Paris, day 1

It had been ages since I had been in Paris, and the stars aligned for a weekend trip:  Chloe would be away with Alex, and my friends from college are doing a sabbatical there, so a few weeks ago I bought tickets on the TGV.  After driving Chloe and Alex to the bus stop, Zoe and I got our stuff together and walked down to the route nationale so that we could take the bus into town (my first time on this bus).  Bento followed us down the road, where he was almost run over by numerous cars, and Zoe started to cry.  Thankfully some neighborhood dogs eventually halted his advance.

We arrived at the station quite early, and had a second breakfast (warm pain au choc --woo!) while we waited for the train to show up

And then hopped on the train.  Our seats were on the upper deck, which was fun.  I had shelled out a few extra euros for the upgrade to first class, which was worth it just to people watch.  It was mostly heavily perfumed grandmas and grandpas, but there was also a frumpy lady reading a book by Jacques Lacan while furiously scribbling messy notes across the aisle.  A little further down the aisle, a man with frizzled grey hair produced a small tabletop version of Rodin's thinker, installed it on the beverage table and began writing in a notebook.  Zoe was almost giddy with excitement, and although I told her that Bento was fine in order to console her, I was secretly worried that he would not make it back to the castle in one piece.

Three hours later we arrived in Gare de Lyon, which had mysteriously moved across the river Seine (for some reason my memory had been imprinted with the idea that it was South of the Seine!).  As we were all getting up and organizing our stuff, I was very proud to hear one of the grandmas remark to her husband how shocked she was that they were sitting behind a child -- Zoe was so quiet that she didn't even realize the danger she was in!  After de-training, we bought a carnet of subway tickets, spent a little time "exploring" the Gare de Lyon and eventually made it to Micah and Ali's beautiful place near the Eiffel Tower.  We caught up with Micah and then Zoe and I headed out on the town!

First stop was the Musee d'Orsay, which had a fabulous Suicide/Van Gogh/Artaud exhibition.  I had to whisk Zoe past some of the multimedia displays but otherwise they had a pretty impressive collection on display.  Zoe has a book of Van Gogh paintings, so it was great for her to see them in person.  I also learned that in the Orsay, you are not allowed to put kids on your shoulders!  I guess a child took a header into something and they don't allow it anymore.

From there, we could not resist the call of the gorgeous Orsay cafeteria, and had some cakes (20 euros for two cakes -- yikes)

Next stop: the famous gaufres de St. Germain.  They were still excellent, but not quite as good as I remembered.  Note to self:  do not order the chocolate version for kids: it was a giant mess.

Then it was back to Ali and Micah's, where we met their son Zeke, who is almost the same age as Zoe.  We wall went out for Italian food and glaces together and walked back via the Tour Eiffel