Doctor's appointment

This morning, while Dara took Ella to camp, Abe and Jonah explored the playgrounds along Blvd. Richard Lenoir and found the weekly market. It had the air of an Arab shouk, with fruit and vegetable stands, clothing stalls, and jewelry stands. We bought two French DVDs of cartoons for the kids. Then, the three of us went for a long walk along the Promenade Plantee, a 3/4 mile long elevated pathway passing over a series of viaducts. Although we didn't make it that far, one could walk from the Bastille to the Bois de Vincennes along this trail. Abe photographed all of the access nodes, and wished he had seen this site before he entered the design competition for the Highline (a similar structure they are planning to build in NYC). We walked to the Parc de Bercy, a fabulous park. Jonah spent quite a while talking to the ducks. Adjacent to the park is a nice outdoor shopping center, with lots of cafes, a great educational toy store, a fun pet store, etc. We did a little shopping and got a little book of "test your knowlegde" type questions for 5-year-olds in French - which are just about the right level for all of us!

We picked Ella up at camp and took both kids to the doctor. We had been told that the kids needed TB shots to attend school here. Apparently, the prevalence of TB is quite low and the vaccine is not terribly effective, but old habits die hard, I guess. The other downside to the TB vaccine is that once you get it, you will forever test positive for TB, which is a good thing here in France (because it means you've been vaccinated), but is obviously not a good thing in the US (because it means you have TB). I wonder how they find out if you really DO have TB here since the test is useless. So, we were unsure how to handle this latest obstacle. So, we met with the doctor. I won't give her name, as she was incredibly reasonable and helpful, which, I'm sure is enough to have your medical license revoked in France. I don't want to say anything incriminating, but sufiice it to say that our kids don't need to get the TB vaccine and the French authorities will be none the wiser. I think she was so willing to help us because Jonah demonstrated to her his best French phrase, "Je t'aime beaucoup." His charm is very hard to resist. Perhaps we'll make him our front man for all future interactions with French administrative officials.