Surviving Patrimoine with Children

Last weekend: les Journées de Patrimoine. This weekend: la Fête des Jardins. And here is the lesson learned: Forget maximing visits. Forget mapping out the best routes. Each day we pick one big thing that seems as interactive and kid-friendly as possible, that happens to be within walking distance, and the rest of the day is education-free.

 

Our first patrimoine day, we visit the grounds of la Garde Républicaine (the Guard of the Republic), which just happens to be across a bridge from our island, towards the Bastille. At first, we walk into a museum of the history of the Guard's uniforms, and the girls give me the stink eye. But then we are allowed to wander off freely, by the outdoor track and into the stables, and I am forgiven. The highlight is petting the horses and feeding them sugar cubes.

 

 

 

 

Watching the dressage practice is also mesmerizing, and we all agree that it beats watching the official horse show at Versailles. The only thing that would have improved the dressage demonstration is if they had been wearing some of the fancy costumes we just found so boring.

 

 

 

 

We also see a horse being shod. (I tell this to a friend, who hears "horse being shot" and wonders how that could possibly be family-appropriate)

 

 

 

 

Then, after dropping the girls off, I go out by myself to see a local 16th century building, said to be the former residence of Marie Touchet. There is a long wait, a longer lecture that includes an even longer list of French royalty and their wives and mistresses, and then a tiny courtyard with very old colombage, mullion windows, and century-old shutters. Thank goodness the girls aren't with me.

 

 

The second day of patrimoine is the day we visit the college des Bernardins and see the beehives. But outside the building, they also have a demonstration of stone cutting. Using the same simple tools used throughout the ages, the girls chisel and saw away at limestone. This is their second time cutting stone, and each time they marvel at how Notre Dame -- and, frankly, the rest of medieval Paris -- could possibly have been built.
 

  

La Fête des Jardins -- a weekend where certain gardens have special activities and some normally hidden gardens are open to the public --  sees us at the Jadin du Clos des Blancs-Manteaux in the Marais, conveniently located near excellent take-out falafel. Once there, we spend a couple hours using recycled materials to make plant-holders. And we get to choose our own little plants. Pippa takes sage, Gigi takes mint, and I take a long creeper of purple green beans. Given my track record with plants, this shows great optimism on our part.