Great day, but long — we just got home, and it’s 11:00pm, so this will be brief.

Started out the day at the Musee D’Orsay, where we had a great guided tour of just six paintings or so — a really good introduction to Impressionism.  Had a good walk through the museum afterwards with a few kids until one of them decided to have a meltdown (largely related to teen angst and entitlement).  When I was able to look at the art, I particularly enjoyed the neo-impressionists (Cross, Signat).

Ate lunch outside on the steps — it was just barely warm enough — and then realized that we were late for our appointment at St. Chapelle.  So we walked really fast over to Ile de la Cite, only to find that the chapel was closed for lunch.  I took the kids over to see Notre Dame (from the outside only — the line was too long to get in), which was a nice break and included a chance for a quick iconography refresher.

Walked back to St. Chapelle, where we had a lovely time looking at the stories in the stained glass.

Walked over to Ile St. Louis, where we all had Bertillon ice cream.  Then we all wandered and shopped for half an hour.

Returned to school to drop off the kids (always a longer and more complicated process than we expect).  As we were leaving the Metro, one of the kids was stopped by a “control” officer checking tickets, and he had to pay 33 Euros for failing to have a photo on his Metro pass (which his French family had purchased for him).  It was both exciting and irritating to argue with a control officer entirely in French.

Stopped by an incredible patisserie on the way home — Aux Merveilleux de Fred — for these fantastic little cream and meringue delights.

Jenny and I went out to dinner all the way across town at Le Bistrot Paul Bert, which had simply incredible food.  She had whiting carpaccio and I had scallops (still in their perfect shells and a lot of butter) to start; then she had sole and I had hake with sauerkraut.  It sounds and looked simple, but it tasted fantastic.  She ended with an all-you-could-eat cheese board (they just left a board with eight cheeses at our table, but we were both so full that we could hardly eat anything), and I had a lime tart.  Definitely worth the 40-minute Metro ride, though we’re now both thoroughly exhausted.