Farewell to summer

With school starting in two days, the weather has suddenly decided to get hot. Today was in the 90's, so for a last day of summer fun we headed to the Andre Citroen park. The highlight of this huge grassy park is the automated fountains, which shoot up randomly out of the ground and in which children are allowed to play (actually, there is a sign saying it is forbidden to play in the fountains, but try telling that to 200 Parisian children on a hot day!).

After the kids played in the fountains and we ate a picnic, we decided to splurge on the hot air balloon ride at the far end of the park. The ballon goes 150 meters in the air (it is teathered to the ground the whole time, for those of you who were starting to worry) and from it, on a clear day like today, you can see all of Paris. A highlight of this for me was that Parisian children get to ride the balloon for free. What thrilled me about this was not the 5 euros we saved, but the fact that with school enrollment forms to prove it, our children qualify as Parisian children! Unbelievable.

We ended the perfect end-of-summer day with handmade organic italian ice cream in incredibly rich fruit flavors bought from a pushcart in the park.