France Trip, Part I

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Ah, France.
I was up at 7am and made a pot of coffee and basked in the silence and stillness of the day. It was the only peace I would have until I sat down to write this at 9:45pm. But what a day. The rest of the family got up at 8:10 and we were all dressed and out the door at 8:35. Caught the bus to the train station and a train to Brussels. All smooth sailing. We brought waffles and yogurt drink for a breakfast on the go. We were 45 minutes early to Brussels Zuid station so we sat and had a cup of coffee. We caught the 10:15 Thalys train to Paris. Boy did it go fast. It was only one hour and a half to get there. The kids weren’t too impressed with it but they did like that we have four seats all facing each other with tables in the middle. Abigail was a little bored but Emma really enjoyed listening to her mp3 player. Got to Paris and had to navigate the metro system. You have to buy tickets and put them through the gate which opens doors for you to go through. Upon exiting the station you have to put your same ticket through and go through the gates. The kids were free so we had to push them through at the same time as us, however the door are VERY fast to close and in addition to each of us pushing one kid through we each had a piece of luggage and I had Eliza on my back. Well, at one point Eliza and I got stuck between the doors (which were quite strong!) and Emma was on the other side. Not too funny at the time but in retrospect it must have looked really amusing to all of the on lookers.

We got to the Chatelet station which is a huge hub and which we, wrongly, assumed would have lockers to leave our luggage. So we made the decision that Jonathan would take the luggage to the Gare de Lyon station where we would catch our late afternoon train to Lyon, lock up the luggage there and meet me and the girls in front of (or so I thought) Notre Dame. We split. After a few panicked moments the girls and I navigated our way to Notre Dame. We passed over the Seine and caught a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower; Emma wouldn't look, she is saving it for her birthday! We sat in front of the cathedral and had a sandwich we packed while watching a street performer. Eliza spent a lot of time chasing pigeons. Over an hour goes by and I start to get frantic about meeting Jonathan. Crazy thoughts are running through my head. Luckily the girls didn’t seem to notice anything and we finally met Jonathan (my fault, he said back side of the church and I wasn’t paying attention) on the side by the playground. Travel and conquer the world one playground at a time... that might be our new family motto!

It turns out that the lockers in all of Paris were on strike (something or someone is always on strike in France). Jonathan still had the luggage so we took turns taking Emma and Abigail into Notre Dame. They loved the super big purple stained glass windows. It worked out well to leave one person outside at the little playground with the luggage, and Eliza! Abigail and I went and got a fresh made crepe dripping with nutella and some water. We meandered to the train station giving ourselves a half hour to go the few stops to the Gare de Lyon, which Jonathan had timed on his way back with the luggage. Well, there was some sort of accident with the train line so we had to RUN with all the kids and luggage through a maze of underground tunnels to another part of this HUGE station (picture running from one end of Port Authority in NYC to the other about five times). We were so crazed and nervous we were going to miss our train to Lyon. We made it with three minutes to spare and everyone collapsed into their seats and while no one napped, it was a very quiet ride down through some very scenic French countryside dotted with cows and meadows of sunflowers.

We arrived in Lyon and figured out where the hotel was. We had booked a one bedroom apartment at The Citadine. It is a little bit like a generic Holiday Inn or something, but we figured we had enough European charm in our everyday life in Leuven that we should really focus on comfort and sanity. We took the bus and walked a few blocks and found it very easily. It is perfect. A bedroom down the hallway which serves as the kitchen area, complete with mini dishwasher, dishes, fridge and microwave. And a nice sized living room with pullout couch. It is in a great area with tons of restaurants and cafes spilling into the sidewalks and streets. We settled ourselves and as it was already 7pm went in search of some fast food, European style, of course. We had passed a doner place so I suggested we go there and save a nice French meal for another night when we were well rested and not ravenous. It worked out very well. Abigail and Eliza discovered they like doner kebabs after eating some of ours. But we also ordered the standard chicken sandwich for the kids to split. It came on a long baguette with fries on it (which made it even better in Emma's eyes). After refueling we took a walk. It was a beautiful night and we found right around the corner from our apartment was an old fashioned double decker carousel. It was closing for the night, but now we know what we will be doing each of the other days we are here. We walked down this large main pedestrian boulevard lined with hundreds of shops and at the end of it found a large park with a nice little playground and some fountains. The kids played for a while and we got to really just sit peacefully and enjoy the cool night. We had a lazy walk back a little before 9pm and scouted out some shops for fruit and bread for the morning.

Got the kids tucked into the bedroom, Abigail and Emma sharing the bed and Eliza on a blanket on the floor. They were wiped! I went out to the local Nacht Winkel (see previous posts from Belgium about the ever handy Nacht Winkel) and got a bottle of award winning local wine and we sat and watched tv and wrote on the computer and enjoyed what France does best. It was such an amazing day. The kids were absolutely incredible; I really can’t say enough about it. We really like Lyon so far and are so happy with our hotel. It is going to make life very enjoyable.

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Photos

Rose Window in Notre Dame
(Photo by Emma) This photo best depicts two of the photographers obsessions: stained glass windows and pipe organs!

Abigail & the crepe
We watched them make them hot right in front of us. You could pick your filling but we decided to play it conservative and just go with chocolate. Warm crepe, Notre Dame, a little playground...Amazing...as you can see.

Abigail & the crepe part deux
the after effects of a chocolate crepe...:)

Castle Playground in Lyon
After a very long day there is nothing more relaxing than storming a castle!