day 9 in Paris

I had the whole day off today. It's been nice to just wake up whenever, make a nice cup of decaf coffee, and read. Then eventually the kids get up and they get ready. Zach will have a croissant with some chocolate in the middle. John will have his croissant. I might have some of a baguette with tomatoes or mustard. I don't like sweet stuff for breakfast so much. And lately Asia has been making her own scrambled eggs. She loves to cook. She'll crack her own egg (and often with no shell getting in the bowl), and mix it. Then I'll turn on the stove and put oil in the pan. She might help me spread the oil over the pan. Then she'll pour in the egg, put in some goat cheese, and then stir the eggs herself. I'll just stay in the kitchen and watch that she doesn't burn herself. Then I'll scoop the egg into her bowl and she'll season it with salt and pepper. It's very cute. I think it helps that this apartment is smaller than our house so everyone is basically within the vicinity of one another, so Asia is more independant. For a snack before dinner, she followed Zach and got her own bowl of cereal with milk. John, Zach, and I were in the master bedroom/office, so she wanted to eat with us, but at least she got it all by herself. Hopefully the kids bring these habits back home.

Yesterday, we found a neat little restaurant to eat in. The original one we planned on going didn't open til 8 PM and it was 7 PM. We didn't want to wait an hour. We tried to go back today at 8 PM and it was reservation only. Eventually we'll make it in there and it better be worth the effort! So back to the other restaurant. I never get the names of the restaurants because I usually forget them unless I get a business card from them or go there again or if it's simple enough. I do remember what they look like though so we can try to go again. This place was designed more like a coffee house and had live music that starts after 9 PM. The kids especially liked the comfy chairs. That's one of their perks in the restaurants these days. Asia will ask, "Mom, can I sit by you on the comfy side?" This is because a few of the places we've eaten in would have a table with a bench on one side that has padded seats and the other side would be two hard chairs.

Here's a picture of one of the salmon appetizers we got.

Today we went to the Luxembourg gardens. First we took a train to Leon de Bruxxelles (http://www.leon-de-bruxelles.fr/) where they're supposed to have really good mussels, and they did. John said we came here during our honeymoon - actually twice - once with his friend Mike and then again on our own. I don't remember it, but the restaurant reminded me of the good mussels place in downtown Toronto.

Afterward, we took the Metro train to the Luxembourg gardens with a pitstop to a pharmacy to get hydrocortisone because the kids are getting eaten by mosquitoes or something. It started raining again during this time, but luckily I brought my umbrella. The rain was off and on. Even while we were at the playground at the gardens, it started pouring. Zach and Asia were one of the last sets of kids who ran to the sheltered area. Crazy Americans. Earlier in the morning, we had also gone to a flea market and I bought 3 shirts for a euro each and a shirt and shorts for Zach for 5 euros. Asia really wanted this porcelain slipper but it was 6 euros. The seller was going to give it to her for 5 but she only had 2 euro's. We gave Asia and Zach 2 euro's each that they could spend in the market. Zach bought 2 transformer like toys. Asia decided to save hers since we said next time we go to the market, we'd give her another 2 euro's. So anyway, the 2 long-sleeved shirts I bought at the market for the kids came in handy at the park during the rain. I was freezing, on the other hand. The kids mainly played on two structures in the playground. One was this really talk teepee as seen below. I think it was strategically built so that if a kid fell from the top, they'd hit all these other ropes that it's made of and not get seriously hurt. At least, I'd hope.
For dinner, we returned to our neighborhood and ate at Royal Voltaire. The duck foie gras with fig jam was delicious. John got oeuf mayonnaise, which we'd seen as an appetizer quite often and wondered if it was really just an egg with mayonnaise. Well, it was though the mayonnaise was more like a mustard-mayonnaise sauce. For the kids, we got them penne, but it was with this cream alfredo sauce that they don't like so they didn't finish it. John got blanquette de veau - a veal dish with a slight cream white sauce and rice. He loved it. I got what was called beef on a board, and it was literally a steak and fries on a slate board. For dessert, the kids had vanilla ice cream (I thought less sugar and caffeine for them, Asia didn't appreciate it but she ate it), chocolate mousse for me, and tiramisu for John.