Chinon, France

On our last day of European exploring we drove to Chinon to see the Royal Fortress.  This medievel castle was where Richard the Lionhearted was born and where Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc) came to meet with Charles VII.  It was lofty and majestic hanging over the hillside over the top of Chinon.  With the Loire Valley light, sunflowers and vineyards in the foreground, it was a living postcard.  The castle grounds had period movies describing events that had taken place there.  The girls loved this.  There was a lot of “why are they wearing that Mama?”, “what are they doing Mama?” and “what’s that Mama?”  History is such a difficult concept at Sophia and Madelyn’s ages.  It was a great way to teach it by experiencing it.

And guess what… Madelyn lost ANOTHER tooth while she was clowning around with Peter in the green lawn.  She officially cannot eat corn.

Next on the agenda was wine tasting and selecting some wines to bring home!  There was a beautiful vineyard just outside the castle grounds so we stopped there and picked up a gorgeous, award winning rosé.  The girls were tired from walking all over the castle, so Peter took them for a drive so I could stroll  down the medieval section of Chinon.  I love walking in the footsteps of centuries of living.  I feel their ghosts walking with me, living, working, laughing and it makes me feel a part of history.  It was nice to do this quietly and alone.  I didn’t take any pictures.  I just absorbed.

While Peter was out driving he found a wine cave.  This is exactly what this wine enthusiast wanted to see!  He picked me up and took me straight there.  He said with a big grin “I’m driving, you have fun.” The Cave Monplaisir is an actual geological cave that stores wines for several vineyards in Chinon.  The cave contains around 700 barrels and tens of thousands of bottles.  It is long, huge and so damp and cold that the bottles, the light fixtures, the barrels were all covered in mold.  So cool.  The lady doing the wine tasting was very nice and knowledgeable.  Peter interpreted for me as I selected some more wines to bring home.  Chinon is known for its reds… and for good reason.  Yummy!

Our last day in France was actually the beginning of our return trip home: checking out of our apartment, driving to Paris, checking into our Charles de Galle airport hotel and returning our car.  Fun stuff.  The girls always love a new hotel room though, so they were happy.

My next post will include a resource itinerary that you can print and file away for future fun.

And then I will start in on a trip from the past… above the Arctic Circle with a 9 month old anyone?

Driving to Chinon we found this chateau for sale.  

Chateau anyone?  

Yes, we all scaled the fence to check it out.

Our itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny rental car.

Lots of rolling hills that daddy went up and down reallllllllly fast.  "It's like a roller coaster Mommy!!"  Great... I almost lost my cookies out the window.  Everyone thought that was hilarious...

Yes, Sophia has her Christmas PJs on.  

She didn't want to change.  

I didn't feel like fighting about it.

The view down on Chinon from the castle.

You can get a workout anywhere.

... and a nap...

A medieval castle is only complete with horses.  

No problem there; these two are always horses.

The second lost tooth.  

And, yes, it is true... while in Europe the tooth fairy delivers Euros!!!

This one hittin' DONE at lunch.

This one?  Not so much...

All vacations require ice cream and you can find that anywhere.  

Europeans love their ice cream.

Life's tough.

This man can have fun anywhere.

Loire Valley, Castle Valley

We all slept in until 9am the day after Hell Day for the Bag Family.  But I woke with a start:  “Shit!  It’s Bastille Day!”  Bastille Day is similar to July 4^th in the USA.  Whereas at home stores are still open - this is France!  They close for two hours every day just for lunch.  I felt panicked.  Were we going to be able to get groceries?  Do laundry?  We NEEDED to do laundry.  The girls and I had no clean underwear and  only a few clean clothes.  (Peter somehow always has less clothes and less laundry.   MEN!) 

So as my PJ clad family was settling into the couch rubbing their eyes and drinking milk and coffee,  I jumped in the car.  And yes, I was commando (too much information?).  I saw a Intermarche (chain grocery store in France) when we drove in last night.  I brought the GPS, but decided to wing it.  We were in a small town surely I could find it…. Please, please, please be open…. Yessssssss it was OPEN! 

So began my first lovely morning in the Loire Valley.  I was able to slowly browse the isles without kids yanking at my pants and desperately asking me for chocolate (Sophia), gum (Madelyn) and toys (duh, both).  Next I drove into the village center and headed to the TI (tourist information office).  All… by… myself!    I figured out our castle viewin’ and wine tastin’ game plan.  The Loire Valley has everything: Wine for mama and real princess castles for the girls.  We have been calling it Castle Valley rather than the Loire Valley.  For Peter…. Hmmm… its farmland ie no rocks for climbing.  Well, maybe it doesn’t have everything…

Our first?  Châteaud’ Ussé is supposedly the true home of the Sleeping Beauty story, as well as, inspiration for Walt Disney’s castles.  We figured that was a good bet and the girls were officially awed.  Madelyn took a ton of pictures.  We were able to see most of the castle, including the attic (Peter and I thought this was uber cool – bunch of old stuff gathering dust in an ancient castle), the church, cellars and the stables.  The Château had a good collection of different types of horse drawn carriages with descriptions of what situations they would be used. 

Ummm... Madelyn?  Big, old, amazing, real castle behind ya... 

but Mommy these pebbles are sooooo neat!

Our second day was spent at a castle catering to kids, Château et Jardins du Rivau (http://www.loire-castle-rivau.com/).  We did not hear one complaint from MJ and Phia all day except having troubling seeing during the jousting competition.  We first toured the castle, then we had lunch in front of the castle, then we watched the horse/knight/jousting show and finally walked around the grounds.  This Château had people walking around in medieval costumes and entertaining the children (well, and us too): sword fights, juggling, etc.  They also had a chance to explore and try out medieval competitions like sword fighting, archery and jousting.   

lunch next to the castle

lunch time entertainment

live jousting competition

the castle grounds were filled with artwork; very cool

Phia practicing her skills at sword fighting

trying out a cross bow (yes, yes, it has a soft end)

on the playground

After dinner in our tiny apartment we headed to the pool.  A brother and sister played tag with Madelyn in the pool while Peter acted as interpreter.  Julian and Monique didn’t speak any English and MJ didn’t speak any French but kids have an international language called play.

Our days in France have been very slow and unrushed.  I just love it.  At home as soon as my legs swing out of the bed and hit the floor I am running to accomplish everything in our over scheduled lives.  Here we have no timeline or deadlines. 

We have been waking up late around 8:30am or 9am.  First item on the agenda, after a cup of cappuccino in our apartment, is  a run to the boulangerie for bread and croissants.  We finally get ourselves brushed, washed, shoes on, organized and in the car by 11am.  We sit down for a lunch out around 1pm and are done around 2:30pm.  Then we continue our activity until about 6:00pm.  We head back to the apartment to make dinner for ourselves and swimming pool time.  Bed time has usually been no earlier than 11:00pm for all of us.  Refreshingly different than at home, but Peter and I still have these nagging thoughts… “they should be in bed now!”  And then  “oh ya, we have no schedule to keep… ”  Is it really kids that need the routine or the parents?

We are all starting to feel sad about heading back home.  None of us want to leave.  I am looking forward to being in my home again, but I am not looking forward to the commitments and requirements.

~Lisa

July 16

Hell Day and the Bag Family

Disclaimer:  if you don't like the word SHIT or it being used multiple times in one sentence - don't read this post.

The morning went smoothly packing up our things in garbage bags and moving out of the boat.  (If you recall we left our luggage in Joigny and the plan is to pick them up on our way to the Loire Valley this morning).  Around 9:00am Peter walked over to Hertz and the girls and I waited at the Port.  But then at 10am, rather than driving into Port with our rental car, Peter was on foot.   Ummm??  “Hertz said we canceled our reservation and they don’t have any extra cars.”  Shit.  No, no we definitely did NOT cancel our reservation.  We checked our credit card online (yay, wifi) and we had been charged for the car.  Ummmm, we need our car.  We don’t have any cars.  SHIT.  Shit.  Shit.  We were in Montbard, FR and needed to drive 4 hours to the Loire Valley not to mention all our things were in garbage bags.  After about ten calls back and forth with Hertz and Eurocar we (I should say Peter) finally secured a car with Hertz.  We could pick it up in Toryes, only 50 Km away.  Hooray!!!  LocaBoat let us leave our food and belongings in one of the boats and went to the train station to get our tickets.  Phew.

Here the girls are playing at the Port waiting for Daddy to come back with the car. No, no, I'm not one of those psycho Mom's.  They wanted to wear the bike helmets....

Train Station.  Ummm, to get to Toryes from Montbard is easy if you have a CAR, but it will take 3 ½ hours by the train.  AND the next train doesn’t leave until at 2pm.  Ummm, no.  That is NOT going to work.  Peter was about ready to loose his top after this.  We decided to calm down at a restaurant for lunch and figure out what we were going to do next.  It was now 12noon.

Ahhhhh, beer.

We called Eurocar back.  Yes, the car in Joingy is still available and yes you can still drop it off at Charles De Galle airport in Paris.  Major draw back?  We had paid $120 for the five day rental with Hertz now we would be paying close to $500!!!!  Shit.  Shit.  Shit.  Hertz is going to hear from us.  Big time.  “OK, shit, we’ll take it.”

Now the decision:  Do we travel to Joingy without our garbage bags and drive an hour back to Montbard and add 2 hours to our trip to the Loire Valley?  With a 6 year old and 3 year old already at the end of their waiting rope – forget it.  We are going to be the Bag Family on the train.  We don’t care how funny we look or how difficult it is.  Those garbage bags are coming.

Peter had not eaten yet.  Only beer and phone calls and train station lines and tourist information office back-n-forth walks.  He had cold, yummy jamon and chevie bruschetta waiting for him and he was stressed.  He stayed with the girls at the restaurant and I gave the French speaker a break.  I made a run back to the port for the first run for our garbage bags.  Obviously we weren’t going to drag the girls back and forth getting garbage bags.  One of us needed to stay with the girls and one of us needed to shlep  – it was going to take 2 or 3 trips.  The Bag Family. 

Luck!  The very helpful man from Locaboat was just heading out of the office and gave me a ride with ALL our bags at once!!  I decided to shove a few kid friendly foods in my backpack and I grabbed one of the bottles of Burgundy.  I had two.  TORTURE.  I then gave the two garbage bags full of scrumptious French food to him.  Bye, bye Burgundy wine and special mustards that we were saving  to bring home.  Bye, bye scrumptious cheese and extra croissants.  Sniff, sniff.

He dropped me off at the train station with my seven garbage bags, two backpacks and one satchel.  Peter and the girls met me there later.  We boarded the train and Peter and I decided they deserved a little movie time for being so ultra patient today.  It was now 2pm and the girls had been waiting all day. They needed it and so did we.  We were stressed.  They were bored.  Thank goodness for the IPad and Happy Feet.

Joingy.  Madelyn has not been walking well this trip due to neuropathy in her feet from cancer treatments.  Upon arriving in Joigny it was raining.  Not spitting rain, but full on torrential rain.  It just keeps getting better.  Peter called Eurocar.  No, they can’t pick us up.  Peter said, ok, were going to have to walk.  With two kids and seven garbage bags, two backpacks and one satchel?  NO WAY!  Mama is overruling that scenario.  The girls and I settled into the bar across from the train station (yes, bar – this is France).  We waited two hours for Peter to walk 1.5 km, go through the renting procedure and pickup our suit cases.  Did I mention we LOVE the IPad?  We watched Puss and Boots, read, drank Orangina and (me) Chablis and cappuccino.  The girls and I definitely had the better end of the deal.

Peter arrived at 5pm with the car.  We were supposed to have it at 10am, leisurely drive to our little town in the Loire Valley and grocery shop and do laundry when we arrived.  I guess it was just not to be.  The girls immediately fell asleep in the car.  We stopped at a shop on the highway and I stocked up on a few supplies to get us through the night and the next morning.  

We arrived in Reiicheleu at 9pm. 

TIRED.

~Lisa, July 14

The End of our Burgundy Canal trip

Yesterday we visited the Château Ancy-la-Franc.  The girls were memorized by the monumental size, the other-worldliness of the spaces and furniture and Madelyn was totally absorbed in the paintings (many of which were difficult for us to explain to her).  You never know how these outings are gonna go with kids.  Are they going to be 1) totally bored, 2) to busy and hyper  or 3) totally into it.  Peter and I think it is important to try it and see.  The potential for real insight and learning is there and the wasted $$ is worth the attempt.  We got lucky this time.  It helped that the Château had a brochure we could carry along with us and read about each room to the girls.  They always love a story.  The Château also had costumes the kids could wear while exploring.  They thought this was really cool and, well, totally adorable. 

Yes.  That's Phia being eaten up by that gigantic door.

Like, ummm, ya.  So stinkin' cute.

"This is how a princess walks, Mommy."

"This is how princesses stand, Mommy."

One princess being toted back to the castle from the stables.  

"I have to go potty SO bad Daddy that I can't walk!"

The last day on the boat was interesting…  Madelyn woke up throwing up.  Several times.  She slept all morning so we decided to forget the Chateau visit (Château de Rochefort) we had planned for the day and traveled on to our end destination, Montbard.  She eventually rallied and luckily never presented a fever.  We believe it was just due to medicine she is taking.  Poor honey. 

That morning while she was sleeping, Sophia had a special morning.  A man from Winterthur, Switzerland camped next to us the night before.  Not in a boat, but on land with his two horses.  He spoke a little English and we spoke a little Swiss German... we had a nice time with this sweet man, Felix.  He let Sophia have a special ride on one of his horses.

This was where we moored that night.  We woke up to horses looking at us through our boat windows.

So proud.

Felix and Sophia.

Another view of our mooring spot.

Sophia having some warm tea after her pony ride.  It was cold that morning.

So as you can see there was lots of local wild life for the girls to enjoy on the canal.  Dogs, cats, geese, herons, chickens... horses.  And...

We have found this to be a very international trip.  We traveled alongside boats with people from South Africa, France, Poland, Italian, Norweagian, Swiss and many Brit’s.  We met only one other boat with Americans and no boats with young families.  When speaking with a Scandinavian couple in the small town of St Florentine they showed astonishment that we were American.  “Are you lost?” the husband asked with a broad smile and a little chuckle.  We were on a true European Vacation.

The girls have absolutely loved this trip.  They are sad to say goodbye to our boat, their little bunk bed and the sense of adventure.  The traveling, the meeting new people, simple play and intimacy has been felt by all four of us.

Wine is a passion of mine and Burgundy wine is not something I can ordinarily afford.  I have tried some truly inspired, gorgeous wine.  Yummy!  This has been one of those trips where the wine bottles out number the milk bottles.

Tomorrow we are off to the Loire Valley and the last leg of our trip.  Sigh, sniff.  Reality is coming soon.  Do you know I actually had to cut my nails!?  I admit it.  I usually bite them from stress and anxiousness.  Haven’t had too much of that lately…

Life was tough for us all.  They are arguing about who's eclair is bigger.

~Lisa

July 13