Paris North and South, Paris Gritty and Pretty

We saw two very different parts of Paris today within the course of a few hours.  Continuing the "Skateboard Paris" tour that seems to have been forced upon me, we had planned to take Andrew and Will to a very cool-looking, free facility called Espace Glisse Paris 18, a large, covered skatepark on the very north side of Paris.  Our original plan had been to take a train to a some green and wild park outside the city, but because it was raining this morning, and because Suzie and I thought we could drop the boys off and then have some time to ourselves, the stake park trip seemed a good Plan B.

So there were were on the Metro again, taking a long, long ride, from the very south part of Paris, to the very north, 40 minutes worth.  When we arrived at Porte de la Chapelle and got off the Metro, we found ourselves in the worst neighborhood we've seen so far, a gritty, dirty quarter dominated by public housing projects.  I quickly decided it was not feasible to let the boys stay there and come back on their own; any doubts about that were eliminated by the sight of barbed wire and black-shirted security guards at the Espace Glisse facility.  It wasn't so much that I thought it likely that anything would happen to them (or to us), but the fact was that if someone were to attempt anything, it was highly unlikely that any bystanders would come to our rescue.  So we decided to wait for the boys.

One saving grace was that the facility itself was staffed by friendly, helpful people, was amazingly clean and orderly, and had an espresso vending machine that provided real brewed lattes (albeit in small portions) for 50 euro cents.  This helped to soothe (a little) my disenchantment and spending yet another day focused on skateboarding, and not being able to have any time with Suzie.  (I later said that I was quite certain that I was the only American over the age of 50 to have ever been there, although there probably were one or two others before me.)



By this time, Suzie and I were both feeling completely urbaned-out.  We had woken up wanting to get out of the city, and let had spent our whole day getting to the worst part of Paris.  So after consulting our map, we decided to go to the Bois de Boulogne, the very large park on the western side of Paris, famous (in part) for its adult nocturnal activities.  This entailed yet another long Metro ride, but it was completely worth it.  By the time we got there, the skies were clearing as we emerged in a very nice part of the city, and proceeded to walk into a wild, green, relatively quiet natural space.  We even managed to ditch the kids for a while and have a few quiet moments to ourselves.





There was even this scene, two beautiful oak trees that seemed almost unnaturally similar to those back home in Sonoma County.



It is amazing what a difference the little bit of time we spent in the park made to us.  It was rejuvenating.  When we walked back to the Metro to return home, we were even able to appreciate the interesting entrance, which I'm sure we otherwise would not have noticed.



By the time we got home, we were tired of the Metro.  This map shows just how far apart all of the places we went today are from each other.

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Finally, this evening we had another treat.  Suzie and I had run in to one of the neighbors who lives in the apartment right next to us.  It turns out that they have (part time) two boys slightly younger than Will and Andrew, and so Suzie invited them over to our place in the hopes that it would give Will and Andrew an incentive to speak French.  They came over at 8, and were completely charming (as were their parents) -- talkative, engaging, and friendly.  They are leaving on vacation tomorrow, but hopefully after they return, they can help our boys to adjust to Paris.