Branching Out: Paris edition

 Paris has reopened it's Cafes! And we have been taking advantage.  The city has such a different feel and energy with restaurants reopening.  I'm feeling like I have finally arrived in Paris.  And I get to be one of the Ladies who Lunch again.

 Warning: Long Post with lots of pictures May 13th started Ascension weekend in France and we escaped to the region of Dordogne. The drive took a little longer than expected with traffic getting out of Paris but we were so ready to be out of our apartment.   With many closures still in place, our dinner on the road came from a pizza vending machine.  We stopped for gas and began looking for dinner.  The only thing we could see nearby was McDonalds and I was ademant that we wouldn't visit the Golden Arches twice in one day.  I saw a neon sign flashing "pizza" and thought it was a food truck.  To all of our surprise, it was a large vending machine that baked frozen pizza for you. It was surprisingly good pizza for a parking lot dinner. I found a really cute B&B with gorgeous grounds and chickens for the boys to chase.  A covid concession was pre-ordering our breakfast the night before and having it served to our table (instead of the usual break...

   Where has the time gone?  April was a blur of remote learning and a 2 week spring vacation where we couldn't go more than 10km from our apartment.  Many years I would have loved 2 weeks of spring break; one for travel and one for home, but two weeks when you can't go anywhere is too long. I got a birthday redo.  We did a picnic at Bercy park.  There was a build-your-own burrito place that wasn't too bad for Parisian mexican food.  We got to sit in the sun with a beer while the kids played then made our way to the skate park for some rollerblading practice.  Still say I get to stay 38 until I can properly celebrate.  It is a special geographic and date range line up that got two horrible quarantine birthdays. With two weeks of playing cruise director with boys that have way too much energy, we explored every park and playground possible.  The most well know park for kids in Paris is Luxembourg Gardens (Jardin du Luxembourg)....