Day 5: Chez Charli, Brussels Park Playground, & the Jazz Marathon

At 6 am, I woke with L laying next to me in bed, wide awake, and holding his new airlplane.

Since we were up early, today would be the day for fresh croissants and bread for the bakery!  I went .5 mile to Chez Charli, for the best bread the city has to offer.  All of the breads are home-baked in the shop with all organic, natural ingredients.  I got 4 pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants), 4 croissants, and 2 sticks of the 5 cereal bread.  I showed up just after the doors open at 7:30. 

I have to say, the city may be just as creepy at 7:15 am as it is at 10 pm. I passed some seriously creepy people to get to this bakery.  The things you will do for bread!

Was it worth it? Were the pain au chocolat divine? Yes, yes they totally, totally were.

But, poor Marcelle! I'm afraid we've ruined her. Her first chocolate is from a fine chocolatier in Brussels (Neuhaus) and her first pain au chocolate is from the best bakery in the city.  I mean, when you start with the best, where do you go from there? No chocolate or croissant will ever live up to her standards. 

After that little adventure, I decided I needed a day of rest for the first time in 7 days. It was the first day the kids woke at decent time, but I let them stay in their pj's and make a huge mess with all the toys in the apartment. 

G got home at noon, much earlier than expected. 

We ate in and finally left the apartment after naps at 3:30 or 4 for Parque de  Brussels.  It was great! 

There is a playground in the upper Northwest corner close to the corner of Rue de la Loi and Rue Royale. 

The park had multiple swings for different ages, a giant sandbox, teeter totter, multiples slides and play structures. The kids had a ball, and Louis made friends with a 4-year-old little Koren boy who spoke English fluently from watching English TV! 

The park was full of beautiful statues everywhere.

On the 10 minute walk home, we saw lots of neat things....

The park is next to the palace.

All of the architecture here is stunning.  We passed the Musical Instrument Musuem which is a really cool building.

Pretty gardens...

Looking down over the Garden at Monte des Artes and across the city.

This (below) was our little cozy corner behind our apartment where we at at Le Cap, Novo, and the "Bio" (organic) grocery store.  I could spend many nights in this little nook drinking a beer at a table on one of these terraces.

The we went home, ate, and played chocolate shop.

And finally, we dropped in for a bit of jaZ at the Grande Place. I really cannot think of a cooler venue to go hear music, surrounded by all these old beautiful buildings. If I had known about this jazz festival, we would NOT be leaving tomorrow. It goes on all weekend.  They have multiple outdoor venues and tons of indoor venues (like 70?), shuttles taking people all over the city, live music EVERYWHERE! This is like my dream - well, with a babysitter.  Saturday and Sunday, they have special events and performances for the kids. 

A pretty full day for resting and doing nothing. We are all packed up and headed to Paris tomorrow!