So. At the end of Part one, my friend Clédo was standing at the foot of a pair of tall, wooden books, looking longingly up at a couple of preched Pontoon Pirates sitting pretty way up at the top. He never actually said so out loud, but we just knew that he really wanted to be up there with us! We could just sense it...
...'cause he tried...
...and he tried...
...and he did manage to climb up a much smaller wooden wall but that was somehow unsatisfying...
So he tried some more...
...and eventually, he got to the top of the smaller of the two books with Malcolm!
"Yeah, right, this is no big deal!"
But now for a new adventure! Getting DOWN again!
Malcolm first!(Hey, wait a minute! There's something wrong with that last sentence...)
"Made it!"Then we figured we'd better do something we could all do together :
the bookshelves.
(By the way, are those bluetiful shoes blue or green?)
Sitting on that bookshelf, I - Henry that is - suddenly just HAD to stop and read a Manga...But, as we were reading, something happened that really motivated Clédo to join Malcolm and me at the top...
...some other kids showed up! Malcolm was of course totally unintereseted in their arrival or in their attempts to scale the Monster book of Monsters!
Before we knew it- Et, hup! - Clédo was on top!
Miraculous, huh?
(Haiku On High)
No wonder those other kids never got up there!Look how clumsy they are!
And they kept going on and on about how they were only 10, as if that explained it!
"Yeah, right, this is no big deal!" 
We actually ended up playing with those kids and others like them for two and a half hours. First, we played poke-the-prisoners-with-walking-sticks-through-the-wooden-trampoline-like-structure and then, when Mom couldn't stand it anymore(she was sure someone was going to lose an eye), we played Chat on the wooden jungle gym - that's a cool French game which Mom say Americans call Tag. (But since we never seem to manage to play with American kids at the park the way we play with French kids in France, we can't be sure she's right... And you won't be able to judge either since Mom was too busy reading by that time and refused to take any more photos! Although, that's not entirely true...)When we left the kids' play area to see if we couldn't, at last, find the Consul Gen's garden party and, at last, have a snack, Mom got camera happy again.
But that is the stuff Part three will be made of!
What a glorious place. Really, really large books and bookshelves to climb upon. What a tribute to the written word. You've got to love the French. And the picture of Henry sitting on a bookshelf, leaning on a large book and reading a book, delightful.
ReplyDeletePart Two lives up to expectations, and those expectations were high.
Part Three... we shall see.
Oh, and I was very relieved to see that Clédo did make it to the top of the BIG book!
ReplyDeleteLove those fabulous book cases and books!!!
ReplyDeleteHurrah for the French who seem able to come up with a very creative and subtle idea to tempt young minds into connecting reading with physical agility.
And, yes, I expect the next installment about the Consul General's Garden Party to be again mind-blowingly SUPERLATIVE!