Day 14 - Relaxing & Minuit à Paris

Today we slept in.  I said goodbye to Mary and mom and went back home back to bed.  It was raining hard in the morning, and we were very glad to have no where to go.  Jack had the day off so we relaxed at home.  Jackson finished his book.  Grace gave me a pedicure.  We haven't said much about our apartment other than it is noisy.  We live on the 2nd floor.  Once you get through the big blue door, you enter a lovely courtyard with lots of very large potted plants.  I believe there is a magnolia tree, hibiscus pots and other type of green trees.  There are different entry ways but ours is A.  Go up 2 flights of stairs.  The stairs are curvy and crooked.  Jack describes them as going up a set of stairs in a Dr. Seuss book.  There are 3 main rooms with a bathroom and kitchen.  One of the rooms is a bedroom which the kids are sharing and another room has a pullout couch that Jack and I are sharing.  In between is the common room where we eat, do ironing or hang our clean clothes.  The bathroom is connected to this room and the kitchen.  Not a very good layout for us and we have had to overcome some pet peeves like taking our meals through the bedroom or bathroom.  The bathroom is very fancy since it has a chandelier.  The kitchen is small but functional.  There is a washing machine that looks like a garbage compactor.  No dryer so all our clothes are hung to dry.  We learned that in Paris it is against the law to hang your clothes outside your window.  They call it "going Mediterranean."  The district in which we live--the 3rd Arrondissement--is very nice and close to so much that we haven't taken the metro as often. It's a much different Paris than the one we knew in 2009, when we lived literally in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and packs of tourists (like us). This year we're in an actual neighborhood with an endless stream of little shops and markets and cafés along each block. Here's a view from our apartment. Café de la Poste is under the awning at the bottom.

We caught the 3:20 PM showing of Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen (pic below).  It was playing in English with French subtitles.  The kids weren't certain they wanted to see it but Jack thought it would be good for us to watch it in Paris since we are big Woody Allen fans.  Jackson spent most of the movie playing his DS. As we were leaving the movie, Jackson said he stopped watching it after the opening scenes "because it was about love and kissing."  Grace on the other hand was glued to the screen the entire movie.  The movie was very good and fun with lots of sites that we recognized. It was one of Allen's better films in recent years—hilarious in its portrayal of Americans' romantic notions of Paris (definitely hit home!), of Americans' botched attempts at speaking French (definitely hit home!), and of Ernest Hemingway.  The kids got a big education with the French previews--not quite the PG-13 of the feature film.  For dinner, our friend Julia who is in town for work, met us.  We went to Le Baromètre on rue Charlot.  It was very good and as Julia proclaimed "very French."  The kids shared a meal but had separate desserts.  Grace had a chocolate cake with molten chocolate inside and vanilla creme on the side.  Jackson had a jar of fresh strawberries with some sugar and lemon.  He loved it!