Paris street art

We've done a lot of walking, here in Paris with the kids, and their stamina has exceeded expectations. One of my favorite things about this city is that the walk itself is often better than the actual destination, and so we've tried to make these strolls entertaining for the girls so they don't notice their feet getting weary. One of the little games we've been playing is "spot the street art". The girls noticed some of these on their own, as well as asking me to translate some of the ubiquitous scrawled messages on walls (which is sometimes better not done). 

 

 

It's hard to believe this great trip is coming to an end and that tomorrow we head back to Brooklyn. We're frantically throwing things into suitcases right now, but as soon as we're re-settled I plan on compiling our "best of" from the trip.

Musée de la Poupée

Each morning in Paris, no matter what we have announced our plans for the day to be, the girls have asked "So when can we go to the doll museum?" This morning, to their delight, we announced that the plan was to go to the Musée de la Poupée. The museum is tucked back in a sweet little alleyway amid the madness of Beaubourg, near the Centre Pompidou (modern art museum), next to a little garden in honor of Anne Frank (4th arrondissement). The girls loved it. It's a must do for any kids who are doll lovers, and kind of fascinating from an adult perspective to see the toy trends throughout the years. And, though I'm not sure any irony was intended on the part of the museum's curators, my mom and I were helpless with laughter much of the time. These pictures speak for themselves – no captions necessary. 

 

Musée de la Poupée: Impasse Berthaud, Paris 3e (open Tues.-Sat. 10-6)

The museum is tiny and doesn't take much time; you can easily add it on to a trip to Beaubourg or the Marais. We began here and then moved on to the Pompidou, where we ate lunch at Georges on the top floor, with a magnificent view and pricey but tasty food (the girls happily split a pasta dish and sipped their Oranginas). We breezed through the museum afterwards, then strolled through les Halles and up the Rue Montorgeuil, a market street around the corner from where I lived, years ago. Much has changed in 15 years, some not a bit. We stopped for pastries at the ancient Patisserie Stohrer at #51, and picked out some of the older storefronts among the modern chain shops.

Deyrolle

It has been raining for much of the time we've been here – a lazy, benign rain that we can't seem to take too seriously, in spite of the spectacularly crappy umbrellas we bought yesterday near the Hotel de Ville. Somehow Paris just seems right this way in April, and somehow the drizzle hasn't stopped us from walking everywhere, with perpetually soggy cuffs. Today after the 6-year-old and I made our morning pastry run we all headed east, with the intention of spending some time at the Musée D'Orsay. But on the way there we made a stop at Deyrolle on Rue du Bac and fell into a rabbit hole that spirited us away for much of the day and derailed our museum plans (OK, I admit the lost time also had something to do with shopping).

I'd wager that there's no shop quite like this "cabinet de curiosités" anywhere on earth, and it may rank up there with my kids' top Paris memories so far. Part natural history museum, part nature lovers' boutique, part gardening shop, much of Deyrolle's charm is in its whimsical styling. There's always a fetching arrangement in the front window, and inside, beasts of all sorts (preserved ones, of course) lounge together in the rooms of the old building. In display cases insects of impossible colors are arranged like precious jewelry. The store has been around since 1831 but nearly burned down in 2008; the photos from the fire's aftermath are almost too heartbreaking to look at, but the boutique has been restored to its current glory.

The children – and adults, I might add – pored over all these treasures for the better part of an hour. There's also a good little book section with prints and natural guides. I couldn't resist picking up a copy of Lecons de Choses, pictured at left. At first it just seems to be a bound set of gorgeous French botanical plates, but then there's an odd little section near the back entitled "La vie domestique" (the domestic life). In it you'll find illustrations of the perils that await you under your own roof (for example: "curiosity is always punished" shows a child overturning scalding liquid from a stove onto himself). Look further and you'll find a good-sized section on the horrors of alcoholism. 

Deyrolle enchanted us on this rainy day and the book kept the kids entertained later, as we waited for lunch at Café Varenne.

 

Apparently there was once a temperance movement in France…