The Adjustment

We're still adjusting to local time. Somehow it has taken our bodies much longer than it usually does. Combined with the cooler weather and some rain, we were prone to just laying low, spending some time at home unpacking, doing laundry, going through mail, catching up on phone calls, going to the grocery store, playing Minecraft and Animal Crossing and just generally puttering about.


We were up every morning around 4 am. We decided to embrace it and see the sunrise (the boys were excited for this, saying we hardly ever see them, and then we recounted all the ones we could remember). We headed over to the newly remodeled Starbucks (the first two days didn't work out, though, since they were still under construction). We finally hit the opening day on Friday morning (oooh! aahhh!) and returned on Saturday afternoon to check out the outdoor seating (we had Lilli in tow, as she was very curious too). They've given it a bit of personality, trying to make it "not just another Starbucks." We liked the big LOGAN and the dark tile and dark wainscoting. They've got some vintage coffee pots. They've also got a lot of photos from the neighborhood, many of them historical. Still not much seating there, but I suppose they can't do much about that aspect. They can make it look pretty, but they just can't make it any physically bigger.


Thursday:

Friday:

On Saturday, we took a long walk to the park and around the neighborhood. It was sunny but very chilly. I feel like we got cold in London and haven't warmed up since. Or maybe it's just that I'm still feeling a bit blue to have left our friends.

Today in celebration of Earth Day, we have done almost nothing. Except that Martin shaved off his beard. The boys helped, dictating which section to shave off first and next and so on.

In the downtime, the boys played dress up with Lilli. 

Have I mentioned that she is an extremely tolerant dog?

Chantry, the conclusion of our European Tour

We concluded our Europe tour with a visit to our friends Jodie, Pat, Eamon, Pierce and Helene, who are living in Gerrards Cross, just outside of London. The houses in their area have names instead of numbers, and theirs is named Chantry. I hadn't understood this until we were there, even though I am sure she explained this in their family blog, which they started to chronicle their lives in England.


Eamon is Max's oldest friend. They met when they were 6 and 9 months old and have been friends ever since (largely due to the fact that their parents became such good friends). I cherish our friendship and have written about how wonderful Jodie is before, but it bears repeating. I have always felt so incredibly lucky that we found them, that we found such compatibility with not just our kids, but with each other, with our entire families. The first time we went for brunch at their house turned out to be a daylong affair, with a walk to the park and an evening movie while our kids slept. It seemed that whenever we went to visit them, we would just settle in and stay as long as we could. They have such an easy comfortable way of opening up their homes and their lives, and we always feel at home when we are with them.


They lived in Chicago when we first met them, then moved to Oak Park. We saw them regularly and then ended up having our second children (Pierce and Otto) on the very same day. Pierce and Otto have a special bond because of that, and also just because they get along so well. All four boys do, actually.


Several years ago, they moved out to Sterling, Illinois to be closer to their families. Jodie's parents have a farm there, and her sister and brother both live in the town with their families. Pat comes from a large family, and most of them have scattered throughout the country, but his parents are still there, and it's the home base for all of them to visit each other. We had always enjoyed visiting Sterling with them in the past (Jodie's family has an annual hayride, and we have been out there for other events as well), and they were always willing to host us for a weekend, so we would have some solid days to be together, which is our preferred way of hanging out with families we really like. Although our visits to Sterling were less frequent when they were in Chicago or in Oak Park, we still managed to stay in touch with them and see them enough to keep our kids friendships in tact.


Two years ago, they welcomed a third baby to their family. A little girl named Helene. She is a sweetie pie of the highest order. We have hardly seen her in comparison to how much we saw Eamon and Pierce, so in this sense, I feel detached from them and sad for the distance.


Last August—in what seemed like a sudden decision to me, but apparently had been in the back of their minds for a while—they moved to London, where they think they will be for the next three years. It all depends on what happens with Pat's work, they may stay less time, they may stay longer. We were already planning a trip to visit Martin's mother in Germany, and Otto had Paris on the agenda. We realized it would be a pretty quick trip from Paris to London, using the Eurostar, the high speed train that got us from one place to the other in about two and half hours. And they were absolutely willing to have us, since their kids were eager to welcome guests from home. Even with the added news that there will be a fourth baby arriving in July!


The boys had a hard time at first with the move to England, but they seem to be adjusting and are doing really well now. Both boys are involved in football (what we call soccer here) and rugby and are collecting as many football kits (uniforms) as they can. They live within a short walk of their school, they have a lovely little house with a big yard and a pond and a trampoline. Helene is young enough that she is happy wherever they are, and I think she is having a wonderful time living so close to trains (which she loves), and she is a natural with a soccer ball. She is extremely interested in anything relating to balls, in fact, and when playing Playdough with her, she prefers you make her lots of balls so that you can roll them back and forth. And as involved as they are in sports and other activities, it seems like they all have a lot of relaxed/free time to just be together, which has probably helped more than anything in adjusting to their new lives. I think that moves like these can bring the family closer together, and although they have always been a very close, I think the intensity of everything has brought them even closer.


They have always been drawn to nature, and they would have all manner of wildlife roaming their Sterling property. So it was fitting that their back yard receives frequent visits from a Grey Heron, looking to eat some of the hundreds of tiny tadpoles and frogs that fill their pond. They have ducks and all sorts of birds visiting each day. They can easily get to a nice wooded area where they can walk the dogs (and where we all got lost for a brief moment one evening). The whole family seems to be really glowing in their new surroundings.

All of that intro, and I haven't even gotten to our time together, which was really wonderful. It worked out perfectly for both of us, I think, that they were our last stop. We were all pretty exhausted from the travel, in desperate need for familiar food (thank you for making us pancakes and french toast and simple sandwiches and food that Otto would eat) and a slower pace (even though we still crammed a lot into the four days). I think it was also helpful that we didn't feel a strong urge to see as much as possible, but were instead pretty content to just take our days together, however we could get them.


Jodie is now six months pregnant, and although she always seems to have energy to go go go, she said this pregnancy has been harder on her than the others. Not much of a surprise there, since she has three other children and two dogs to care for, has just moved to another country, is building a whole new life for them there and still figuring it all out. [Side note: they have lived in a  different city for each child's birth, so it seems perfectly fitting that they have another during their time in London. Plus, they make the most beautiful, wonderful children, and the world is lucky to have more of them.]

Pat and Jodie

We had such nice weather during the visit, which was such a treat after days and days of rain and gray skies. It was so wonderful to feel the sun, and everything seemed better for it. We found it so ironic that England, the notoriously rainy and gray country, provided some of the best weather of our entire trip.

They have a tradition of taking a photo of all of their guests by this cow photo.

Max and Otto were also very excited to see Wheatley and Molly, their Golden Lab and Newfoundland dogs. We have known Wheatley since he was a youngster himself, and he's now thirteen and a bit slower than we remember. We were sure to give him lots of hugs and pets. Molly is simply the biggest dog we know, and also one of the mildest and sweetest. Lilli loved her when we visited in Sterling. And Otto was happy she was mellow enough to walk (Lilli will drag him down the street if he is given the leash, so it was nice to have some older, calmer dogs to handle). The boys were trying to figure out how we could get Lilli and Molly together again, but with a six month quarantine to get a dog into the country, I don't think they're going to see each other again for a long long time.

Helene walks Wheatley.  

We spent one day at Legoland Windsor (because we only got two days at Germany's Legoland and needed to compare the two parks). And we spent another day in London, where we got an aerial view of the city from the London Eye, walked past Westminster Abbey, stopped to see the queen (or at least a couple of royal guards) at Buckingham Palace, sauntered through St. James Park on the way to the palace and through Green Park on the way out, shopped on Carnaby Street, and visited one of the world's biggest toy stores, Hamleys, where there were seven floors to explore and, surprise!, more Legos.

I think this was our only group shot. Pretty fitting, though.

The boys outside of Windsor Castle.

The boys in the London Eye.

Family shot with Buckingham Palace across the water. 

Pierce, Jodie, Helene, Eamon and Pat and the distant Buckingham Palace.

We had lots of good food, in addition to the comfort foods we ate with them at their home. We went to The Village Hall, a nearby pub, and to Wagamama, a restaurant franchise in England which has a mostly Asian influence and served the kids the cutest little 'caccinos you have ever seen. We also walked into Gerrards Cross on the last day and explored the little village where they spend a lot of their time. We went to Jungs for lunch (and ice cream and pastries), and we stopped at two different shops to buy Lego mini figures, since Series 7 had just hit the stands. The boys were all very excited to collect and trade with each other. We also spent a long time playing at the playground in Gerrards Cross. They had a zip line and a carousel and a rope climbing tower. The weather continued to be mild, and we all enjoyed it.

Pierce pulls Max along the zip line.

Pat was with us for most of the visit, but he had to leave for the states on Monday morning (another irony, since he has hardly traveled since they have lived in London), so we tried to have a relaxed day, knowing it was harder on Jodie without Pat around. Pat left us pancake batter, ready to go for breakfast, and Jodie was up and making pancakes and cutting up berries and doing that go go go thing she does so well. It was our last day there, and I knew Pat was also going to be gone for several days after we departed, so it seemed wise to have a more local day. It was also nice to end the visit on a more quiet note, since the kids didn't care about the sights nearly as much as they wanted to be together.

By far, the best time was spent just being together, jumping on the trampoline, looking for tadpoles, walking the dogs, sitting in the lovely sunroom, exploring YouTube together, playing cards and board games, building in the Lego room, or setting up an elaborate game of war, using Lego guns they had built and Helene's play tent as a fort.

Helene and Otto in the fort.

We had movie nights in the evening, and Eamon took charge of planning a pajama party, organizing and facilitating the activities and food (games, movies, popcorn, milkshakes). He was quite a tour guide and host while we were there. Both Eamon and Pierce seemed somehow so much older than they had just last summer (and so did Helene, but that's to be expected, since she's two and just started talking and changes so much from month to month). I know such big moves can have that effect, and of course, they are all growing up. I loved just looking at all of them and thinking about how long we've all known each other. Eamon asked a couple of times about who his oldest friend is, as did Pierce, who concluded that he and Otto have known each other their entire lives, even though he's technically a few hours younger than Otto. I think they all like knowing they have been life long friends.

The boys at the train station. 

It was a short but very sweet visit, and we are already wondering when we can return. (Don't worry, Canada, we are coming your way first, because we sorely need to see you too.) Our families have such a lovely rhythm together, and it is always a delight to be together.


Thank you, Pat, Jodie, Eamon, Pierce, Helene, Wheatley, Molly and little baby yet to be born. We had a lovely time with all of you.

[Editor's note: I had already written up this post and was adding my links. I clicked over to Jodie's blog to see that she has written virtually the same post over there. Yet another sign of our synchronicity. I did steal her idea to use photo captions, though.]

Paris: Part Two

We spent Day Three in Paris just sort of meandering about. We had an early lunch at West Country Girl, a little creperie within walking distance of the hotel. Martin had found it just by doing a Google search for nearby eating options, and it turned out that we were around the corner from what might be the best crepes in the city. At least Saveur declared the chef "La reine des crepes," (the queen of crepes). Suddenly our hotel location seemed a lot more sensible to me than it had the previous day.

We headed for the Canal St. Martin to watch the boats and the lock system in operation. It wasn't until later that I learned this is the canal on which Amelie skips stones. I had been hoping to visit something from Amelie and didn't realize until later that we had.

The canal is also featured in the 1938 film Hotel Du Nord, which we have never seen.

Afterward, we wandered around and found a lovely park with a community garden and some people drumming. The sun came out, and kids were playing sword fights with long sticks and people were lying on the grass and picnicking and playing in the playground and it was a really sweet moment to soak it all in.

Then we did a little shopping.

For dinner, we met Martin's cousins (well actually, the children of his cousin) at Ratatouille. Upon hearing the name, I think my kids were kind of hoping for the movie version of this restaurant. There were no rat chefs in sight, but it was a very nice meal, and it was wonderful to catch up with Sebastien and Celine, who were 14 and 10 when I first met them. And now they're all growed up.

That's Sebastien on the left, his girlfriend Sophie in the middle, and Celine on the right.

For some reason we mostly just photographed Max's meal.

On Day Four, our last day in Paris, we finally had a sunny day, which was good, because the line for the Catacombs was still long, even though we arrived before it opened. This time, we were prepared for the wait: we brought snacks.

An hour and a half later, we finally got in to see some bones.

Back above ground...

We went for lunch at a nearby Brasserie. 

It was all really good, and very relaxed. We were the last customers there as we lingered over lunch and just enjoyed the respite.

Once we emerged from our lazy lunch, however, we (and by we, I mean me) suddenly felt a bit stressed that to realize it was our last afternoon in Paris, remembering there were so many things we wanted to do, and we were hard pressed to decide which ones we should choose. We decided to head for Notre Dame, as we (and by we, I again mean me) thought it might be fun and/or memorable to see this part of Paris. It was extremely crowded there, with long lines to get in to the cathedral, and it felt very touristy. I had remembered it being very quiet in the area, but it was nothing of the sort. We began to regret the decision as soon as we approached it, as I was feeling the time crunch and the need to have a fabulous last day. I did not want to spend it standing in long lines.

Luckily, there was an amazing street performance going on there to make it worth the visit.

We hadn't seen a single museum in our entire time in Paris, and this also made us feel a bit depressed. Since it was once again raining, we thought it might be a good time to step into a museum. I had wanted to take the kids to the Rodin Museum, as I was sure they would love it. But it was too far away to head there so late in the afternoon. We visited the Georges Pompidou Centre, since it was close. There are these wonderful sculptures in a fountain just outside the museum, which I thought the kids would love. But the pool was not yet filled with water, and so none of the sculptures were moving, and they were much less exciting than I remembered.

It started to rain, and I thought the kids would at least enjoy the escalators inside the museum. But everyone was feeling tired, and when we realized we would have to pay quite a bit for admission, even though we only had an hour or so to spend there, we ended up abandoning that plan too. It was not a total loss. We spent a short time in the library, which is in the same building. There was a Manga exhibit there with big comfortable bean bags, on which people were lying about, reading various Japanese comic books or watching films or just taking a nap in the cozy cove.

Outside, the rain had stopped and the sun had returned.

We wanted to get back to the hotel relatively early to pack up and get to bed so we would be ready for our early morning departure for London. We decided to have dinner at the West Country Girl, since it was near the hotel and, um, because it was so very good. It seemed a bit silly to go to the same restaurant again on such a short visit. I mean, it's Paris. There are so many wonderful food options. We should branch out. But it also felt absolutely right. When we got there, the owner greeted us, remembered us, and seemed delighted that we were returning again so soon. The queen of crepes even came out and smiled and acknowledged that we were at "our" table, since the boys had selected the same table as before.


We were the first customers, waiting outside the door before it had even opened, but it soon filled up. We overheard the girl at the neighboring table discussing the creperie, saying that it was her first time there, but she was meeting a friend who had been there three times in the last couple of weeks because it was really so good. They were Americans who were living in Paris and were surprised this little restaurant had escaped their radar until now. It made us even more excited to have stumbled on it in our four days in Paris. We have a knack for finding good food wherever we go. Or maybe it's just a matter of where we place our priorities.