Magrilless

We crossed the drawbridge of our citadel to attend a huge medieval extravaganza.

There was a really corny fight between tribes. (I think it was showcasing different weapons and fighting styles of different regions, but the narration was in French. The guy’s pointy shoes were awesome though.)

There were all sorts of tents set up demonstrating all sorts of different skills. We watched the blacksmith, a dyer, a doctor, an herbalist, a puppet carver, a cord maker, a common cook, a bakery maker, and tons of others. They were giving people lots of information in French; it seemed very authentic. I’m sure we could have learned a lot.

There were several bands of roving musicians with period instruments.

And people in costumes. (For some reason. Pretty sure this dude was officially associated with the fair.)

Also acrobatic entertainers…

and farm animals that looked old-school.

And every fair has to have face painting! (For free!)

And the girls even got to practice making cob houses. (The French-speaking guy at this station did not like me trying to help; he pushed me to the side with a stick. In a funny way.)

It was pretty amazing!

What is there left to do? Frites in town, of course! (The Belgians invented them, you know. Just ask them.)

Huzzah!

A half-day’s train journey (and a harrowing transfer between stations in Lille) took us from Paris to Namur, Belgium. This is a lovely brick and stone city, a university town overlooked by a citadel of rich international history. Louis IV coveted this town, and Napolean himself has visited.

Our first day here we spent setting up house, grocery shopping, figuring out the computerized laundromat (with instructions only in French), and wandering the winding alleys and river fronts. Our second day, we got right down to it and climbed up the hill behind our apartment building to the citadel that towers over Namur.

The visitor center was awesome and had multimedia presentations (in English) on the history of the town from its limestone formation to demilitarization in the 1970s. The coolest thing was the guided tour of the tunnels that snake underground all over the hill. We got to explore 1.5 km of the chilly labyrinth, hearing about the Spanish, the French, the Austrians, the Dutch, and the Belgians who have added to the citadel and tunnel network over the centuries. Again, it was a pretty amazing multimedia performance and definitely the girls’ favorite part of the day!

Some other day (how many days have we been here now?) we walked down the river promenade a few miles to the next town’s little strawberry museum. This district produces some huge amount of Europe’s total strawberry crop. We think; the museum is in French. Except for the informational video, which was definitely in English and a bit distracting in its flowery descriptions of the fruit: “The strawberry is a demanding lady. Madame loves the sun, which has her blushing with pleasure…. With so many dimples gazing at you like so many seductive eyes.” Yikes.

The best thing about the visit was the small fruit garden in which we were welcomed to taste what we found. And boy, did we find a lot to taste!

And I mean a lot!

Generally, we spend our days walking from somewhere to somewhere else, with ample stops along the way at patisseries (for turnovers) and ice cream shops (for waffle cones) and frites stands (for fries dipped in mayo) and playgrounds (for beer – seriously). We’ve been calling dibs on houses, on boats, on entire blocks. We’ve been trying new flavors (violet ice cream, yuzu macarons, fig yogurt). And we’ve been sleeping very well!

We are here for a good number of days yet. If I knew what day it was today, I’d know how many we had left. Vacation is so lovely, and we are so lucky! Anyway, we have enough time that we have planned a few day trips to neighboring communities, a river boat experience, and another laundry excursion at least. I have to say, Belgium is being lovely for us. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that we are visiting near to their Independence Day, and their football team is rocking the World Cup. (As I write, we are listening to cars honk and neighbors yell each time the Red Devils score a goal.) We’re happy here!

Yep. We’ve been to Paris. Which sounds a little bit insane and unreal. I think it’s one of those things that will seem more concrete in memory than it did in situ.

I think our visit was hindered by a couple things. 1) We know we operate best in smallish towns where there’s open spaces and they speak English. Paris is none of these things. 2) We were 4 people vaguely contained and frustrated by jet lag, and 2 of those people don’t fake it well. 3) I was too busy before we left to do my usual deluxe planning extravaganza, so we were winging it. Not my strong suit.

But, all of that said, we were in Paris, and how amazing is that?! Of course our visit to Paris was also bouyed by several factors: 1) Paris holds a certain cache, even for our kids. Just saying the name aloud was enough to talk us out of some funks. 2) Baguettes, croissants, macarons, chocolate. That’s all I have to say about that. 3) Anywhere you go has some potential for being historically, culturally, artistically, and sociologically significant. Even metro rides are different enough from our normal existence that they were exciting.

So here’s what happened!

Day 1 Eiffel Tower We took the metro and saw it. We were tired and didn’t make much effort to get around all the construction all over the place. We never actually even saw where it touches the ground because of all the 6-foot high temporary fencing. But then the highlight of the day was the Uber we hired because we thought we might fall on the metro tracks had we tried to navigate them. Holy cow. That was terrifyingly and amazingly terrifying. The scooters, the bikes, the pedestrians, the lack of consideration of lanes, the stopping in the middle of the intersection when the light is red. Holy cow. It was amazing!

Day 2 Notre Dame and Marie Curie We started at the famous cathedral and happened upon a wonderful choral concert by the European Honour Choir. No idea how often performances like that happen, but we felt really lucky. It was wonderful to sit and listen in such grand surroundings. We walked the neighborhoods to the Curie Institute and got to see her lab and office and garden. That was amazing!

Day 3 Musee L’Orangerie and Musee D’Orsay Art day! The Orangerie with Monet’s lilly pads was astounding. Absolutely astounding. We spent hours in that small museum; even the girls’ attention was held for quite awhile. (The computerized toilets might have helped.) The D’Orsay was had more to give than we had time for, but we “made due” with van Gogh, Degas, Monet, and so many others. Then on the way home, we spotted a Banksy a across from our apartment! Whoa!

Day 4 Centre Pompidou Another art day. Maggie and Tessa put up with us for a third museum! But this one had an interesting building (escalators on the outside? what?) and contemporary art can be a little easier to talk about when you’re 5. The girls sat for awhile doing sketches of Chagall and Malevitch and Lissitsky. Then they spent another period of time telling us what they imagined each painting to represent. It was wonderful! Aaaaand, another Banksy!

Day 5 Versailles We took the train down to the palace for an outside day. The palace: eh. Gilded and extravagant and pretty much what you’d expect. Maybe it would have been more enjoyable if we hadn’t been in these hot little rooms with hundreds of our new best friends. The gardens: whoa! We happened to be there on a musical fountains day, so they were all flowing and some were “choreographed” to period music.

So cool! I could have spent hours, or days, or years there. Especially when you know the plumbing is mostly original. We did also go to Marie’s make-believe village. Weird. But I think that could have been a cush job and I want it.

So we did it! Maybe we’ll go back and fix our little fails (catacombs, Seine cruise, Louvre, Montmatre) in the winter or spring. But for now, thanks, Paris, for being our jumping off spot! We did you!

We left home. We stayed in Colorado for a weekend.

We left the US. We flew to Paris.

We settled-ish. We are in Europe! (More on our week in Paris in a minute.)

Our traveling day(s) were mostly drama-free. The girls, having only traveled by plane a short distance once before, were curious and happy in the airport. Plus, Denver is a fun one: terminal shuttle trains, windowed bridges that aircraft travel under, shops and restaurants selling tempting things. The plane was interesting too, of course. Initially, things were a bit dicey as Maggie got a window seat and Tessa got a “window” seat with no window in the airplane wall. I was able to distract her with the seat-back computer – lots of free games and horrible cartoons. And the food seemed magical to them: cheesy pasta in the air! An Oreo! A juice box! (The grown-ups’ chicken with olive tampenade was actually pretty good too.)

The kids slept fine, as kids can do. But they were obviously tired as we waited an hour in the customs queue. And when I say queue I mean a huge mass of people in one hall not bothering with waiting turns and all smashing toward the exit. With no bathrooms. Or air conditioning. Or English. For an hour. We survived. A bit crumpled, though.

We managed to stay awake most of our first day, besides a quick naplet on the train. We were not at our best, nor our cheerfullest, nor our smartest. But we got our chocolate croissants to fuel us and our metro passes to build confidence, and we made it just fine!

I’d say it’s now a week later and we are about to hit our stride. Of course we still had enormous fun and saw incredibles things in Paris. (Next post soon, I promise!) But the girls are now starting to sleep more normally and play together as they usually do and notice things around them, and we’re figuring out the system a bit more each day.

I think we’re going to be ok. Maybe even better than!

We’ve been living it up in our few weeks of small-town Colorado summer!

We did the free library programs and crafts; we did movies; we did backyard slip-n-sliding; we wrung our friends dry in playdates and dinner dates and bike dates; we museumed and pooled and ice creamed.

Even though our terribly dry year(s) fostered an especially close and bad wildfire – keeping us sequestered in the house with windows shuttered – we fell in with our community donating and firefighter-praising and rain dancing.

And those weeks went quickly; now our Durango summer is in the past! We started a leaving-town-countdown at 179 days (which many people found excessive), and all of a sudden it’s at 0! The house is emptier and cleaner than we have ever seen it. Our car is stuffed with backpacks, mostly containing leftover pantry items and cleaning supplies for my parents and sister. And the traditional Leyden Street start line has been crossed!

What are my profound reflections on this, you ask? Well, we love our desert mountain town. We love our little house (which is now so different from the house we bought). We love our friends and relatives whom we see with frequency and ease. We love our fantastically supportive neighbors.

And we will miss all these things and all these people. Yes, we will!

But now we look ahead to adventures we can’t imagine and friends whose language we don’t yet understand and memory-making as a close family unit.

Not so profound. But definitely exciting! Stay tuned…