Paris looks good in umbrellas

This week was rainy. But rain doesn’t stop the walking. So, we got pretty good at coming home stripping down, hanging our wet clothes on the heaters and then trapesing out all over again.

Normally I get frustrated by the rain. It feels dark, gloomy and makes me crave the sun. Paris, however, does seem to have some strange superpower to make even rain feel somewhat magical. Paris looks so good all decked out in umbrellas, with little girls in tiny goloshes and miniature pea-coats and lamplight reflecting in puddles on the street. I remarkably felt this way this week even when we all looked much more like drowned rats than something out of Singing in the Rain. 

Wednesday wasn't actually too rainy. So, we headed to the Jardin d'acclimatation with our wonderful friend Rosylyn. The jardin is an interesting mix between a park, petting zoo, menagerie, county fair and amusement park. We bought a couple ride tickets and the boys had a blast (ie. bumper cars, mini-log flume, etc). Gideon was so in love with this type of park that he has started praying in gratitude for "parks with fun rides." 

The rain really started in earnest on Thursday. Gideon, for one, was thrilled. He has been waiting for the perfect rainy day to proudly walk his spiderman umbrella to school. I have never seen someone so happy to walk in the rain. 

In between waterlogged marches up and down Avenue General de Gaulle, Pierce and I cleaned together, danced together and read together. When we all made it home the final time in the afternoon, we got into dry clothes and warmed up with a croissant and some hot chocolate. So cozy! 

On Friday we had another rainy day including once instance where a gentleman in our building tried to stop me from braving the downpour. He told me to "think about the children" and that it would be better to wait in the building’s entryway until the rain let up. Unfortunately, we were running late to school…So, bring on the downpour. In spite of the rain, I got to join Gideon for a school field trip. It was so fun. Our fieldtrip involved a half hour walk from the school to the library with 25 3 and 4 year olds.  It was fun to have Gideon be so thrilled to have me join him at school. It was fun to meet all his friends and have them tell me about how much they like "la police" "les dinosaurs" et "Spider man." It was fun to walk along with the other chaperones who spent a good chunk of the walk singing French nursery rhymes. 

That evening the rain let up a bit and we were able to head downtown to hand out some sack lunches to a few of Paris’ homeless. It was an incredibly uplifting experience for us as a family. It was a service activity that we could actually involve our boys in. Gideon went with Daddy to pick out the groceries, Pierce helped stuff lunch sacks, and both boys waved and helped hand out the meals. We rode the metro downtown and just picked a random spot to try. We then walked down the streets looking for people who might need a little pick me up. It was so nice to be able to really focus on these people as individuals. When we asked them if they could use something to eat, some of them thanked us, but said they already had something for the night. Others looked surprised and said, “yes please.” We watched as one father and son meticulously made their bed on the street for the night, their blanket pulled tight over whatever cushioning they had been able to find. It made me feel embarrassed by how many days my bed remains unmade. We then approached them and offered some food. They were overwhelmingly grateful. I just wanted to give them a big hug. There are certainly times where Paris can be tough in the rain. 

We easily handed out all the meals and wished we had more! But, when our hands were empty, we walked over to one of the ponts (bridges) downtown and bought a couple of roasted chestnuts from a street vendor. The chestnuts were wrapped all snuggly warm in the page of a book. We ate them and looked out over the river and beyond to the Eiffel Tower all lit up and twinkling like a giant Christmas tree.  

Saturday was, surprise, surprise, filled with more rain, but we headed over to the Rodin museum. We had fun exploring the beautiful building and looking at the incredible sculptures, but the boys quickly got hungry and Pierce just wanted to run. So, we decided to take a half-time in the gardens. Outside it wasn’t too rainy, but there were puddles everywhere. Some of them were rather large and rather muddy. The boys (especially Pierce) were delighted. They were wearing their rainboots and immediately began making their way from puddle to puddle stopping at each one for a few stomp, stomp stomps. All went well until Pierce sat down on a wet edge of the puddle. The damage wasn’t too bad, however, and we determined that we could recover from this. A few minutes later, however, tragedy struck when Pierce full on belly flopped into a large puddle at the foot of Rodin’s Gates of Hell. This one was going to be tough to bounce back from. But, much to Benjin’s credit, he encouraged us to try. He carried the now sopping wet Pierce back inside where we successfully finished our exploration of the upstairs without any security guard kicking us out for dripping water/mud on the floors.

From there we made our way back to the metro by way of a warm bread shop and a trek across the Jardin des Tuleries. The Jardin was covered with umbrellas bobbing up and down and wondering this way and that. This once again confirmed that Paris does in fact look fabulous in umbrellas.

Sunday we went to church where we were called to be temple prep teachers. We were asked to teach it in both French and Spanish. In many ways this feels like yet another downpour which we are ill-equipped to handle and yet, our bishop gave us such beautiful setting apart blessings that it just reminded us, oh yeah, we LOVE Paris in the rain!! Bring on the downpour! We are so excited to help teach our ward members about the blessings of the temple. 

Finally, Sunday evening was remarkably warm and sunny. We wandered through the Bois as the sun set....and as it turns out, we love Paris in the sunshine too.

Love, 

La famille Facer