Today was a pretty straighforward day. Lionel went out in the morning to get us water, yogurt, fruit and pastries, a mix of our regular breakfast at home, and some Parisian favorites. After we ate breakfast and got dressed, we briefly stopped by his uncle's house to say hi to everybody and get the directions to his grandma's house - as he no longer remembered since it had been 5 years since we last were there. We then headed to his Grandma's house to visit for a little while, so she could see Lionel and the girls. She had met Sofia when we came here last, and Sofia was only 2 and a half years old, but she had never seen Bella before, at least not face to face. It was nice to see that she did have pictures of all of us in her apartment, which I am assuming Lionel's parents gave to her throughout the years. She also had a lot of really old family pictures, and told us that if we liked any of them we were welcome to take them away as souvenirs. So we did. We took with us a picture I had never seen before of Monique feeding Lionel when he was a baby, with his brother standing right in front of Lionel making a cute face at him. That was probably the most vulnerable photo I have ever and will ever see of the three of them together, so we knew it was a keeper. We also met Lionel's other uncle and his wife, who I am assuming were staying with her. I took couple pictures of the girls with grandma, and I tried to talk to her with my [now] broken French, but then the girls - especially Bella - started to get bored and anxious. So we excused ourselves, told her we will see her tomorrow, and left.
After visiting Lionel's grandma, and grabbing a quick lunch, the girls were already tired. So we decided to come back to the apartment for some rest, after quickly stopping by to say hi at the restaurant where Lionel's parents were having lunch with Monique's brother. Of course that the "rest" really only consisted of the girls drawing, and fighting over the crayons and markers that we brought from home. I did sit down on the bed for a few minutes, which happened to be a bad move because then I started to get sleepy. So before I completely lost my energy, we got up and got going.
We walked from the apartment to Le Jardin de Tuileries, with a quick stop outside the Louvre to take couple pictures. It was really hot outside, so we even let the girls briefly put their feet in the fountains. At the gardens they had some kids activities, so we took the girls to couple trampolins to let them jump around and burn some energy. After that we had some ice cream, and I bought a hat from a street vendor. Lionel was annoyed that I didn't bargain because that is supposed to be part of the process, and most likely the guy gave me a higher price than he expected to get anyway, but I no longer enjoy bargaining - not from somebody for whom the price difference can, well, make a difference!
After the gardens we walked back to the apartment, and by WE I really mean Lionel, Sofia, and me. Bella was tired, so she only walked for a little bit and spent most of the way back glued to my hip. Couple streets before we arrived at the apartment Lionel and Bella kept walking, and Sofia and I went into couple stores where we bought couple t-shirts and some stuff for the shower. We were all filthy, especially our feet from walking in the gravel, so the girls and I took a shower right away. After that we headed out again to eat crepes with Lionel's family. Bella was obviously tired, so all things considered I think she did well, and it obviously helped that Lionel's uncle is patient and knows a thing or two about entertaining little ones. After dinner we walked for a few minutes, but we knew we couldn't linger too much. So we quickly said good bye and headed back to the apartment, this time around to stay in there for the rest of the day - or night.
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