Au Jardin du Luxembourg

We had waited the better part of two months, with several reconnaissances, to take grand-daughter Penelope to Luxembourg Garden. After Maman and Papa had left for their respite in Barcelona, it rained chats et chiens here, but Saturday the sun finally broke through, and we made for the park, perhaps Paris' greatest of many great parks.

P at the Medici Fountain; note Metro ticket
in hand

Next up was the regatta on the Luxembourg pond; alas,
Grand-mere did not take stills of our boat; it traversed the
pond three times and was great fun

Next was a picnic on the beautiful grounds

And next was an extended visit to the Parc de Jeux--largest kiddie
playground we yet have seen; P gravitates naturally to the
trains; for this I fear I am at fault

And other vehicles; and wore Grand-pere out

Followed by...a pony ride!

Thus

Complete with paparazzi; she begged for another ride and,
being grand-parents, of course we let her, on the white horse
(not pictured)

After the pony rides and more walking in the park, and while
the grand-parents rested...pigeon feeding and chasing 

And running around and singing on the grass

P often bursts into song on such occasions

Until Monsieur Gendarme tells us even the tiny tots are not
permitted on the grass...oh well

There's always another train

And just minutes after she gets into her
stroller at Boulevard Voltaire, she's into a late
but well-deserved nap; note Metro ticket in hand

Disneyland Paris, les out-takes

Disneyworld with French subtitles; the Wikipedia article on
Disneyland Paris is a useful read, especially philosopher
Michael Serres' observation: "It is not America that is
invading us. It is we who adore it, who adopt its fashion and
above all, its words." Interesting. He's on the faculty at
Stanford now, I understand

Tucked in at the back of one of the later floats, Winnie the
Pooh reflects bitterly that, not so long ago, he had pride of
place, on one of the big floats, the center ring...

Peter Pan and Captain Hook now suffer the humiliation of
having to walk

A grounded Dumbo

Grandpa and Grandma on the Buzz Light-Year ride, blasting
away at the bad guys

My score of 37,200...

Which qualified me for Pilote Interplanetaire; Vicki qualified
only as an As des astres, which Google Translate is still
processing; go for the high-value targets, I advise...

Disneyland Paris, deux

And the parade did not disappoint...here's favorite Snow White just before she
blew Penelope a kiss

And the sisters from current movie favorite, Frozen

And Rapunzel and Eugene from last summer's favorite, Tangled

And Woody and Buzz Light-Year

Mickey brings the parade to its crescendo

Ceiling over the Tea Cups ride

En tea cup; unfortunately, two separate journeys on the tea cups did not cure
Grandpa's Mal Debarquement, as some theorized

On the Carousel

On the Buzz Light-Year ride (see next post for details)

While Maman and Grand-mere did Space Mountain, Penelope
and Grand-pere did the race cars

Thus, with Penelope driving

By 10PM, night was falling

And the lights were coming on

And our little Snow White was beginning to fade

But quickly revived when the lights came up and the laser show and the
projections on the castle began, and...

The fireworks began

The RER and the Metro got us back home somewhat after midnight, and, after
our very exciting visit to Disneyland Paris, we all resolved to sleep in the next day

Disneyland Paris, un

While Jeremy was recovering from his flight from SFO Monday, Vicki, Rebecca, Penelope, and I undertook our visit to Disneyland Paris (formerly EuroDisney, etc.), something even I had been looking forward to for some weeks. We had always dismissed the Disney entry here, but became re-interested upon 1) hearing from actual Europeans about how much their children/grand-children loved it, and 2) having a grand-child, particularly a grand-daughter. For those acquainted with the US version, Disneyland Paris is pretty much identical to, say, Disneyworld. Some of the ride names are different, but they're pretty much all here, plus a few not found in the US. You might say Disneyland Paris is just Disney World with French sub-titles.

At Nation, Penelope anxiously awaits the arrival of the RER
train that will take us to Disneyland Paris; it was to be a day
of 6 train rides; plus many other rides

And here we are, on the outskirts of Paris...

Where a miraculous transformation has taken place...

One enters the park through one of the grand hotels

First sight of Disney Castle 

Merci, Maman

Posing with Grandma and Grandpa

Disney Castle, aka Cinderella's Castle

Our first ride was It's a Small World

Thus

Our next stop was Snow White

Of course, most of what one does at any Disney is stand in line...although, on
this Monday, with school still in session, it was not too bad

Some rides are scary

But there's always a happy ending

And another train to ride

And then anxious anticipation at the beginning of the parade

Marché de Charonne

We have sampled half a dozen markets in Paris and certainly will do a few more, but the one we like best so far is the one that's nearest to us, the Marche de Charonne, on the Boulevard de Charonne (we're on Rue de Charonne, perhaps two blocks away). It has all the quality and variety of the much larger Bastille market, but Charonne is lightly attended. One can converse pleasantly (en Anglais) with the merchants, just look (je regard), just stroll, unbothered, unjostled, and enjoy the beautiful panorama of food, spices, produce, meat, seafood, olives, bakery and patisserie, fromage, flowers, etc., and just a bit of household and clothing. Enough of the merchants speak enough English. And you'll hear no other English spoken except your own. We're there regularly on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The Charonne market runs down the median of the Boulevard
Charonne for three blocks, with the Alexandre Dumas Metro
stop smack in the middle; one for all, all for one; the Dumas
station is one of the the surviving Hector Guimard stops, as
you can see in the pic above

Looking the other way

Crabs attempting to escape from a seafood
stall

A very large fish

Resting in one piece, more or less, for the
moment