The Paris Adventure Continues

After a challenging immersion into Parisian life, I'm finally starting to fall in love with Paris. It was definitely a jarring transition-- I think I was cocky from all of the travelling, expecting Paris to be as easy to navigate as London or Edinburgh. It wasn't, largely due to the language barrier. But, the more we try to speak the language, talk to people, ask questions, and explore the city, the more we are all starting to really love it here. Frankie even told us last night that she wants to be a language teacher when she grows up, so she can learn how to speak perfect French and show other kids how to do it as well.

Yesterday was really a turning point for me and Paris. Frankie and I had the day all to ourselves, since Matt was busy at business meetings. Instead of hiding out in the apartment, we dove into the city. We walked down the Seine and took in the sights. Eventually we ended up at the Jardin des Plantes, which is essentially a gigantic botanical garden in the center of Paris.

The Jardin des Plantes is more than just a garden, it also has five or six smaller museums on the premises. The museums are in these beautiful old buildings hidden throughout the garden, and they all are tied to some aspect of natural history: Dinosaurs, evolution, plants, and so on.

Sadly, all of the museums were closed yesterday. (We didn't realize that Tuesday is a day when quite a few museums are closed to the public.) But, really, we wouldn't have had time to walk through them all anyhow. There was a small zoo at the gardens, and walking through that as well as the botanical garden itself took pretty much all day. I would imagine that it would be impossible to see everything there in a single day.

While Frankie and I were out and about yesterday, we managed to successfully navigate around the city (it's a little over a mile from our apartment to the Jardin des Plantes). I was also able to order lunch for us both in French. Later in the day, I was confident enough to stop in to a small bakery and order us pastries for an afternoon snack.

What I've found is the more I try to interact with people in Paris, the more I enjoy being here. It was daunting at first, but the more I do it, the more I jump in as opposed to observe on the margins, the better the experience is.

When Matt was finished with work yesterday, we all managed to have a very nice dinner at a wine bar/cafe on the leafy pedestrian square outside our apartment. We had fish in a citrus sauce, honeyed chicken, onion soup, and some of the best wine I've had in ages. (Matt had a French dictionary, and he painstakingly translated all of the menu items for us.) It was really nice, being outside in Paris, spending time with my family. The wait staff was really patient with or attempts at French, and at one point the waiter smiled warmly and said to us, "You don't speak French, but you try. And that's enough for me."