Haircuts and stuff

I explained to Rachel today that we are having an unusual visit to Paris. We are seeing how a neighborhood works, like getting to know our bakery and ice cream shop and little bistros, but also dropping in on the tourist things. Rachel was commenting that when you see pictures of a city you see the big things but you don't normally see all the buildings and none of the ugly things. And we've stepped over some pretty ugly things. The human miasma of a city. I've also tried to express my great love for the thrum - I turned to Joshua on the metro and told him that sometimes I have to pretend I'm just one cell in the bloodstream of a giant human circulatory system. Perhaps that's one reason our transactions take so long here - people make an effort to humanize them whether it's buying bread or getting a haircut. The kids came with me to the photo lab yesterday - 11 stops on the metro but no line change...and boring as hell to them but perhaps a little insight into the day life of the adult world. They also were able to go swimming!

So yeah the kids got haircuts yesterday, and mine is in a hour. And the tourist part? Besides eating at MacDonald's on the Champs Elysee yesterday (a very different experience than the drive through in Monteagle!!) we went inside Notre Dame, left a candle for Jeanne d'Arc, ate a citron crepe and then climbed the steps up to the belltower. I hate, btw, heights of any sort. Our 4th floor apartment view makes me dizzy. I got through the whole claustrophobic thing with the mantra, "I love my children, I love my children..." of course the reward is that stunning view of Paris with the gargoyles standing guard...