Day 2 - St. Martin canal trip

Today started slowly with Jack teaching in the morning while everyone else slept.  We met the students for lunch at an Indian restaurant call the Taj Mahal.  It is a very reasonably price place near Bastille.  The kids enjoyed tandoori chicken & basmati rice and that was about it.  They didn't like naan nor samosa or other Indian dishes.  Jack and Tricia really enjoyed the curry dishes.  It was a quick lunch for us because we had to get to Parc de la Villette to catch the canal boat on the St. Martin Canal.  Parc de la Villette is a huge park that we haven't had a chance to explore.  While walking through it, we decided it would be a fun place to return on a nice day.  There are different types of playground equipment than what we are used to like a mini zipline and little hills for running up and down.

Canal St. Martin was built in early 1800s to bring fresh water into Paris.  It was a very popular waterway, and it took a long time to get from where we started and stopped.  Today, it took us only 2 1/2 hours to go from Parc de la Villette to Musee d'Orsay.  However in the past, it took 36 hours.  The paths were too narrow to use animals like mules or donkeys.  Instead it was pulled by people, probably men.  Can you imagine?  We went through 7 locks and 1 very long tunnel (about 1.5 miles long and a highlight for the kids).  It was very slow, interesting trip.

The boat let us out at Musee d'Orsay where we walked to our favorite chocolate store Michael Chaudon for an afternoon treat.  Each got something:  Jackson a dark chocolate #8, Grace a milk chocolate G & Jack and Tricia a box a the mini truffles.  We took them to our old neighborhood, walked by the apartment and headed to the Eiffel tower to devour our snack (or at least the kids did).  The truffles were exactly as we remembered just melting in our mouths.  It looked like the kids enjoyed their treats because they ate them very quickly.  We sat in benches underneath the Eiffel tower and watched all the different people from many Nationalities.  The night ended with dinner at the apartment.