We had a couple of heat waves this summer. Air conditioning is rare in homes, so we adjust as best we can, by strategically opening and closing shutters and windows, and sleeping downstairs. We do have ceiling fans in our house, which helps a bit, too.
Due to the heat wave, the 9th graders' end of middle school test (brevet de 3e) was put off a few days. That meant that the boys ended up having their last day of school June 24th, so their summer was a bit longer than usual this year.
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| We did not enjoy the heat wave, but Gala seemed to. |
The boys went to camp for two weeks in July, as usual. They had a great time, as shown by letters home like this one:
The day we picked them up from the train station in Paris was the hottest day of the summer (104°F - a rare occurrence around here, but a miserable one). Only cars with a Crit'Air sticker 0, 1, or 2 could drive into Paris, so we duly parked at an RER station and took the train in, only to be told at the Bourget station that there was a suspected fire and we had to get off the train, unless we wanted to return to our point of departure.
We had no option but to call a taxi to get us to the train station. That was no easy feat since taxis now use automatic voice response systems, which require an address, which we did not have. We finally figured it out, close enough, and made it to the train station while the kids were still on the platform, since (fortunately) their train was late.
Thinking we'd at least get to use our RER tickets to get back, we tried... only to be told that there was either a fire and / or a "technical incident" and no trains were running northward at all. Taxi again, all the way from the center of Paris back to where we parked our car.
130 € poorer and overheated, but happy to have the boys home.
The next day, at a mild 88°F, we went to Parc Astérix for the afternoon. We started out with a water ride to cool us down right off the bat. Nonetheless, we only managed to stick it out for about three hours. Still, since the park tends to be much, much less crowded than Disneyland any day, and people didn't want to brave it right after the heat wave, we managed to ride six rides in three hours. Not bad!
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| The boys picked their cross-stitch back up this summer. |
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| After 12 years, it was time for the swingset to come down. Noah handled it almost all by himself. |
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| And the rotting garden shed also had to go. Noah took care of that, too! |
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| Then Noah started repurposing the wood to make his own cabin. He let Benjamin help. |
