Rainy Day by Patrick

The kids and I began day with a Café Express and three Orangina’s at a brasserie next to the Palais Royale. We just people watched and then went to the Jardin de Palais Royale, which is a lovely mix of beautiful old building and modern art.

At the Palais Royale, we were all transfixed by some French kids playing a pick up game of soccer. I tried to get Ellie to study the moves, but she just cross her arms and said, “I can do that.” She can’t. Yet.


In the grassy park next door, there were three or four rows of a hundred trese each. I challenged each kid to run the entire line of trees to the end and back. Declan zig zagged through each tree. Ellie shuffled between them like she was doing a soccer drill. And Kiki just ran straight with her hand out slapping each tree as she ran by. They were all out of breath by the end. Perfect.

The next stop on our walking tour of Paris after le Palais Royale was to be le Jardin du Luxembourg.

Le Jardin du Luxembourg is a favorite park in Paris for both Katie and me. Walking through it on a sunny spring day feels like I am walking through a Renoir with dappled sunlight painting crowds of white corsets, sear sucker sport coats, straw hats, and children with big, colorful lollipops.

But the day was not sunny. In fact, it started to pour just as soon as we emerged from the Metro stop. I was really determined to go the Jardin du Luxembourg, but it was really raining hard. We all had our raincoats, but the kids were getting very fussy. Luckily, in a burst of improvisational spirit and luck, the Musee des Moyens Ages (Museum of the Middle Ages) was right in front of us housed in a spectacular cathedral where an in-process archealogical dig was going on just inside the perimeter gate.

We all ducked into the museum and were pleasantly surprised to find a very well laid out, not-to-crowded, collection of interesting sculptures, armour, tapetries, and stained glass.

As we strolled through the ancient galleries, Ellie said, “There’s too much religious stuff.”

“Good observation, Ellie. People in those days were typically a lot more religious than I people are today. “

“Why is that?”

“Hmmm. ‘Science’, I suppose.”

“’Science’? Why’s that, daddy?”

“Well, people back then didn’t know that the world was round, or that tornados formed from a particular mix of warm and cold air, like we do today. So, when things like that happened, they would just think that the gods, or God, was responsible.”

“Ok.”

After that very-fulfilling-for-a-dad conversation with Ellie, we all went into a darkened room dedicated to stained glass with spectacular pieces taken from various churches and castles lit brightly from behind. Declan and Kiki were transfixed.

Declan pointed to one piece and asked me, “What’s that?”

Before I could answer, Ellie said, “It tells a story.”

This observation of hers was, I admit, beyond my up-until-that-point understanding of the stained glass artistry.

I was extremely proud of Ellie, and very satisfied that she appears to be developing a fairly sophisticated appreciation of art, history, and religion at a very young age.

After some time at the museum, the rain let up and we continued to le Jardin. After a block or two, it started to rain again, though, and the kids began to revolt. I could see the entrance to le Jardin, but the kids weren’t budging. So, I did the good parent thing and I bribed them with a hot chocolate at the brasserie across the street from the entrance. If, after we finished our hot cholcolate, the rain stopped, we’d go to the park. If it didn’t stop, we’d abort and go back to the apartment.

The rain didn’t stop. We went anyway.

Immediately upon entering, we could hear music playing from underneath a large cupola. An orchestra from an English high school was performing a concert with very few people in attendance (it was raining, after all). But, the huge, green, leafy trees gave us great cover from the raindrops. The kids stood in rapt attention and I stood a ways back delighting in the gifts fate gives the intrepid traveler.


After the orchestra, we found a fantastic playground with spongy flooring and a very innovative zip line structure. After a full two hours at the playground, we stopped by a carousel with a twist. The kids rode horses but were given mini-lances. Each time they went around, they would try to collect a ring by spearing it with the lance.

As we walked to the playground from the orchestra, I told the kids about how mommy had lived in Paris at the same time that daddy did and how she loved the Jardin just as I did. In fact, I said, I could have easily passed mommy while strolling through the park and she ate her lunch without knowing that the girl that I just passed would one day be my wife and their mom. Everybody thought hard about that one.

Finally, we had to meet Katie, but first I wanted to walk by my old school, Reid Hall, nearby where I had spent my fall semester junior year in college in utter style, thanks to my very generous father, Big Ed. The kids were very interested in seeing where daddy went to school. I had no idea whether it would still be there after twenty years. The neighborhood had changed markedly, but my favorite Italian restaurant where I would order a pizza margherita, green salad and seltzer water was still there.

The school was there and had not changed at all. I walked into the courtyard and explained to the guard that I had studied there ten years ago. Katie later reminded me that it had been twenty years.

The kids loved it and I did too. There was the same lovely courtyard with a small leafy park. The same creaky stairs and hallway to my classroom that overlooked the courtyard through floor to ceiling window panes covered with wooden louvers.

Kiki asked to see my ‘cubby’. I showed her my mailbox.

And then we left, my head swirling with memories of that time.