Les vacances avec la mamie B! Holidays with Granny B!

We were feeling a little homesick on Easter Sunday so it was great when mum called in the evening to say she'd booked flights to come over for a few days!  Her timing couldn't have been better as Paul had a conference and so I was really grateful for the company.  We've had a magic few days, despite the weather not being as warm as it's been lately (although mum kept reminding us that Greenock's far colder).  Max loved getting lots of cuddles from his grand-mere ('grandmother', but let's just stick to 'mamie' = 'granny'), so much so that he didn't want to go to bed at all!

Max showing off his latest tricks in the park

Brigid gets ready to storm the Bastille!

We went for a long walk down the canal on Thursday morning where they have morning markets close to Bastille.  We enjoyed a nosy around French boutiques in the Marais and had lunch beside a park.  Max then burned up some of his energy in the park before we ventured over to Victor Hugo's house in the beautiful Place des Vosges - Paris' oldest square.

Lunch in the Marais - Max just wants to get in to the park

Cheers!  Proper French espresso is required to keep up with Max!

And he's off!  Max has a go on the slide

On Friday mum treated us to a trip out to Fountainebleau, a beautiful town about one hour south of Paris.  It's renowned for its Renaissance chateau - one of France's largest royal residences set in beautiful grounds.  Teddy and Betty Hunter lived in Fountainebleau for a few years and Teddy had told us that it was worth a visit.  It was great to get out of Paris for the day and to see a bit more of France.  The train journey itself was good fun - we had our own wee cozy compartment so Max was able to jump around without annoying other passengers!

Mum on the big, comfy train from Gare de Lyon to Fountainebleau

Mum at the Chateau de Fontainebleau

We enjoyed a good walk around the grounds of the Chateau

Fontainebleau is surrounded by a 20,000 hectare forest - apparently one of the prettiest woods in the Ile de France.  This is the view in to the forest from the Chateau.

We had a leisurely morning today as Paul and I managed to sneak out for a drink last night once Max (finally!) settled down.  Mum and I strolled around the canal but the weather was Greenock-like and drizzly so of course we had to go into a cafe "for a wee cup of coffee".  In the afternoon we headed up to Montmartre and visited the Dali exhibition at the Espace Montmartre Salvador Dali.  This was really interesting - even although this exhibition doesn't have his most famous works (like Dali's Jesus or the clocks one), it does contain many of his preparatory sketches for these and other works as well as a good amount of explanatory text IN ENGLISH which I've found to be surprisingly rare in French museums - even the Louvre has very limited information in English.

Paul then met us at the Sacre-Coeur and mum took us for dinner to what has become our Montmartre restaurant of choice - Chez Eugene!  They're always willing to accommodate le poussette and they serve meals throughout the day so it's more convenient for eating the evening meal with Max.

Check out those gnashers!  Max welcomes another scoff at Chez Eugene!

Mum knocks back red wine and rum baba to steady her nerves before her Ryanair flight.  

Thanks for visiting, mum!

Joyeux Paques - Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Paris!  We had a great day on Easter Sunday - we went to the English speaking church, St Joseph's, for Mass in the morning.  It's close to the Arc de Triomphe so we took a stroll down the Champs Elysees afterwards and headed for lunch in the left bank.  We then visited the Pantheon, a beautiful building which was originally built as a church in 1790 but has since passed hands between the Church and state several times.  It's now desecularized, but you still kind of get the feeling that you're inside a church, so it's weird to see a big pendulum swinging from the roof (see picture below).

 

Max's first time in a sandpit - "so this is sand, eh?  Can I eat it?"

Who needs chocolate eggs?  Max celebrates the arrival of another batch of Farley's rusks from Scotland!

Foucault's Pendulum inside the Pantheon

Foucault, a French physicist, suspended a weight from the dome of the Pantheon in 1851.  The weight swung back and forth, and as its position moved in relation to the floor below, Foucault was able to prove the earth's rotation.  

View of the Eiffel Tower from the Pantheon

The city's great achievers are buried in the impressive crypt below the Pantheon - they include Marie Curie, Victor Hugo and Louis Braille.  Isn't this blog educational?!

On Monday, Max and I headed up to Montmartre with Jen and Theodore.  The weather was great and we had a lovely time taking in the views from the Sacre-Coeur.

Heading up to Montmartre with Jen and Theo - note Max's scrunched nose - his new face when he's a bit confused.  He must be trying to figure out if that's Theo in the baby carrier.  Yes, Martina, it is a baby carrier.

Avril a Paris - April in Paris!

The weather is warming up now and we've been enjoying Paris in the springtime!  I'm just off the 'phone to Martina and remembered that I've not updated the blog for ages so I thought I'd post a quick message before I forget what we've been up to.  Unfortunately, I've been terrible with the camera recently and even when I've remembered to take it somewhere, I keep forgetting to take pictures.  I need to be more camera conscious!

Paul's pal, Graeme Dobbin was over for the weekend a fortnight ago and so Paul enjoyed a couple of nights out catching up with Graeme.  They blasted the main sights on the Friday before sampling a lot of French wine.  On Saturday, they felt pretty dead so they headed straight for the cemetery.  Pere Lachaise cemetery is one of the most visited cemeteries in the world - Jim Morrison, Marcel Proust, Chopin and Oscar Wilde are all buried there.  And of course la famille Dobbin:

Dobbin pays the family tomb a visit

The boys went out again on the Saturday night, and were joined by Paul's cousin Neil, John Mumma and Ran, our Israeli neighbour.  Einat (Ran's wife) brought her baby up here and we blethered until 2am, putting the world to rights and thinking we'd resolved the problems in the middle east.  The following weekend was spent hanging out with my Australian pal, Penny Martin, who was on my LLM.  It was fantastic to see her - she used to live in Paris (we'd actually stayed in her old flat around the corner from us when we visited her a few years ago) and knows our area really well.  We went around to her friend Nicolas' house on Saturday for a huge lunch.  He made great galettes - a sort of savory crepe made from buckwheat flour and taste delicious.  I went out for a few drinks with Penny in the evening to a few bars along the canal.  Max then PARTIED all day on the Sunday at Oscar's first birthday party!  Rachel and Fabien put on a great spread and set the ball quite high for birthday parties.  French parties always seem to involve a lot of food, even parties that are for babies!  That said, Oscar and Max were the only babies there - but they loved the attention.

Crawling race - Oscar and Max spy the cakes.

The birthday boy - Oscar is 1!

'Doucement, doucement!'  Oscar and Max grab the tools and start thumping everything in sight, even each other.

Both Max and Oscar had a virus last week that led to wee ear infections so were put on a course of antibiotics.  Max hardly ate a thing for 5 days, but he's well and truly making up for it now! We went out tonight to another party - a leaving night for an old work pal who is commencing a round-the-world trip with her French boyfriend and his parents threw a 'bon voyage' party in their house in the suburbs.  There was the usual over-the-top French buffet and Max got stuck right in, despite having had a huge dinner.  Max is a little wary of men he doesn't know, but was in a sociable mood this evening and quite confidently crawled over to strangers at the party (if they had a plate of food!).  He was knackered by 8.30 though and fell asleep on me in the baby carrier.

Sound asleep - Max is all partied out on the way home from Nanterre