Caroline Grant's Blog, page 5

Tate Modern + London Transport Museum = A Day without Whining!

Maybe it was the Tube ride, the first since we arrived in London three days ago (why did we wait so long?!). Or maybe after almost two weeks away from home we've all finally figured out the rhythm of outing-downtime-outing. In many ways, our day didn't seem any more or less ambitious, any more or less scheduled than any other day, but this is the one day that kept everybody happy all day long: no whining, no sniping, no dragging.

First stop, the Tate Modern, which offers kids' activities on Sunda

Greenwich Mean (Whine and Complain) Time

You can get to know a place by climbing a tall thing (or riding one) and looking down, by visiting the grocery store, or by taking a boat ride. In Paris, we rode the Batobus; in London, we rode a boat down the river to Greenwich to visit the Royal Observatory. The boys sat a table drawing elaborate diagrams of imaginary subway systems, while Tony and I enjoyed the ride and took some pictures of sights we'll visit another time:

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There's no way to capture how beautiful Greenwich was on this day -- o

Book Review: Real Life & Liars

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We interrupt this vacation blogging again to address what I read on my vacation, which started with the fabulous Real Life & Liars, the first novel by Literary Mama's fiction co-editor, Kristina Riggle.

I'm in the happy position now that a good portion of my bookshelf is filled with books written by women I know and like. I suppose there could be some anxiety in this -- what if I don't like the book as much as the writer? -- but so far I haven't been disappointed. Still, many of those books devel

Mama at the Movies; Away We Go

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We interrupt this vacation blogging to announce that the latest Mama at the Movies column is now up at Literary Mama:

In the grand tradition of summer buddy movies, Sam Mendes' new movie Away We Go presents a couple who take to the road. They're not running from the law like Thelma and Louise or Manny & Lo, nor simply exploring, like the guys in Sideways; like road trippers from Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz to Bree and Toby in Transamerica, Verona and Burt are trying to get home. The difference he

London!

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The London Eye may be a huge tourist trap, but when you visit an unfamiliar city, there are two ways to get to know it: visit the grocery store, and then get up as high as you can: the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Empire State Building in New York. (In San Francisco you only need a good hill, though we walk our house guests over to the de Young museum's tower). Here in London, we sail up high and back down again; the boys adore the ride. Our hotel room has a view of Big Ben, so the boys say good

The Last Day of Paris

I get Ben to choke down some Tylenol -- he's feverish and sore-throated, but he doesn't want to rest in the apartment any more than I do. We forge ahead to L'Orangerie to visit Monet's enormous water lily paintings, hung in their own two oval rooms. Oval skylights, covered with a linen shade to diffuse the sun, light the room; the effect is watery and beautiful.

Walking through the Tuileries gardens after we leave the museum makes La Villette make more sense -- the huge scale, the geometry -- La

One Perfect Day

Our friends' son slept over the night before our trip to Giverny, and I wake to the sound of the three boys, still in their beds, chatting about their stuffies' eating habits. It's a pleasant way to start the day. Eventually we rise and eat and make our way to the train station, meet up with our friends, and set off for Giverny.

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This stop has been on Ben's to-do list since last fall, when he first started to learn about Monet and the Impressionists. He painted many pictures of the Japanese footbr

Middle Days: Up and Down

Nobody is sleeping well, the adrenaline excitement which had powered us through the early jetlag days now having worn off. Ben and I both have sore throats, and he also complains of a stomach ache. He's draggy, not his usual self. But we're in Paris! We want to see things! So these are days of old and new, up and down.

First, we aim to return to places we enjoyed last year. We start here:

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The appeal for the boys is the funicular train ride up the hill. Last year, we didn't even go inside, but this

Paris Day Two: Father's Day

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It's the last day of the Paris Air Show, so although it seems a little wrong to go shopping with a friend while your husbands take the kids to look at airplanes (including Ben and Eli's Favorite Airplane Ever, the Airbus A380), the plan makes everybody happy. Plus, in the Marais neighborhood, my friend leads me falafel so good I am still (two weeks later) thinking about mine.

Later, we meet up outside the Pompidou, which has so much going on outside, I feel no need to take the kids inside to see

How to visit Paris with kids (not a guide)

Day one.

Plan to meet friends at the playground, an enormous one familiar from last year's visit. Hope to recreate the fun of the zip line, the train play structure, the bouncing bridge. Know that you're borrowing trouble; you shouldn't expect to recreate anything. Eye the clouds as you leave your apartment and wish for an umbrella. Get on the metro.

Exit the train twenty minutes later and stand in the station watching the rain pour down the gutter next to the stairs while your kids say, "Come on!