Bois de Boulogne

Today we took the kids to the Bois de Boulogne, which I believe is the largest park in Paris and I believe was used by one or more French royals as a place to hunt and possibly for other activities.  I am not planning to confirm any of this because I'm rather old-school and there doesn't seem to be any travel guides for Paris in this apartment, which is rather sad, nor am I planning to minimize this blog page in order to look on Wikipedia or elsewhere to verify my claims.  Perhaps the reader would like to do so.

It was another lovely day today; the weather has been unusually nice for this time of year, ever since my arrival.  I can't claim any credit but I am grateful.  So we set off about 10:30 this morning for the park, a notorious place of debauchery at night but during the day frequented by joggers, walkers, families, old couples out for a stroll, people on horseback and lots of people with dogs, all of whom seem to be enjoying themselves.

James is riding in one of those harness things, strapped to Jeanne's chest.  Obviously he's very comfortable because he immediately falls asleep.  Tom and I are given walking advice by Juliet, who delights in choosing our route, finding things of interest in our path, urging us to run or to walk backwards or to avoid dog poop, and generally chattering away about the lake, the ducks, the sun, the weather, the acorns, the chestnuts, etc., etc., etc.  An hour passes most pleasantly.

We take a pontoon boat across the small lake to a restaurant where Jeanne has made reservations for lunch.  Matt is joining us there, and we see him waiting for the pontoon boat as we're walking on the small island.  We all wave our arms and shout to him but he doesn't hear us.  Tom encourages Juliet to "say Daddy real loud", and Juliet yells, "Daddy real loud"!  Tom and I can't stop laughing, and Matthew hears and sees us and waves.  Pretty soon he's on our side of the lake and we share a wonderful lunch.

The rest of the day is fairly uneventful as the kids have late naps, Jeanne goes out to do some shopping for the kids and for Tom, who wants to take gifts back for his hospital team, and I work on dinner and helping with the kids.  Squash stuffed with couscous, green salad, bread and cheese round out another great day.  We have only two days left to enjoy our Juliet and James, at least for a while.  I know it's time to leave and let Matt and Jeanne get back to "normal" with the new addition to their family, but I will miss being a part of their lives, helping them and watching James grow and change.  He's such a sweetie, and Juliet is starting to settle in to her new role as well.  I never thought I could love anyone as much as I love her, but now I love James in that same way.  Sometimes I feel like I could burst with how much I love them.