Another day, another great playground, this time at le Jardin du Luxembourg. Today we chose it specifically because the boat rental man would be there. At this time of year he's there on the weekends, but during the week only on Wednesday when French schools are off. Kids can rent sailboats and special long sticks for pushing the boats out into the center of the pond to let the wind take them wherever. The fun is in the chase around to the other side to meet the boat, push it off in a different direction and chase around again. And fun it was for Ollie who kept it up for a double boat rental that was an hour long.
Then we stopped for a bit in the kids playground on the other side of the garden before our long stroll to marvel at the selections in la Grande Epicerie, the incredible food market that's part of the department store, le Bon Marche. On the way Ollie spotted an outdoor ice cream stand, so we came back by the same corner to get him a vanilla cone. With just a few bites gone and cone in hand he came around the next corner at exactly the same moment as a little girl on her scooter. He got brushed by the scooter as she passed, and was left still standing but holding only the bottom of the cone. The whole top half with all the ice cream was knocked to the ground. We'll be looking for another ice cream place tomorrow for a replacement, and maybe chairs to sit in while it's eaten.
Our final playground stop was back on rue des Ecoles, where Ollie still had plenty of running around energy and the rest of us could sit and watch. Late in the day like that it gets pretty crowded, but Ollie squeezed his way in to try everything. As we left for home, we saw a bedraggled Mom rushing to rescue her dinner baguette from a duel between her daughter and another young girl dressed in full white fencing regalia with screened mask and foil pointed. I fear the baguette would have been the loser. Photos as always.