Seriously, I am now grasping how horrible it probably was for all those people visiting Paris when it was 113 degrees. We seemed to miss all of the big "heat wave" temps we kept hearing about. We were off by sometimes just a couple of days, but we sidestepped any temperatures that were super hot. Seville was warm for sure, in the upper 80's but we knew that it would be hot, it's ALWAYS hot.
Today it was 92 degrees, and the humidity had to be super high, although I don't know what it actually was. We came from mild temps, so 92 with high humidity felt like a slap in the face. The five of us walked to the downtown, along the river which is beautiful (although the river itself is super muddy looking.). We are about a 15-20 minute walk from the main fountain at the center, near Place de la Bourse, in front of which is a huge reflecting pool/water feature where all the kids come to play. It rotates different things....this super fine water mist, trickling water, and this fine skim of water that creates a reflecting pool that refects the Place de la Bourse and the sky above. It's beautiful, and very festive. The round trip today was probably 8 miles of walking.
We walked into the center for a few hours, stopped at Starbucks because the kids always get excited to see it, and we found Romeo a rootbeer at some American candy store. He gets a little crazy looking for root beer, it's is favorite treat soda, and although he doesn't get it that often at home. because we don't actually eat out that often (and I never buy it), you'd think he was going thru withdrawal here. He likes to ask waiters if they have root beer and they look at him like he's crazy. Root beer is NOT a thing in Europe. Anyway, this particular candy store carried all things American. Fluffy marshmallow in a jar, pop rock withdrawals....this is your place. He was very happy.
At some point everyone was too tired and too hot. We passed a lot of restaurants but the menus were all, predictably, French which is not always the easiest to work with for the kids. Especially traditional French. It's an expensive city too, so it's one thing if you order a 9 euro meal and it's a bomb, it feels a little different if you order a 15 euro meal and it's a bomb, and kids do that all the time, take one bite and declare it's "disgusting." Plus everyone was eating outside in cute cafes, under umbrellas but still, it was way too hot to sit outside.
Basically, in a nut shell, we walked until everyone thought they were going to die of heat exhaustion, and then we walked home and the kids were so done that they didn't say a WORD the whole way home. That's how tired they were, too tired to even complain. We were minutes away from heat stroke.
After we got home we hit the grocery store, many times. There is a Carrefour Express half a block away from our apartment and we went there no less than 4 times for little things, and then more little things. I think the clerk thought we were crazy. It's not a very big store, so we were hard to miss--once again being the loud Americans. I made Romeo and I amazing tuna salads--he's my little salad lovin' kid. They were happy campers to eat at home and were even happier to have the AC cranked up. It's amazing how draining the heat can be.
Around 7:30-8:00 p.m. the sky clouded over quickly, and the heavens opened up and dumped more water than I thought was possible. The crazy part? It actually HAILED too. Huge ice balls, the size of a plump pea or bigger. It was so odd to be outside and feel it so warm, yet have ice falling from the sky. Surreal. An hour later it was clear and the streets dry.
Tomorrow is suppose to be a good 7 degrees cooler which will help, and we're hoping it will be bike riding weather because the kids are excited to bike along the river.
Signed, ME {lv}
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