October 5, 2015

    Praise Jesus. The kids slept through the night! The rain held off long enough for us to explore the Jardin des Plantes this morning and when it did start pouring, we were warm and dry inside the Grande Galerie de l’Evolution. We spent the afternoon with some really old taxidermied animals. The collection includes Louis XV’s Royal Rhinoceros, the first big animal to be taxidermied here in the 18th century, and the world’s only stuffed and preserved giant squid! I don’t why I didn’t take a photo of that stuffed cephalopod. A friend of ours is a squid aficionado and I’m sure he would have enjoyed seeing it.

After a full day out and about, the boys were pretty exhausted so we returned home to rest. Rhône passed out in his room and Rocky could barely keep his eyes open as he ate a snack. He was wearing my dark red headband to keep his hair out of his eyes and the sight of him nodding off while looking sort of like Sylvester Stallone in Rambo made me chuckle. He finally succumbed to sleep and I moved him to his bed, tossing a pile of pillows on the floor next to him in case he rolled off. (He didn’t.)

Rhône woke up first. We flipped through the TV channels and we found a cartoon in French about a detached derrière. The title of the cartoon was “The Day My Butt Went Crazy.” Rhône declared that the show was full of potty words and asked to watch something else. Wow, I was not expecting that. We found something suitable and then I popped out to get groceries. We had eaten lunch at a brasserie near the Jardin des Plantes and were still feeling full so we decided a light dinner prepared at home was the best way to celebrate Jonas’ 40th birthday.

I found an amazing pâtisserie on the same street as our apartment and picked out a few special desserts for the evening: a lemon tart, a pistachio and cherry tart and a delectable gâteau au chocolat. They looked almost too pretty to eat, but eat them we did! Those treats were sweet but not as sweet as my hubby. When we had a moment to ourselves, after the boys had gone to bed, I made sure to tell him, “Je t’aime plus qu’hier, moins que demain.” He knows just enough French to understand what I’m saying. And I wear a necklace with that phrase printed on a medallion just in case he ever forgets!

If you would like to taste the amazing pastries above and/or other delights, visit Aux Pechés Normands at 9, Rue Faubourg du Temple, 75010 PARIS. 01 42 08 47 73.