kenny's parisian adventure - day 6: combien pour le petit?
Saturday, May 10, 2008 – Paris
We woke up around 9:20am, feeling somewhat rested. I slept fine, but Overboard had another bad night’s sleep, and I hoped it wouldn’t translate to a grumpy Mommy. She tried to appeal to Kenny’s sense of pity and get him to sleep a bit longer, but he wasn’t having it.
After breakfast in the room (where Kenny showed his disinterest in what were truly delicious croissants), we managed to head out a touch after 10am. The morning’s destination was the Parc de la Villette and the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie on the outskirts of town. This was a two train Metro ride of decent length, but Kenny enjoyed himself, which meant that we did as well.
When we arrived at the final stop, Overboard made her usual, “This subway station smells like urine” face, but we somehow managed to soldier on.
Parc de la Villette is an enormous area, which is home to a giant science and industry museum. There is also a huge dome that looks like a cross between the “Bean” in Chicago and the giant golf ball at Epcot Center in Orlando. This interesting piece of architecture lead to a protracted conversation of what exactly constitutes a “geodesic dome” and just what said domes are good for.
It's the world's largest pinball!
Even though it was Saturday, a lot of things were closed, so we made do just wandering about admiring the scenery. Eventually, we wandered all the way past a large arts and cultural building and came out by an expansive lawn where a group of men were playing soccer. Kenny and I broke out his inflatable ball and played our own impromptu game while Overboard wandered off to find a map of the area at the info center.
Kenny is almost ready to play for the US National Soccer team. Sad, but true.
Upon her return, we strolled around the paths that wound in and out of the buildings, and even stopped at one point in a garden of mirrors for a bizarre family portrait.
We stumbled across dueling carousels and selected the Jules Verne-themed one, which featured objects from his stories, including a mini-Nautilus, hot air balloon, rocket ship and cars. Kenny was pretty pleased to pilot the “Petit Prince” bi-plane – which I figured out how to raise and lower by selecting the proper button on the plane’s instrument panel. Luckily for all involved, Kenny didn’t pitch a fit at the end of the ride, even when confronted with the horrible truth that he wouldn’t be able to go on it again.
Kenny can't fly solo until he gets his full pilot's license.
With lunchtime quickly approaching, we ventured into a “Quick” fast food restaurant, when it was established that they did indeed have highchairs.
The restaurant may be called “Quick,” but it was pretty damn chaotic and slow inside. I had plenty of time to try and decipher the menu before reaching the front of the line. In the meantime, Overboard took Kenny upstairs to grab a table while I waited amidst the teeming, hungry masses in search of a greasy meal to clog their arteries and satiate their appetites.
I ended up getting Overboard a salad, Kenny a “Magic Box” (think: Happy Meal) with chicken fingers, and some chicken fingers and “rustic” fries for myself. Throw in some drinks, convert from Euros to dollars, and the whole thing cost around $25. But was it enough food? Hardly. Did I order poorly? Am I that accustomed to huge portions? We discussed this at length, but it all came down to two important issues: 1) We were still hungry, and 2) There was no way in hell that I was going to wait in that line again.
On the upside, Kenny got some sort of Anime action figure in his Magic Box that I dubbed, “Spaceman Spiff” in honor of “Calvin and Hobbes.” This was Kenny’s first action figure and he was fairly tickled by it. Additionally, we co-opted Buzz Lightyear’s mantra of, “To infinity, and beyond!” for Spiff to cry out. This proved to be most humorous and popular.
After lunch we made a beeline for the Metro and got back to the hotel for naptime. Kenny passed out en route, so we got him down in his pack n’ play at the hotel without issue and I celebrated the achievement by getting Bo-Buns for Overboard and myself. We ate quietly in the corner of the room and agreed that Bo-Bun kicked Quick’s ass when it came to taste, value and hunger satisfying.
This time around, Overboard napped along with Kenny while I made my way back to the Paris St. Germain soccer store on the Champs-Elysées. PSG is the city’s home team, and looking for a cool souvenir, I nabbed a jersey for myself and a small bear in a PSG uniform for Kenny. They had a big bear in a uniform, but it was too pricy. Instead, I got a small one that had a suction cup attachment and is actually meant to be displayed in the car. However, a quick snip of the cords, et voila, a teddy bear for the boy. Our clever name for the new bear? "Soccer Bear."
The store was super busy, but it must have been filled with other tourist-types like myself, because I was later informed by Michelle that PSG is, in fact, terrible. For the past few seasons they’ve been stinking up the joint, and were even about to be demoted a division for their non-winning ways. So, basically, I just bought the equivalent of a Kansas City Royals jersey. Oh well.
After naptime, we all showered and cleaned up in preparation of our big dinner out with everyone. Overboard wisely decided that we should try feeding Kenny dinner before he was placed in a distraction-filled environment, so she went down to the kitchen to whip up some pasta and sauce while we played in the room.
The early dinner was fairly successful, although Kenny didn’t care much for the eggs, even when carefully hidden amongst the pasta. On the plus side, he did eat a bit, which made it less likely that his parents would get all uptight when he decided to play instead of eat later on.
On the ride out to the restaurant, Michelle and I discussed PSG, which led to larger discussions of the problems at soccer matches these days – especially in Italy, France and England – in regards to violence and racism. It’s pretty unbelievable what is taking place (racist chants, banners, riots, etc.). I explained that even with the pervasive undercurrent of racism in the US, for people to do such things at a major US sporting event was unimaginable.
I remember watching an excellent piece on HBO’s “Real Sports” that dealt with this issue, and specifically what famous players like Thierry Henry were trying to do about it.
Dinnner was at an incredible restaurant near the Bois de Boulonge called Le Relais de Saint Cucufa. I’m pretty sure it was a converted home, which had a magnificent garden in the back.
In typical French fashion, the owners greeted us at the door with their big, sweet black Labrador, who we were told, had bad ears. He was very cute and Kenny approved whole-heartedly.
All of the Ferrics and the Clissons were there, and Kenny immediately went to play with the boys in the garden. The boys were even more excited when I produced Kenny’s inflatable beach ball. Hugo and Theo began playing volleyball, with an enamored Mr. K standing precariously in between them. Occasionally, they even let him take a swat or two at the ball.
Kenny and his French posse.
While the original plan was to have the boys watch Kenny, this wasn’t entirely practical. The younger three boys wanted to play hide and go seek, while the older two wanted to play volleyball and send text messages. This wasn’t a big deal, but it wasn’t very safe, since if you took your eyes off Kenny for a second, he’d make a break for the open door to the kitchen or down the steep staircase. So Overboard and I took turns hanging out in the garden and all was swell.
After awhile, Kenny came wandering back inside and snacked a bit. When he became restless again, Michelle commandeered him and his stroller and went out for a walk. I joked with everyone that I wasn’t worried about Michelle wandering through the notorious Bois de Boulogne after dark, but rather for anyone who was foolish enough to mess with Michelle.
The meal itself was outstanding. We started with champagne (of course) and various amuse bouches. This was followed by a crab salad (and a slight variation with fish for Overboard) and a main course of roasted lamb with mushrooms and potatoes.
During dinner, Laurent entertained his boys by recounting a story from when I had come to visit back when I was around 12 years old. Laurent and his best friends Fabian and Dominic had taken me out for a drive and ended up cruising through the Bois de Boulogne. Spying a prostitute or three standing on a corner, they slowed down, rolled down the passenger window and yelled out “Combien pour le petit?” (“How much for the little one?”) before speeding away, laughing hysterically. This garnered much mirth from the table and an amused raised eyebrow from Overboard.
When Michelle finally made her way back, Kenny wasn’t asleep, but he was very mellow and content. The boys took this as a great challenge and proceeded to wind him up again with energetic bouts of “Where’s Kenny?” and by playing with his toys in the rowdiest fashion imaginable. Our son was all too happy to scream along with glee.
The newest toy craze in France? "Wind-Me-Up Kenny!"
I began to protest about the boys’ desire to see how crazed they could get the boy, but instead resigned myself to eat the various desserts and chalk it up to “being on vacation.”
After dinner, I invoked “Grandma Jackie” and took a series of portraits. Hugo proved to be the quintessential moody teenager, and didn’t want to smile, or even feign enjoyment or interest in an activity that didn’t appeal to him. I called him out in front of everyone and asked him to smile and “pretend you won something,” to no avail.
Hugo being Hugo.
Everyone else was in the smiling mood, however, especially Kenny, who clamored to get into every picture and mug for the camera.
Kenny poses with his extended French family/fan club.
The Rolnicks and the Ferrics host an international summit.
Introducing the fifth Clisson: Kénny
Once again, Kenny opted not to sleep on the ride back to the hotel, and we all finally collapsed in a heap around midnight.
We woke up around 9:20am, feeling somewhat rested. I slept fine, but Overboard had another bad night’s sleep, and I hoped it wouldn’t translate to a grumpy Mommy. She tried to appeal to Kenny’s sense of pity and get him to sleep a bit longer, but he wasn’t having it.
After breakfast in the room (where Kenny showed his disinterest in what were truly delicious croissants), we managed to head out a touch after 10am. The morning’s destination was the Parc de la Villette and the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie on the outskirts of town. This was a two train Metro ride of decent length, but Kenny enjoyed himself, which meant that we did as well.
When we arrived at the final stop, Overboard made her usual, “This subway station smells like urine” face, but we somehow managed to soldier on.
Parc de la Villette is an enormous area, which is home to a giant science and industry museum. There is also a huge dome that looks like a cross between the “Bean” in Chicago and the giant golf ball at Epcot Center in Orlando. This interesting piece of architecture lead to a protracted conversation of what exactly constitutes a “geodesic dome” and just what said domes are good for.
It's the world's largest pinball!
Even though it was Saturday, a lot of things were closed, so we made do just wandering about admiring the scenery. Eventually, we wandered all the way past a large arts and cultural building and came out by an expansive lawn where a group of men were playing soccer. Kenny and I broke out his inflatable ball and played our own impromptu game while Overboard wandered off to find a map of the area at the info center.
Kenny is almost ready to play for the US National Soccer team. Sad, but true.
Upon her return, we strolled around the paths that wound in and out of the buildings, and even stopped at one point in a garden of mirrors for a bizarre family portrait.
We stumbled across dueling carousels and selected the Jules Verne-themed one, which featured objects from his stories, including a mini-Nautilus, hot air balloon, rocket ship and cars. Kenny was pretty pleased to pilot the “Petit Prince” bi-plane – which I figured out how to raise and lower by selecting the proper button on the plane’s instrument panel. Luckily for all involved, Kenny didn’t pitch a fit at the end of the ride, even when confronted with the horrible truth that he wouldn’t be able to go on it again.
Kenny can't fly solo until he gets his full pilot's license.
With lunchtime quickly approaching, we ventured into a “Quick” fast food restaurant, when it was established that they did indeed have highchairs.
The restaurant may be called “Quick,” but it was pretty damn chaotic and slow inside. I had plenty of time to try and decipher the menu before reaching the front of the line. In the meantime, Overboard took Kenny upstairs to grab a table while I waited amidst the teeming, hungry masses in search of a greasy meal to clog their arteries and satiate their appetites.
I ended up getting Overboard a salad, Kenny a “Magic Box” (think: Happy Meal) with chicken fingers, and some chicken fingers and “rustic” fries for myself. Throw in some drinks, convert from Euros to dollars, and the whole thing cost around $25. But was it enough food? Hardly. Did I order poorly? Am I that accustomed to huge portions? We discussed this at length, but it all came down to two important issues: 1) We were still hungry, and 2) There was no way in hell that I was going to wait in that line again.
On the upside, Kenny got some sort of Anime action figure in his Magic Box that I dubbed, “Spaceman Spiff” in honor of “Calvin and Hobbes.” This was Kenny’s first action figure and he was fairly tickled by it. Additionally, we co-opted Buzz Lightyear’s mantra of, “To infinity, and beyond!” for Spiff to cry out. This proved to be most humorous and popular.
After lunch we made a beeline for the Metro and got back to the hotel for naptime. Kenny passed out en route, so we got him down in his pack n’ play at the hotel without issue and I celebrated the achievement by getting Bo-Buns for Overboard and myself. We ate quietly in the corner of the room and agreed that Bo-Bun kicked Quick’s ass when it came to taste, value and hunger satisfying.
This time around, Overboard napped along with Kenny while I made my way back to the Paris St. Germain soccer store on the Champs-Elysées. PSG is the city’s home team, and looking for a cool souvenir, I nabbed a jersey for myself and a small bear in a PSG uniform for Kenny. They had a big bear in a uniform, but it was too pricy. Instead, I got a small one that had a suction cup attachment and is actually meant to be displayed in the car. However, a quick snip of the cords, et voila, a teddy bear for the boy. Our clever name for the new bear? "Soccer Bear."
The store was super busy, but it must have been filled with other tourist-types like myself, because I was later informed by Michelle that PSG is, in fact, terrible. For the past few seasons they’ve been stinking up the joint, and were even about to be demoted a division for their non-winning ways. So, basically, I just bought the equivalent of a Kansas City Royals jersey. Oh well.
After naptime, we all showered and cleaned up in preparation of our big dinner out with everyone. Overboard wisely decided that we should try feeding Kenny dinner before he was placed in a distraction-filled environment, so she went down to the kitchen to whip up some pasta and sauce while we played in the room.
The early dinner was fairly successful, although Kenny didn’t care much for the eggs, even when carefully hidden amongst the pasta. On the plus side, he did eat a bit, which made it less likely that his parents would get all uptight when he decided to play instead of eat later on.
On the ride out to the restaurant, Michelle and I discussed PSG, which led to larger discussions of the problems at soccer matches these days – especially in Italy, France and England – in regards to violence and racism. It’s pretty unbelievable what is taking place (racist chants, banners, riots, etc.). I explained that even with the pervasive undercurrent of racism in the US, for people to do such things at a major US sporting event was unimaginable.
I remember watching an excellent piece on HBO’s “Real Sports” that dealt with this issue, and specifically what famous players like Thierry Henry were trying to do about it.
Dinnner was at an incredible restaurant near the Bois de Boulonge called Le Relais de Saint Cucufa. I’m pretty sure it was a converted home, which had a magnificent garden in the back.
In typical French fashion, the owners greeted us at the door with their big, sweet black Labrador, who we were told, had bad ears. He was very cute and Kenny approved whole-heartedly.
All of the Ferrics and the Clissons were there, and Kenny immediately went to play with the boys in the garden. The boys were even more excited when I produced Kenny’s inflatable beach ball. Hugo and Theo began playing volleyball, with an enamored Mr. K standing precariously in between them. Occasionally, they even let him take a swat or two at the ball.
Kenny and his French posse.
While the original plan was to have the boys watch Kenny, this wasn’t entirely practical. The younger three boys wanted to play hide and go seek, while the older two wanted to play volleyball and send text messages. This wasn’t a big deal, but it wasn’t very safe, since if you took your eyes off Kenny for a second, he’d make a break for the open door to the kitchen or down the steep staircase. So Overboard and I took turns hanging out in the garden and all was swell.
After awhile, Kenny came wandering back inside and snacked a bit. When he became restless again, Michelle commandeered him and his stroller and went out for a walk. I joked with everyone that I wasn’t worried about Michelle wandering through the notorious Bois de Boulogne after dark, but rather for anyone who was foolish enough to mess with Michelle.
The meal itself was outstanding. We started with champagne (of course) and various amuse bouches. This was followed by a crab salad (and a slight variation with fish for Overboard) and a main course of roasted lamb with mushrooms and potatoes.
During dinner, Laurent entertained his boys by recounting a story from when I had come to visit back when I was around 12 years old. Laurent and his best friends Fabian and Dominic had taken me out for a drive and ended up cruising through the Bois de Boulogne. Spying a prostitute or three standing on a corner, they slowed down, rolled down the passenger window and yelled out “Combien pour le petit?” (“How much for the little one?”) before speeding away, laughing hysterically. This garnered much mirth from the table and an amused raised eyebrow from Overboard.
When Michelle finally made her way back, Kenny wasn’t asleep, but he was very mellow and content. The boys took this as a great challenge and proceeded to wind him up again with energetic bouts of “Where’s Kenny?” and by playing with his toys in the rowdiest fashion imaginable. Our son was all too happy to scream along with glee.
The newest toy craze in France? "Wind-Me-Up Kenny!"
I began to protest about the boys’ desire to see how crazed they could get the boy, but instead resigned myself to eat the various desserts and chalk it up to “being on vacation.”
After dinner, I invoked “Grandma Jackie” and took a series of portraits. Hugo proved to be the quintessential moody teenager, and didn’t want to smile, or even feign enjoyment or interest in an activity that didn’t appeal to him. I called him out in front of everyone and asked him to smile and “pretend you won something,” to no avail.
Hugo being Hugo.
Everyone else was in the smiling mood, however, especially Kenny, who clamored to get into every picture and mug for the camera.
Kenny poses with his extended French family/fan club.
The Rolnicks and the Ferrics host an international summit.
Introducing the fifth Clisson: Kénny
Once again, Kenny opted not to sleep on the ride back to the hotel, and we all finally collapsed in a heap around midnight.
posted by Dr. Overboard and Prof. Evenkeel at 8:30 AM
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