Bienvenue à Paris !

Happily camped out on my couch, I am currently hosting my parents in Paris. The arrived last Sunday morning bright and early after a sleepless night's travels. Proving themselves hardy travelers, seasoned bargain hunters, or maybe a bit of each, they rallied after a short nap on my couch to take advantage of their well-timed arrival on the first Sunday of the month, when all of Paris's museums are free to the public. If you've got one day to do French museums, you've got to do it right, so they went straight for the Louvre. We survived the mid-summer tourist lines and even got a few solid hours to admire such classics as the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory, along with other more modern and lesser knows works, such as one I call "Girl who waited too long to take care of the laundry," pictured below.

A series of modern works by an artist named Michelangelo Pistoletto can be spotted scattered across the Louvre

A second Pistoletto sighting: "Love Differences" written in neon in many languages across the old moat from a former castle that once stood in what is now the underground foundations of the Louvre

My Dad and I aren't always the most reverent museum-goers.

On Tuesday, luck struck: one of the students scheduled to go on my PhD program-sponsored trip to the ballet canceled last minute. None of the other students not already planning to attend were interested, so I snagged it for my mom and me to enjoy a girls' night at the ballet in a little old place (at least, with little old seats!) called the Opéra Garnier.

Mom and me at the Opéra Garnier for a performance of one of the oldest surviving ballets, The Sylph. The ceiling in the opera was painted by none other than Chagall. I love that the French let such a modern artist touch such a classical building.

My parents earned their keep when a Wednesday "morning" bookshelf installation ate a solid day of their stay. Luckily, they had a sense of humor about it and we washed off the day with a dip in my pool and a night-time boat ride along the Seine.

The artist (aka mon père) and his finished work. Hanging this bookshelf in my concrete walls was no small task.

My parents spent their evenings this week spoiling me to restaurant dinner after restaurant dinner. My best vegetarian intentions were laid aside as most French restaurants interpret vegetarian as including only fish or white meat, with maybe a sprinkling of bacon bits (lardons as the French would say). We discovered a new gem right in my neighborhood, the Tasco Café, 2 Rue de Cronstadt, 75015, where the magret de canard (classic French duck dish) cooked in honey sauce was exquisite and the most expensive dish on the menu topped at 15 or 16€. No wonder the little neighborhood joint was completely packed! (And since this is France, it came with the requisite restaurant dog.)

I spent the week generally working, if at somewhat reduced hours, hence my lack of photos and stories from this past week. However, that's about to change: It so happens that I'm still waiting on the shipment of a laser critical to my next series of experiments, so I'll be taking advantage of the down time to spend the remaining part of my parents' trip to Paris with them. It's not every day (or month, or even year, sadly enough) that they make it across the ocean, so we may as well make the most of it.

Tomorrow's agenda: Off to Reims for the day to explore the capital of the Champagne region to do some tasting at the source and even brush up on our history. Reims is also famous for being the city of French coronations.