Leaving the City of Lights

We just got back from 3 days in Paris. Thomas was there for the bi-annual 3-day business meeting of our national denomination, and Alina and I just went along for the ride. We stayed with a Franco-American couple (she's American from Indiana, he's French from Brittany) who have 2 girls, the youngest of which is Alina's age. We had a really good time. In the evenings, we hung out with our hosts and watched the girls go crazy. In the daytime, Alina and I went music store shopping and saw a couple of friends. We had great weather, which just made everything even better.

The most interesting thing about this trip for me is that it was the first time Alina and I have been back since we moved in February of 2007. Which meant that I've had plenty of time to get unused to Paris, and Alina was basically discovering things for the first time. From the moment we stepped off the train, you could tell that she was thinking something along the lines of, "Oh my, where did all these people come from? I've never seen so many people before in my life!" Which was probably a thought she had almost continually for 3 days. I had forgotten what it's like. There are people everywhere all the time. Paris is crawling with people. It's also crawling with pigeons. Alina is still much in her animal phase, and she was very excited whenever she saw a pigeon. Of course, we have tons of birds in our yard all the time, but she could get much closer to these birds. She loved it.

There are also lots more cool playgrounds in Paris than in Melle. We spent quite a bit of time in parks, though Alina has yet to be convinced that it's preferable to climb up the stairs in order to go down the slide again, as opposed to climbing directly back up the slide. Quite often, though, Alina would leave the slides and seesaws and hordes of other kids, and go to the edge of the playground, where a low fence always separates you from the actual green, growing things. She would try to pick a flower, or point out a bush to me, and you could tell that she didn't quite understand why she couldn't go in among all those green things like at home.

For some reason, she was fascinated by the big, round, green containers where you're supposed to throw your glass bottles to be recycled. Go figure. On the other hand, the metro and elevators make her scream. People thought I was crazy when Alina was born and I refused to buy a stroller, but I would like to confirm that having a stroller in the metro is every bit as inconvenient as I imagined it to be. Thank goodness for the kind people that often helped me carry it up and down the many flights of stairs, but it still seems preferable to me to avoid the whole thing all together.

All in all, it was an enjoyable trip. Honestly, though, the best part was coming home. This evening, Alina ran around our yard and picked flowers, we ate dinner in our enormous kitchen, and I just stepped out the door just now and smelled that sweet, late-spring evening tree-and-grass smell.

I wouldn't move back.