ARROW - 113. Chapter 113

Morning seemed to come quickly. I knew I was tired and missing my bed partner guaranteed I didn’t get a good sleep. Dressed for the day, I headed to the boys room. They were still sleeping so I went to the dining room for my morning coffee. Colin’s mom was there by herself. Grabbing a coffee I went and sat down at her table.

“Good morning, Mom.”

“Did you talk to Colin last night?”

“Yes and so did the boys.”

“Did he tell you about taking John to the doctors?”

“Yes, they were going today.”

“I’m worried. Do you think I should go home?”

“Let’s wait until after his doctor appointment. Once we know what the diagnosis is, we can make a better decision. Colin said to tell you he’s playing a round of golf this afternoon.”

She laughed, “If he is playing golf, he must be okay.”

“Here come the boys and Marie. I’m surprised my Mom and Dad aren’t here.”

Laughing, they are herding the boys, look.”

As soon as they saw us, they headed in our direction. “Dad, can we go and get crepes again?”

“You really like them?”

“Yes.”

“Do you all feel like walking to that crepe cafe we ate at the other day?”

I was surprised my dad headed out of the dining room. “Mom, you will need to buy a crepe griddle.”

Mental note, Christmas list, Mom and Dad, crepe griddle.

The weather outside was cool, a normal early morning. The boys led the way.

“Dad, what are we going to do today?”

“We are going back to the the museum of Natural History. There are a few exhibits you haven’t seen.”

“Dad, we need another camera.”

I’ll tell Colin to buy them cameras like we have with a couple of flash drives. “Today, I’ll buy you another camera.”

“I’m taking the boys back to the Museum today. You can come with us or I can make arrangements for you all to visit the Eiffel Tower. Maybe you can have lunch there.”

“I might go museum hunting. There are a few that I haven’t seen.”

“Mom, Dad what would you like to do?”

“We’ll go with Mary.”

“Marie?”

“I’ll go with Mary also. In case she needs help with the language.”

I knew Marie’s choice was more to help them navigate Paris. There were several museums dedicated to various special interests.

“Let’s meet at that cafe next to the Louvre for dinner at 5.” I wanted to be back at the hotel by 7 in case Colin called.

Walking into the Museum, we headed to the exhibition on human evolution. I was hoping we could cover that exhibition in 4-5 hours, unlike the exhibition on Paleontology. There were two other exhibits that we could cover in a short period of time, the exhibition of mineralogy where they had a several crystals from around the world and the exhibition of Botany. I was hoping to make one final trip here before Colin returned, to the zoo. I knew that would take almost a whole day.

The exhibition of human evolution started with concept of man evolving from an ape type individual. Boys being boys, they started to walk as they thought an ape would walk. That didn’t last very long. I was proud of them, they fooled around a little but they stopped and read the inscriptions in front of each exhibit. I listen as they discussed what they saw in the present exhibit, focusing on the changes. Richie, Ronny and Tommy help Ivan to understand what was written in French at each exhibit.

We took a break after 4 hours of touring the exhibition. “Are you hungry?” Laughing at how silly that question was.

We left the Museum and headed for a small restaurant that catered to those who visited the Museum. I am alway amazed at how these boys acted. Sitting at a table, they had the menus, then they discussed what they would order. All four boys had to agree, as expected there was some take and give, but when the waiter came to take our order, Richie ordered for the boys. The waiter looked at me, I told him to bring what they ordered. I ordered a salad, I wasn’t hungry. I missed Colin.

Lunch with the boys is always interesting. They tasted the food as if they were gourmets judging the food and restaurant. When everyone was finished eating, “Have you rated this restaurant?”

“We don’t have a comparison. The food at the hotel was okay and breakfast at the crepe restaurant was okay.”

“You had the lunch at the Eiffel Tower.”

“You said it was a one star rated restaurant. This restaurant doesn’t compare.”

“Okay, would you come back?”

I watched as they thought and then discussed. “Dad, we would come back but not coming here just for the restaurant.”

“So, it is okay.” They nodded yes. I wonder what the future holds for them.

Entering the Museum we continued to view the exposition on human evolution. “Dad, what was the greatest impact on human development. They say the weather and the need for man to migrate.”

“Man always wanted to see new things. Look at us, here we are experiencing France, it’s food and it’s history. Let’s say it was one million years ago, and we came here. If we saw the climate was good and food was plenty, we would stay. Maybe our grandchildren might want to check out what is over the mountains, they would move. Slowly over the years, we would change.”

I could see their minds churning, as they thought about our trip. We will move on to Spain and they will see a different country and eat different food and then to Italy.

I was hoping to get away before they saw the signs for the zoological gardens. “Dad, what is that?”

“Tomorrow when we come back, we will check it out.”

“Dad, it is a zoo.”

“Yes, Richie, it is a zoo. Tomorrow you can compare it with the zoo back home.” Smiles all around.

Gathering all of the various pamphlets and their cameras, I hailed a taxi to take us to the cafe near the Louvre.

Arriving at the cafe, they saw the Grands and Marie, so they began to act like cave men. Clowns all four of them. Mom asked them what they did, they all started to tell them. Somehow out of the confusion of four boys all talking at once, the Grands understood we were at a museum.

“Tomorrow, we are going back to see their zoo.”

“Grandmother, Gram and Gramp, Marie you can come with us.” Tommy looked at them and there was no way they could say no.