Summertime

Summer hit Paris like a ton of bricks on Saturday.

You'll remember my complaints about the rain last week. From Sunday to Wednesday, without stopping, it rained.

Finally, Thursday and Friday were cool but relatively dry. Then came Saturday. It was sunny and hot and every single person living in the greater metropolitan area was at the Luxembourg Gardens, where Geo, C and I met the Riveras, in town for a few days while on a European jaunt.

But that comes later. First I have to talk about Saturday morning, which was also busy and eventful. We had a meeting at the little public school to see the school, meet the teachers and get a sense of the place. I was hoping this would help us decide where we are sending Geo in the fall. And it did. The school is small, and sweet and the teachers and the director seem very interested in making it a harmonious place for the children and the parents. Geo loved the playground and the classroom that was stuffed full of toys, puzzles, games, art supplies, and yes, even books! I think he'll be very happy there and feel really peaceful about our decision.

Then, as there was a little fair going on downtown in our village, we moseyed over to check it out. Geo bumped into one of his little friends and they had a lot of fun feeding the goats and watching the chickens. Finally, it was lunchtime, and naptime.

Then we went into Paris to meet the Riveras. I have to say, the Riveras are so inspiring. Linda is in her seventies and Julius is in his nineties and they run around Paris using buses and taking the metro and are actually today renting a car and driving themselves to the Loire Valley and then to Brittany. I hope to be that courageous by the time I'm forty, and traveling as much when I'm their age!

So we had a nice afternoon sitting in the shade (well, Geo and C went to the big playground) and then to Loubnane (that's right, the restaurant where we had our wedding reception) for dinner. On our way there we ran into Monseigneur Antiba, the head of our church. Geo couldn't figure out who he was-- he normally sees Monseigneur in his Sunday robes, I guess!

Sunday was another big day. We met Nancy, Alain, Robin and Nina, as well as many of their friends, in the Parc Montsouris for a picnic. It was probably 90 degrees and humid, and Geo played almost non-stop with the soccer balls, the tennis rackets and anything else he could get his hands on for three straight hours. We basically had to sit on him to get him to drink wanter / eat a sandwich / agree to go to the bathroom.

After that, we met Ziad and Marc near Censier Daubenton, as Marc's cousin or nephew (I can never remember which) was participating in a clown show. That's right, he'd been taking a theater class all year about clowns, and the class put together an end-of-the-year show. It turned out that the show wasn't until 5pm, so while we waited, we walked to the Jardin des Plantes, where Geo had five rides on the animal merry-go-round, until he almost fell asleep on top of the lion and we had to take him off.

Finally it was time for the clowns. Ok, what can I say? These are student clowns. The room was hot, and packed with sweaty, stinky people (and I very much include myself in that number!). We stayed for 1.5 hours, saw Marc's cousin/nephew perform, then decided it was time to get home.

Actually, the clown thing got me thinking. I've never seen many clowns or clown shows. What are we really laughing at, here? Clowns act like people who are mentally ill, or addicted to drugs and/or alcohol or something, and laughing at them is kind of disturbing.

We made it home, although Geo slept most of the way there, even ate dinner and did the dishes and got the poor tired puppy in bed before 9:30. He's still asleep now, and it's 9am. I guess we really did wear him out! Oh, and it's raining this morning. Of course.