The Wednesday we returned from vacation, I only had Marie-Césare as Gaspard was at his mother's house for the week. I decided we would do something fun because the weather was beautiful and Marie-Césare was in a great mood. We have been talking about going to the aquarium for months now, so after art class I put a bottle of water, a sandwich, and some carrot sticks in my bag and off we went. That metro ride was a little longer than what we are use to, but I've learned that if you just shove something in her mouth and keep it coming, she's normally pretty good. ha! The aquarium we were going to was next to the Eiffel Tower. There is a better one out in Vincennes, but that metro ride would have just been a little too agonizing for a 3 year old. We passed the police on horses and she went nuts! We stopped to stare at les chevaux for at least 10 minutes. Once inside, we got our tickets and went to look at les poissons. It was very dark inside and she was a bit scared. I don't know what she was expecting, but it wasn't until the end that she would even get close to the glass. This aquarium was nothing like the Chattanooga aquarium, in fact, I definitely wouldn't pay to go back. The fish were quite dull in color and species. They didn't have a huge variety. There were some sharks (not huge), and some octopus, "pieuvre" (which she was most scared of) and one pond where you could touch the fish. It wasn't' huge, and there weren't a ton of fish....but I guess it is the highlight of the entire aquarium for French children.
She loved it. We stayed there for about 30 minutes just seeing how many different fish she could touch. We took our time and weren't in a hurry and also made a quick stop by the gift shop on the way out to buy nothing other than a pink fish necklace.
Just across the Trocadéro there are a couple of carrousels, so of course we did that. C'est nécessaire! At 2.50 a ride, we only rode twice but of course she chose the horses both times.
Since her parents never take her to see the Eiffel Tower and find it quite a nuisance (much like other French citizens) she wanted to walk under it so bad. (She also wanted to go up but I told her that wasn't possible since we had spent so much of mommy's money already that day.) We walked down through the Champ de Mars being careful not to let our hands go of each other. The best part of the day was yet to come. Barbe á papa!!!
Yes, she ate this entire thing by herself. I had just a little bit as she wasn't so keen on sharing her barbe á papa. I perched her on the Pont d'Iéna as she munched away at the candy floss. She just kept stuffing it in as fast as she could. Maybe this makes me a bad au pair, but I didn't care...we were having SO much fun together!!! I don't like taking her places where she has to sit for long periods of time, i.e. the doctor, restaurants, etc. But where we can just wander and do what we want all afternoon-its great! It's times like these I am thankful I just have one kid to look after and not two or three! Its much easier to take just one!
This is what we ended up with at the end of the day. A cotton candy beard basically. I couldn't help but laugh out loud...Marie-Césare too. We both rolled out laughing when we saw the picture. Most parents were looking at me crazy that passed by, but I just didn't see it as a big deal. We got her hands and face cleaned up for the most part...at least to hold her over until her bath that night.
She came home a crashed into a nap on the couch while I finished reading a magazine. We played and painted the rest of the evening and talked about our wonderful day. I couldn't wait to show Chloé the photos...I knew she would be a happy mom. Marie-Césare has grown up so much since I've been here. I've become normal to her, and its great to have a little one so excited to see me each day!!!
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