(Sorry for the choppiness and grammar errors guys, so much to tell and so little time to get it all down!)
Our adventure began in Calgary. Jess, myself, and the kids jumped in the car at 7 am and started out on our long drive to Vancouver. It was a long day of driving, but the kids did amazing, and including all stops for bathroom breaks, gas, Jack's milk breaks, lunch at East Side Mario's in Salmon Arm and dinner in Chilliwack we made the drive in 13 hours which is great. The portable DVD player saved our butts and made the trip bearable for Julia. Although there was a little peep- "we are driving ALL DAY!" followed by a grumpy face when we were about 9 hours in! Not bad little miss, not bad at all. Jack can't resist the motion of a moving car, he would have protested more if he could have, but, must...keep...eyes....opennnnn-and-we're-out-again. Surprisingly both of them slept very well that night and woke up ready for action the next morning!
We had a couple nice days in Vancouver visiting friends and relaxing before we headed out on our journey to France. Our flight left at 12 noon, stopped in Calgary- thats right, stopped in Calgary adding an extra 1.5 hrs to our flight, and then continued on to Paris. Now I must say I was quite impressed with Air Transat. They were very helpful regarding the kids, and because I had pre-booked our seats we were lucky enough to score a bassinet for Jack to sleep in that sat in front of our seats. HUGE plus, definitely recommend if you have a baby under 24 lbs. Julia was content to colour, watch movies on her DVD player, read books, and play with her toys quietly. Jack was either eating or sleeping through 90% of the flight, but was happy to play with toys or be read to. He got a little restless at one point but once he fell asleep on Jon we popped him into the bassinet and he slept for a good 3/4 hour stretch. The meals were good, free wine with dinner and very attentive and friendly flight attendants. We were pleased.
12 hours later we arrived in Paris. We. were. tired. Because Air Transat is a charter airline we got off the plane right onto the tarmac, then took a bus to terminal 3, collected our luggage, proceeded to walk to terminal 2 through all sorts of craziness and obstacles to get to AVIS to pick up our rental car. By this time poor Julia was ready to lose her mind. She was tired (It was about 1 am Vancouver time by this point) and cranky and confused. The staff at AVIS were having a laid back day and it took us about 45 minutes waiting in a line to get helped and figure out where to go get our car. We got our car, a funky looking European style one which I was quite pleased about, who wants to go on a trip to France and rent a Chevy or Ford?! It was cool and had plenty of room for all of us and our luggage. We headed out into the absolute CRAZINESS of Paris. Lets have a quick recap. Jon, myself and (now totally TKO) kids in a little car, trying to understand our GPS (best idea ever, by the way) and going through round-about after round-about, missing turns, hearing "re-calculating" over and over again, Jon tired out of his mind, me getting frustrated with him...and then finally, somehow, peace becomes us and we're cruising down the highway- delirious and hungry- but making progress on our journey to Bergerac. It was a long drive, and we both took turns driving despite not having the car insured for me to drive (yikes!), but Jon was so tired, and we passed the 24 hour mark of being awake. The drive was stunning, we took the shorter route through the French countryside on the smaller roads and went through many beautiful small towns. It was a beautiful drive down. When we finally arrived in Bergerac we knew we had to keep the kids awake for a few hours, until at least 8 pm so they would get on somewhat of a schedule. This was a giant obstacle as we were completely exhausted, and getting to real delirium. We got the kids into their swimming suits and went right into the pool, well Jon did anyway! I watched. They splashed around and had a great ol time, after all they had just had a 6 hour nap! After the swim and a quick supper at a pasta place in the center of the town we were all ready for bed. Jack fell asleep first, followed by me, Jon and finally Julia. All I have to say is Thank you LORD for the portable DVD player. She watched a movie before getting bored and then proceeded to yell at Jon and I for a drink of water, this of course woke up Jack, and an angry Mom and Dad!! We seriously could not stand how tired we were, and now the baby is up crying, Julia is crying because we're mad, and we can't find the water bottles! Oh boy. When things settled down everyone went back to sleep and slept in until 8 am. It was craziness! The next day we woke up, checked out of the hotel, went to the bakery for breakfast and baguettes for the day and then on to the grocery store to pick up some things to make a lunch (A tip for saving money on trips overseas- bring a cooler! We brought an insulated zip-close cooler bag to take lunch with us on our day trips). We drove around and finally found a gorgeous spot along the river under some weeping willow trees to have a picnic and enjoy the day. It was very hot at 38 degrees that day! We enjoyed a lovely lunch and rest before we packed up the car and headed off to meet Jon's family at Grand Auque!
We were the first to arrive at Grand Auque, and it was truly breathtaking to see the property for the first time. It is a beautiful estate with everything you need to accomodate 25 people. The pool was so nice, the river ran right beside us- equipped with a little row boat, an entertainment building that included ping-pong, many toys for the kids, bicycles, etc. There was a nice treehouse surrounded by beautiful weeping willows. It was just so picturesque and had such a great character, complementing the Dordogne region perfectly. All of the houses were lovely, and all the bedrooms very tastefully furnished and decorated to suit the atmosphere of the property. When everyone arrived we all got settled and then had a nice dinner together. The rest of the week involved lounging by the pool, reading, watching the kids play, cooking (each family took a turn preparing a meal for everyone), eating only the most delicious food, enjoying fine French wine, little trips into surrounding villages and towns for a look around, the local markets and the meal shopping, lots of good company, and plenty of relaxing. It was such a lovely week. Julia is absolutely smitten with Jon's cousin's little girl- Daisy. She still speaks of her often and hopes to see her again very soon. She was also very happy to play with Daisy's brother, Cameron, and was totally won over by another cousin- Olivia! Jack had little Benjamin as a buddy and I'm sure the next time they see each other they will appreciate each others company! It all worked out so nicely and everyone had a great time! We were also lucky enough to take an afternoon to canoe the Dordogne river (without the kids), and I cannot express the beauty of the region. There were castles perched up high on the cliffs surrounding and they were just stunning.
It was a little bit sad to say goodbye to everyone after our week together was over, but it was time to begin the next part of our adventure! We drove to a town called Saint-Emilion for lunch and had a look around, splurged on a very nice bottle of wine from the nearby winery and then continued on to our destination, La Rochelle! We had a bit of trouble finding our gite as the address didn't make sense to our GPS, but I figured it out and we rolled in to heaven. I am truly not exaggerating. This restored farmhouse, pressoir (wine pressing room) and loft was gorgeous. The family who owns it lives on the property and restored it themselves, fixing it into 3 separate gites for rent, not including their own home, added a beautiful pool and an absolute dream for children. There was a trampoline, a wendy house (extravagant playhouse), swings, lots of toys, a pet bunny and guinea pig...I could go on! It was just fantastic. We had our own area for eating outside, a clothesline for drying clothes, a bbq, and our gite was perfect for us- 2 bedrooms, a kitchen/living room and a bathroom of course. I was in love as soon as I walked in! There were other children staying there for Julia to play with, and we hardly saw her while we were around the property! They were off playing make believe until the sun went down. We cooked ourselves delicious dinners, and enjoyed the lovely wines of the region after the kids went to bed. Our day trips from the gite were so much fun. The best beach I have ever visited in my life- Chatellion-Plage. A beautiful strip of beach with soft sand. I think it was definitely Jack's highlight of the trip. He just loved the sand and crawling around in the shallow water. He is our little beach bum! We went to the Aquarium at La Rochelle which is so much better than what I could have expected, they really pour money into their tourism in France! We had a nice dinner right in La Rochelle that same day and a stroll around the beautiful port city. It is such a unique and culture-rich city. I really fell in love with it. Another day we rented bikes in La Rochelle and rode across a huge bridge to an island called Il de Re. It was a great experience, although Jack didn't really seem to agree by the end of it. Yet another day we went to an ancient Roman town called Saintes, and then further on to a Neanterthal paleo site which was just FANTASTIC. I am so glad we decided to go because it was so rich with information and the presentation was amazing. Julia got a kick out of the people who looked like monkeys, and the next day while we were trying to turn around after getting off at the wrong exit she said, "Where we going? To see dead people or sompin?"When it was time to leave La Rochelle I was really sad to say goodbye. We had such a nice time there, and it was our first real vacation as a family since Jack was born. We had the time of our life that week, and will remember it forever!
We packed up the car and headed for Paris. The drive wasn't too bad, it was nice to chat while the kids slept and again we saw a different part of the country as we drove along. When we arrived in Paris we dropped our rental car off at CDG airport and quickly hurried off to check our big bag into a storage service (life saver, I don't think Paris metro would be possible if we'd had that big bag to lug around too!) We got that all set up and headed to the metro to go into the city. It was stressful, but we somehow made it to our hotel only to find out they were renovating, and didn't have a triple room as I had booked. They offered us 2 rooms for the price of our triple, and I just looked at the guy and pointed to my 10 month old and 3 year old. How the heck is that supposed to work? He gave me a key to check out the double and I went up to scope it out. If you have ever been to Paris you will know the hotel rooms are already ridiculously small and tight. This was that exact scenario, but what choice did we have? We took it, and it was tight, but we did save a lot of money downgrading to a double. We made a bed for Julia on the floor beside the bed, and they had a travel cot set up for Jack on the other side. That was pretty much the room, other than the bathroom! It was cozy, but it did the trick for what we needed which was just a place to sleep.
The next day was a toss up, we didn't know if the Louvre and Notre Dame would be a good idea with 2 kids in tow, the other option was Disney- but of course at a cost, a huge addition to what we had budgeted. We eventually figured it would cost us thousands of dollars to do a trip to Disney in California and yet here we were right in Paris and Euro Disney was right there, we would only have to pay for the admission. So off to Disney we went the next morning! It was a beautiful day, not too hot and not too cool, sun was shining and there were no clouds in sight. We took the metro there and it was super easy. It was very costly when we looked at the admission prices, but we had already prepared ourselves for that. As we were waiting in line to pay a woman approached us and told us she had extra tickets and needed the cash to spend for the day so we could buy them from her for a very low price. It seemed a little bit sketchy, but she agreed to let us pay once we were inside the park. She had an adult ticket and a child ticket so we would need to buy one adult at full price. Because of this generous lady we saved the admission of an adult which is huge!! That paid for us to have snacks and drinks, a big lunch, minnie ears for Julia and t-shirts for both kids. How perfect did that work out? When we got inside I think my inner child exploded out of me. I have been to Disneyland, when I was quite young, and although I remember some of it I clearly do not remember the full picture. It is heaven on earth. It is the happiest place in the world, the most fantastic, magical, fun experience- ever! I was in awe, and totally caught up in the joy and excitement. Julia was thrilled and couldn't believe it existed. The castle, the characters, the rides, everything. She could not believe her eyes! They had fantastic shows with music and dancing, the parade was soo great and the rides, my GOD the rides! My favourite was the Peter Pan ride, and then Pirates of the Carribean. Julia loved a Buzz Lightyear ride where you shoot lasers, I was with Jack and didn't go on that one....I cannot even explain how exciting the whole entire day was. It was an experience for sure, and I truly hope Julia will remember it even if we go to Disneyland or Disney World somewhere down the road. Even Jack went on a lot of rides and giggled and stared in amazement. Jon was the hero of the day, and the best Daddy in the world. He was buying Julia stuff left and right, carrying her around on his shoulders, hitting every ride with her, Julia is his princess and this was Disneyland! By the time we left that night we were all starving and tired and knew we still had to eat dinner. We went to a restaurant near our hotel and it was delicious, and then headed back to the hotel for much needed rest. It was such a fun filled day, the absolute best kind of fun.
The next morning we woke up, Jon and Jack went to get us breakfast, and then we checked out of our hotel, stored our bags and jumped on the metro to the Eiffel Tower. We walked around, stopped for lunch and a drink, and then went to get our bags and head towards the airport. We saw Granny, Pop, Mark and Phil at the airport and had a nice catch up and snack before getting on our 10 hour flight back to Vancouver. The kids were exceptionally well behaved again and slept through most of the flight, all of us slept actually. We had no bassinet for Jack this time, and he slept on Jon with no issues at all. He is such a good little boy. When we arrived in Vancouver we were all tired and ready for a good rest after such a big trip. It was our first real family vacation and it was a huge success. We had the time of our lives!
I think back to our adventure and it makes me wish we were back in France playing in the ocean together, eating fresh, yummy food and relaxing in the sun...it will be something to remember forever. I love my family so much.
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