly Perfect Weekend

Our break from school ended with a nearly perfect weekend!

First of all, Mark and I got not one, but TWO dates during the break and the second one took place this past weekend. What a joy to spend quality time together! Later in this post there are photos from the garden we visited during our date.

Second, we got to participate in a set of weekend meetings put on by France Mission, our partner organization. France Mission is a French church planting organization that also functions very much like a denomination. Each year, they gather together a group of their churches and bring a speaker to share for 4 sessions in 2 days. We attended 2 of the sessions on Sunday.

It was a joy to worship with these people! And, even better, I am starting to understand the sermons enough to "track along." Yeah! Here's a quick clip of one of the worship songs if you would like to hear what worship sounds like in French:

After the service, Mark was planning to stay for lunch (7.50 euros per person - eek!) and another session but we didn't want to shell out that much money for the whole family to eat, so the kids and I left Mark behind and went on our own little adventure.

Let me give you some advice. If you are in Paris, and if you are in a completely new area, it really is not a good idea to be with 3 kids and find yourselves (1) without a map, (2) without food, (3) in Sunday clothes, and (4) "on foot" on a semi-rainy day with no idea how long it will take to get to your destination. How do I know this? By learning the hard way. :-)

This is what happened...

Any monument that you go up in Paris, i.e. the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triumphe or Montparnasse gives you a great view of the modern part of Paris which is called La Defense. We've seen it off in the distance many a time and we ride the metro line that ends at La Defense often, but we have never actually gone to the end of the line where La Defense exists.

When Mark told me where we would be attending church (a new location to us), I looked at a map and realized that we would not be very far from La Defense. "Ah, the kids and I can walk there and see the Grand Arc!" What a great idea! Or...NOT!

It was one of those experiences where you see something that does not look that far away, but as you walk, and walk and walk some more and walk some more, you realize that it is not getting close very fast. And then, you realize that your 4 year old's legs are going to give out too quickly, and that you are no where near a metro stop to make things better fast, and the bus system is not running at full capacity because it is a Sunday and so on and so on.

Well, thankfully, we encountered a tiny tiny little store with food in the front of some old man's house, and we bought some "survival food." Shortly thereafter, Lena started saying, "Mom, I am NOT willing to ask a stranger for directions for you" as the children's worry level grew with the last bites of their gigantic Petite Prince cookies being consumed. (Oh dear...this is going to be an adventure!)

So, I had to get brave. I had to start playing fun "running games" or "hey look at that cool thing over there" games to get the kids minds off of how far they had walked and how their legs felt. Somewhere along the way, we saw these beautiful flowers.


They were interesting to me, but not the kids. We had walked maybe 20 blocks and the kids were starting to ask the hard questions. "When are we going to be there?" "Do you actually know where we are going, Mom?" "Is this going to be another one of your adventures?" "Do you have a map?" Oh dear! Busted!

Finally, we found a street where people were actually milling around. I asked (yes, I asked the question - yeah!) a couple of gentleman (in French, mind you) where the Arc was located and they got worried looks on their faces. This is when you wish your children were not old enough to read faces! Oh how the comments flew after talking with these guys.

But, miraculously, the tide began to turn. The two gentleman steered us in the right direction, and just when we thought we would all die if we didn't see a Metro sign soon, we spotted it. An elevator that led to walkways in the sky that led to a Metro. Everybody's attitudes improved dramatically with this little shred of hope!

To make a long story short, we passed this:


and then this... (Oh, how the kids squeeled! Look! It looks like home! It's just like Daddy's office in America! We have to bring Daddy here, he would love it! I could just feel the energy pouring back into their little legs!):


...and this (a work of art, not a building for people to go into):


...and we did find the metro, and just beyond the metro entrance, we found this:


Oh, what joy! I said, "Kids, we can made it up there, right!" All the kids (except Ryan...he was onto me) cheered, "Yes!"

Well, it was still a long walk, but it was a super interesting one. There were stores, restaurants, skateboarders, bicyclers, people roller blading and lots of interesting statues/park like structures to walk on between here and the Arc. It was great fun, but believe me when I say, our legs were tired!

Look, we made it! What a surprise to be in such a place. It's so very different than the rest of Paris. Who knew that the modern part of Paris was nearly as big as Minneapolis? Amazing.


Thankfully, there was a metro stop at the base of the Arc and we were on our way home in a jiffy. I love Paris' public transportation system! And, the kids are dying to go back again sometime. Phew! It turned out o.k. after all.

We've also experienced our first May 1st in France. This is what you see everywhere:

They are selling Lily of the Valley. People buy these flowers in droves for their loved ones and friends and wish them good luck. Here's a lady holding a bouquet she just bought. It's also the day of France's labor day. An interesting combination of holidays, indeed.


Finally, here are a couple of photos from our date. (I'm gonna leave the ones of us out. These are of the garden.) We took a walk in the Jardin des Plantes, a beautiful place to see.


This tree really struck us. We've never seen anything like it before.

Here's a cedar of Lebanon. There was a sign on the side of the tree stating that fact.


And the Saturday before the end of break, this took place.

I love it! A fort that covers the entire living room. The kids had such fun building and playing all Saturday morning. It was a perfect weekend, indeed!