Day 148: Second Full Day in Paris — Ateliers des Lumieres — Place Dauphine
After a few hours of school in our apartment, we walked again back over to the rides at Saint Paul, where Frankie and Dominique met us for a few spins on the UFO and sports cars.
Frankie and Dominique were both wearing the dresses they’d bought the day before at the market.
From there we Uber’d to the 11th to see the Ateliers des Lumieres art exhibit.
This is a temporary art installation in an old warehouse where 15-30-minute films with music and animated masterpieces from Van Gogh and other artists get projected on the giant walls, floor and ceiling.
Immersive art, I guess? It was pretty neat.
And because we’d done some reading about Van Gogh in the morning, Willa was particularly excited about it. I could hear her whispering loudly to her friends about the brushstrokes and the famous pieces she recognized, which of course I loved.
You sort of go in and zone out in the dark and enjoy. We stayed an hour.
Afterward we went on a mission to find crepes!
We found a stand and ate some seriously delicious savory galettes (mine had cheese, potatoes, sour cream, ham and spinach I think?). Teddy’s was a Greek salad version. YUM.
At that point we separated from our friends because we felt obligated to make a surgical strike to show James the Eiffel Tower. Willa had seen it before, but James needed to see it too.
So we Uber’d again, this time to Trocadero — basically a vantage across the river that looks directly at the Tower, but doesn’t require you to get too close. We just wanted a glimpse and a photo or two.
It was funny to be back in the same spot where Willa saw the Tower in Feb 2018 when it was freezing cold, windy and EMPTY. On this day it was very sunny, hot and crowded. We got our pics and headed back out in search of our friends.
There was one thing we had to accomplish today: Finding James some birthday presents. He turns 5 in two days!
So Teddy peeled off in search of toys while we re-joined the friends at the Jardins des Plantes.
The kids played and romped and eventually we stopped for an aperitif at Les Belles Plantes restaurant.
We decided to try finding dinner in the Place Dauphine on Ile de la Cite. My parents showed me this spot last time I was in town, and I was surprised I’d never seen it before — an elegant, quiet residential park on the far end of the ile, away from Notre Dame.
We figured we could try to eat outside and we’d have a place for the kids to run around.
We were in luck! Got a table for 8 at Le Caveau du Palais restaurant right on the square. The food wasn’t the very best but the rose was a-flowin and the kids were having a blast watching the petanque players and playing tag in the square.
The temperature was a heavenly 72 and the sun was still bright at 9 pm. It was the perfect finale to a great weekend with the friends.
As we walked them back in the direction of their Uber afterward, and had a nice group hug farewell, Willa cried. “It’s not fair that they get to go home and be with each other at school all day long!”
But I know she’d rather be doing this with us. We went home and packed up, ready to go to the next destination.
Misc:
Note to self – come to Paris more often. It is so easy.
And now that I’ve gotten the touristy stuff out of the way with my kids, we can come back and do more locals hangout stuff.
My French is in very good shape.
I miss living here and would do it again if there were a way. Maybe a pied a terre when we retire!
Willa loves it. She was over the moon about our first trip, and this time around she kept saying, “Can we please come back?” So it’s in the Bensfield blood to be slightly obsessed with Paris and it makes me so happy! Yes, girl, we’ll be back!!
Brooklyn-ification is alive and well in Paris.
Also – everyone in Paris speaks English now…unheard of ten years ago.
