Moulin Rouge, Montmartre, and Monceau

For my birthday we went to see the ‘Feerie’ show at Moulin Rouge in the evening, finally!!! It was a great spectacle despite the cheesy glitz. The flashy costumes, boobs and cheeks on show were enough to keep Tom enthralled for 2 hours, never seen him so quietly fixated on a rugby game as he was there. Personally I thought the dancing was mediocre and the interval acts stole the show; acrobats balancing horizontally head to head and an amazing juggler who juggled with his throat! What a life those girls must have. Needless to say, Tom’s mouth was ajar the whole time, had to pick his jaw up the floor as we left.

Sunday not so successful with tantrums from both children and parents and then hastened by cold wet weather. We went off to Parc Monceau in the 8th, a small version of Stourhead with hundreds of runners and a playground. Beautiful people in beautiful surroundings, everywhere you go in Paris, do they always have to be so perfectly turned out with perfectly behaved children?? Just imagining all the effort they go to everyday to make themselves and their children look so stunning wears me out.

Attempt to go up to Montmartre after the Parc which was a big mistake. The vernacular was broken down so Tom lifted Ruby asleep in her pram hundreds of stairs up to Sacre Coeur, once we got up there, there was a barrage of black men almost barricading the streets trying to sell you things. One man was quite abusive, going for all the young girls by grabbing their arms and not taking NO for an answer. It was very disturbing until a whistle blew and a security guard approached him. Once we got to the top we all needed to warm up and had the most atrociously expensive hot chocolates in the square whilst watching the artists, when the sugar hit caused Sam to go into hyper mode amongst the tourist couples trying to have a quiet coffee. Then the weather turned, easels went flying and it was time for the 10 minute trek in the rain to the bus for our 45 minute journey home to be snivelled at even more by its passengers because our children were chatting happily on the bus, how dare there be happy children for they should be seen looking pretty and not heard in this city.

Bonne Annee!!

After a great trip home for the holidays, we have returned to Paris with some trepidation to what it will bring us in 2007. We were pleasantly surprised and relieved to have the kids quite happy to come back, and after a hellish first day back to school they’ve adapted again quite quickly.

New Year and all that so we’ve decided to take up a new family sport – rollerblading. Took Tom some convincing but he bought a pair too and off we went to the Tuileries for a practise skate. It was quite a sight – Sam in his new shark goggles and Ruby in pink ones riding their scooters around whilst their parents were stumbling along on their skates (well, one of us was gliding quite smoothly actually). The sight of Tom falling on his arse made it all worth it.

So nice to be back on the number 80 bus, as joyful as ever with Sam trying to suffocate Ruby in her pram en route or making eerie orca noises with his stuffed killer whale, to the so obvious un-delight of the Parisians. They really do need to lighten up.