Well, actually we were six.
But they were only five to start with. The Mother Superior, the Laughing Buddha, the BW, Button and Schmoo had already been in Paris for a few days when the PO arrived early on the Sunday morning - and I mean early : it wasn't even nine o'clock when my taxi arrived in the centre of the city, only to discover that there was no direct route open to my hotel, as the Paris Marathon was about to start. By the time I reached the rue de Rivoli on foot, the race was under way, and I spent the next half an hour standing on the other side of the road from the hotel in which the BW and co. were staying, waiting for twenty thousand or so French men and women to run past.
Eventually, I spotted a gap and made a dramatic run for it, almost knocking over a large banana on the way. At least I think it was a large banana, though on reflection it might have been a man wearing a banana costume. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to stop and check, as I was already late for breakfast. So I guess I'll never know for sure.
As it turned out, this close encounter with a giant fruit was not to be my only surreal experience of the day. The next came a few minutes later when an elderly German gentleman, clearly a little befuddled, came over to the table where we were breakfasting and, much to the bemusement of the Mother Superior and Laughing Buddha, commented approvingly on the angelic behaviour of the BW, Button and Schmoo. "Ve don't hef children like zis in Deutschland," he said - or something along those lines, at least - wiping what might have been a tear from his eye.
Having eaten our fill of twisted pastry things with bits of chocolate in them, we set off for a stroll in the Parc des Tuileries, where an obligatory stop in the playground was made and Button and Schmoo got to ride in a giant teacup on the Merry-Go-Round (the BW surprisingly showed little interest in joining them, despite being an MGR addict in a former life).
After another stop in the Place de la Concorde, this time for ice-creams (the PO preferred a waffle doused in thick chocolate sauce) we headed for the Musée d'Orsay, Schmoo taking the opportunity on the way to demonstrate his potential as a future Bulgarian secret agent...
At the Musée d'Orsay, we took in the ground floor, before heading up to see, amongst others, the Toulouse-Lautrecs, the Cézannes and Van Goghs (the BW and Button showing impressive ability in ones so young to recognize the styles of individual artists), and back down to the "Seurat to Klee" special exhibition, followed by a well-deserved lunch in the restaurant behind the clock.
A final visit to the playground in the Parc des Tuileries on the way back, the highlight of which was undoubtedly Button demonstrating her tenacity/stubborn streak by succeeding in scaling the silver dome after innumerable attempts, and the day was over... The PO, for one, did not see the time pass.
Thank you, all of you, for a perfect Parisian experience.
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