Give me some green

Day 8 in Paris! To tell you the truth, I feel like I've been here for much longer, though my French does not reflect that feeling in the least. Of course, in God's humor, the first place I go abroad would be to a country whose language I have absolutely NO previous exposure to. (Hebrew in Israel? Spanish in Spain? English in the UK? Nope, nope, and nope.) Let's just say I'm constantly humbled by my lack of language skills here in the grand old city of Paris. 

Today was one of the highlights of my stay so far because we went outside Paris! We took the last stop of the metro to the Chateau de Vincennes and then ate lunch in the humongous park/forest right outside the castle, the Bois de Vincennes. I'm realizing more and more that while monuments, churches, museums, and boulevards are beautiful, birds, trees, lakes, and flowers never get old. I don't know how much of that is because of my childhood experiences of growing up with a woods in my backyard or mountains visible from every place in town, but the grey and browns of manmade structures were becoming exhausting. This longing for wide open spaces combined with the sun actually shining today (!) made today's stroll to the Bois de Vincennes and spontaneous boat ride such a blessing!