Sacré Coeur

{My parents went home on Saturday. sniff. I always hate it when they leave, I feel so loved and supported whenever they're around. Anyway... I still have a couple of things to post about their visit.}

The kids and I took my parents to see Sacré Coeur, as they had never been there. It's a little far out there, but we didn't venture down into the garment district, and certainly not into the seedy Pigalle area, so it wasn't too long of an excursion.

Eva brought some baguette remains to feed the pigeons. It's amazing how entertaining she finds that, and shockingly, we even found a couple of cute ones. (I know.)

I like taking pictures of Dad taking pictures. Here, he's getting down to get a worm's eye view of the birds.

Will I ever tire of ironwork? I hope not.

It's interesting how rust can be sort of picturesque. You know, if it's not on your car or your grill or anything.

Apparently these kids were on a field trip. I thought they were so darling!

You know what's not darling? Art pushers. They come up with a big sketch pad and try to start drawing you or your kids so fast that you can't refuse. Then they charge you for the drawing that you didn't want in the first place. (I only fell for that once when Max was 18 months old. Now they don't have a chance with me.) Or the guys that walk up to your kids and slip a loop of embroidery floss on their finger, only to hurry and make a friendship bracelet before you can stop them. We were stopped by at least 10 such pushers that day. I would politely but firmly say, "non, merci!" and then they would say -- oh it's not for you, it's for my friend here! Right. People that prey on innocent children (and their parents' wallets) really burn me up. But I digress...

Once again, the kids delighted me by playing and interacting so well with each other. That is probably the single best thing about living in Paris -- they don't have anyone else to play with, so they really hang out together.

You can get some great views from up on that hill!

I had promised Eva a ride on the carousel (the same one she rode on for her 2nd birthday). Max is her designated carousel go-with guy, she won't accept anyone else. Strangely, she keeps wanting to ride them, despite their terrifying nature. What the?

Lucas wanted to race the tram down the stairs. Dad went with him. They won. I was totally okay with riding the tram and losing that race.

I love these old shutters. I find it so interesting that I find these old peeling shutters so attractive, yet if my shutters looked like that, I would surely want to replace them. What's up with that? I guess maybe they look like they go with a 17th or 18th century building, not so much with our circa 1977 house...

We passed a little shop with these sodas and Max had to try one. He bought himself a bottle of green banana flavor. (I liked the flavor, but it was a little too sweet for my taste.) Love the bottles!