Week seventeen journal
Wednesday 16/08/12
We all woke up a bit groggy this morning and it took us a while to get going. When we did we went to a big fun park place we'd seen from the train, it had trampolines, a luge, play area with slides and swings, one of those long bumpy slides etc, so we headed up there without the pram (won't do that again! It's not far but I think she's sick of walking) it's a very hot day today, or maybe we're just not coping in it today, so by the time we got there we were exhausted! I took Ellie on the slide which were metal ones in direct sunlight, and jim scoped out the park for prices and what she could go on etc. results in, she could go on exactly nothing as she was too young! Jim had been eying up the luge since we got here so he went on that and we went in search of shade that wasn't directly next to some trampolines or anything else she wanted to play with but had no luck, ellie was hot and just wanted to play on everything she couldn't with daddy who was on the luge so once he was off we headed back to stop tormenting the poor girl!
We went swimming in the afternoon, had a bit of a swim around indoors and then jim went and checked out what was in the outdoor pool and there was a whole big kids area, which was freezing when we first went out but we soon got used to it. There was a big straight water slide which she was meant to be six to go on but jim took her on anyway and she loved it! And playing around in the kids pool was so much fun for her, it was just cold getting all the way from there to the showers, 20 miles away! We had a quiet evening, Ellie devoured her bangers and mash and after she went to bed we did more Paris searches, again, not an easy place to search! Only one more week to search for thou after that, don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing!
Thursday 17/08/12
Today was a big day, we had our twenty week scan in Geneva! I haven't. Mentioned it yet but all looking good and healthy so why not! We first found out back in l'ainsa in the pyrenees about three or four days into the trip and it was quite a surprise that we weren't expecting in this trip but gave us a very exciting reason for looking forward to eventually going home. I got in touch with uk midwives who assured me I'd be fine being away and to get checks at private clinics which we have' the scan we had at twelve weeks they did in 4d at one point which was amazing. We saw his / her face!
It was horrible in Chamonix this morning, we were really in the clouds so my shoes came back out and we headed off with some nervousness and a lot of water. I drank a litre in the car as advised in the UK, we found the office with about twenty mins to spare so we faffed around in the car a bit, and made our way to the office and waited (bursting for the loo thinking it would be at least half an hour)we went in and she said I had to go to the bathroom as she couldn't see anything, they operate differently here to the UK!! Glad to say, everything fine, a huge relief, although we will need to be scanned in the next 8 weeks again as placenta in the wrong place .
After we took Ellie into Geneva and got a sandwich and sat and watched the lake and fountain, we then had a walk around looking at watch shops, the clouds had cleared and we were boiling and feet killing as they were in shoes again. We headed home and spent the afternoon relaxing at the apartment, finally managed to Skype john and Maureen and then headed out for a curry for dinner, our first we've had since we left, it was lovely. Ellie just sat with a plate full of anything but Korma, she wouldn't touch the Korma, too mild I imagine! For pudding jim went and got me a magnum ice cream and himself a cigar which he had when Ellie went to bed, after walking past someone smoking one and liked the smell so got one but was horrible apparently! What a great day for us all!
Friday 18/08/12
This morning we had a lovely morning, we headed to a park by a stream under loads of trees, a cafe and bar b q, pony rides, zip wires it was fab. Ellie loved it, it was a great walk there, lovely all around the stream and she went on a pony ride. We put her on the little Shetland and she lifter her legs at first and I thought it was going to be a no go but she soon relaxed. We walked her along the path and she spent the whole time chatting to the pony, telling it "you're gorgeous" and full of confidence. I think it was a definite highlight of the whole holiday, Jim ran around us as our professional photographer, we were definitely over proud irritating parents!!
During "the lunch break" we finally managed to book our Paris break! We are finally ahead of ourselves, we'll be staying there 24th -29th which I'm looking forward to, now it's sorted.
We headed swimming this afternoon and went out to the outdoor kids pool where jim spent most of the the time threatening to attack her in the manner of jaws! My cheeks hurt from smiling too much, she had so much fun. We came home and after the near sprint to get to the pool, jim was willing to slow the pace for the way back, I was knackered! I was just about to think about sitting down for a cheeky five minutes and remembered we move tomorrow and need to pack! Grrrr, luckily it's getting easier by the week. Ellie has now gotten into Charlie and Lola which gives us a new background noise to listen to! I'm not really sure where we are going tomorrow except it's between Dijon and Troyes and will be about a four and a half hours drive, trying to get jim to let me drive to give him a rest. Today has been one of my favourite days! I love summer Chamonix!
Saturday 19/08/12
Today was another move day, this time to Chateau de Percey, in Percey, burgundy. Percey is between st florentin and Tonnerre. We headed off without a hitch at 10:30 and about 25 degrees with the estimated arrival time at 15:15 but we hit traffic about 100 km into the journey which took the estimated arrival time to 16:00, poor jim. After that, the journey was relatively easy (says the passenger) but got more and more hot. As we came to the paeage and paid our €30 I noticed it seemed warmer when I opened the window, in the same way as when we hit the very hot spell in Mallorca, I asked jim the temperature on the car, he looked at it, looked confused and then said 39 degrees! Oh no, we are back in crazy heat! We got to Chateau Percey after a grocery shop and some nice cold beers for Jim, I can only drink water as for some reason whatever I drink, Ellie insists on drinking, which is becoming a right pain when we're out and I fancy trying something different that water! No booze, no cheese grrrr which are exactly the two tasting sessions we were offered when we got to the chateau. It's lovely, I think the current owners have been doing it up, there are good bits and bad bits. Good bits are the gardens, the huge trout towards providing for children (there's a toy box in the room, a step to reach the sink, a trampoline, little bikes with stabilisers, push along carts, a pool, a maize - it's brill, definitely somewhere i'd love to come back to with our friends and their kids, not to pricey either, our apartment is £60 per night! But then there are things like all the windows have been replaced with UPVC windows I'm not even sure I'd put in Vincent rd, and the tv is not plugged into an aerial, only dvds also, it's another place that advertises wifi (or weefee as they called it) and you can't get it in your apartment. I think there are four or five apartments all varying in size. Jim and Ellie did their usual cool down and swim whilst I unpacked and got us settled then went outside to see Ellie "boinging" on the trampoline, I was nearly melting as it's in direct sun but Ellie did not care, we had to pretty much drag her in. I just couldn't cope with the heat so had a shower to try and cool off and keep myself awake, I think I was also a bit panicked as to how we are going to cope with this heat with no air con or even fans, no tv or wifi (desperately needed as Ellie's new favourite tv programme, Charlie and Lola, aren't downloaded, we've just been watching on you tube and she's not impressed with us to say the least!) and we're facing the possibility of being trapped In our apartment! The weather is looking to continue until Wednesday, lots a lot of days in this heat with no cooling devices! I came out to find Ellie and jim back at the "boinging" we dragged her in again for dinner, she was so hot, i've never felt her so hot - ever. By the time dinner was done the sun had gone off the front of the building where the big windows into the apartment are, I'd put Ellie into a cool bath that she splashed around in and seemed instantly more cheerful and then took her for a stroll around the garden now the sun was gone, a much more comfortable ending to the day. Jim took the iPad and left it over nit in the hot spot here (hidden) to enable us to download some Charlie and Lola and we sat and watched a film.
Sunday 20/08/12
I can't believe it's the 20th already! The trampoline was in shade first thing so I took Ellie down for a good old session on that in the cool, we tried to take a walk to the maze, about 50 meters down the garden but it was so hot, we found our way to the other side and back pretty easily and ran for the pool. We had a lovely morning and the only way you can stay outside is by being the pool. We met two Dutch families who both spoke the most amazing English, even the kids. One boy I'd guess is maybe 8, it seems to me he's incredibly academic, he was telling me how he'd made an anchor for his boat and how he loves the police and all the different sorts, all in English, yet he was in the pool in armbands and a rubber ring on his blow up boat, they couldn't get over Ellie and her confidence in the water, I did remind them not to get too down about it, she can't speak one language yet, let alone two, as I was walking away, I'm sure his mum said "and Spanish" then there was another little girl who is only a month younger than Ellie so I was super excited for her. She followed her around for about twenty minutes, but then she looked at Ellie's toy story rubber ring and Ellie went into meltdown! Not a great first meeting! Embarrassed and trying to explain that she's hot and tired to her mum Maria (not that her daughter even gets hot and tired!) I took her in and we all sat and had some lovely bread, boring and very pasteurised cheese and some cooked and definitely not smoked or cured meats. Me and jim still peckish then tucked into a petit filous with Ellie!
In the afternoon we'd go out,boing, swim, take it in turns to sit down for five mins, go back inside and then start again. During this jim had decided he didn't want the carbonara planned for dinner so was going to go for a drive and see if he could find an open shop. Unfortunately, for his efforts, the police stopped him as he didn't come to a complete "stop" at a "stop" sign at a junction, he'd checked the road, not a car to be seen as he slowed, so carried on, it seems in this instance, when board on a Sunday they want you to stop, apply handbrake, release handbrake and then set off on the completely clear road. The lady on her iPhone app showed jim it would cost €135 so quite rightly jim asked for a receipt which resulted I them all going back to the police station to get one, rather than the copper going out for a nice slap up dinner that night!
The cooler air came at 8ish when the sun had gone but it's been a beastly hit day again, literally like being in a sauna, but not so easy to get out - honestly, I'd prefer rain over this heat, at least you can put a waterproof on and go out!
Monday 21/08/12
I woke up after a really not night, there are no sheets, just a beautiful thick duvet, not ideal currently. I looked out and the sky was darkening, yay a storm brewing! There was a small storm anyway, after the rain stopped we headed to the supermarket and it was a very pleasant, if a little chilly, 23 degrees however when we came out it was up to around 25 and sun shining again, I think the worst of the crazy weather over, a bit of rain today and tomorrow and then around 30 which is fine. Jim cooked a beef Bourgingon which smells delicious while Ellie was finishing off her second bowl of soup at lunchtime which promises us a great dinner but will leave me starving all afternoon!
We didn't really know what to do with ourselves this afternoon, it warmed up quite a bit, we didn't really have the time to go on the day trips we fancy so we just spent our time between the apartment and the gardens and pool. The Dutch girl close to Ellie's age, Sharna I think her name is, was at the pool too so they played together off and on for a while, I think Ellie freaks her out a bit! Because Ellie has spent so much time in the pool this year she has this massive confidence and fish like ability and I'm noticing more and more that the dads are pushing for their kids to jump in and get their head under water (when Ellie jumps in we literally have to dive down after her and drag her back up, she loves it!) and also getting them to remove flotation devices one by one! The competitive dad nature is present in Percey! We had our delicious beef and mash for dinner with some local Dijon moutarde / mustard, which Ellie was keen to try, we're struggling to differentiate hot temperature and spicy so she dug her spoon straight in like she was eating a yoghurt, we told her it was hot so she put it straight down, then we tried to explain. Eventually she had some on some mash and her little face went into shock and her tongue straight out!she recovered and Ellie being Ellie, kept doing it, but was able to self medicate with water the more she did! Input her to bed, under her new obsession which is her in the cot with no sheets on, but a blanket over the top of the cot, essentially making a lid / tent! We had a huge six person tray of tirrimisu which we shared most of in front of the world's worst film - Havana, starring Robert Redford, what a waste of over two hours! We are using up the Dutch movies you can borrow being as we have no tv whatsoever, they have descriptions in Dutch so we have no idea. Luckily, we clicked back in Italy that we can get a film anywhere and it will generally have an English language setting on it and usually four or five others!
Tuesday 22/08/12
As the windows only have a thin white covering and, This being a chateau, it has massive windows, Ellie is awake from 7:30 so they feel like long days (we generally get away with 9:15/9:30 when we have blackout blinds) and with no breakfast news we can find ourselves a bit lost early on, others may call this organised and ready for the day but we have spent seventeen weeks now taking three / four hours to get up on a morning, to suddenly be fed, showered, dressed etc before 9am can leave you a bit apprehensive of what to fill all of this new fantastic time we have with!so today we kind of had planned already; when we get to a new place, we pin point places we want to visit at the start of the week and when we'll go according to weather temps. Today, on recommendation of the owner we went to Noyers sur serein which was this totally beautiful little town on a river, you can't spend too much time there as it is only small but a little bimble through the tiny streets with old houses, a coffee at a coffee shop (we haven't bought a French dictionary, confident that French is both our strongest language, however, three months or so between Spain and Italy has completely obliterated any French language skills we have, I keep saying I don't understand in a language which I know isn't French and can't remember if it's Spanish or Italian, but certainly no use here!) at the coffee shop, I really struggled to get a regular black coffee, I tried "cafe noir" "americano" "cafe noir" "espresso avec l'eau chaud" and just couldn't get my order sorted, jim and the guy came to an agreement in the end and what in think was a double espresso appeared with jim's espresso, I left half just in case! Ellie kept telling us "I need coffee" ha ha, like mother like daughter! A babybel satisfied her in the end though. We then found a lively patisserie and got some snacks and sat by the river and ate them, I finally had a French pastry, yum yum! Ellie had a muffin and jim a goats cheese quiche, we were all pretty happy people after that, maybe this getting up early does pay off. From there we headed to Chablis, the main craving I have had during this pregnancy, I keep envisaging a large wine glass full of really cold French dry white wine covered in condensation because it's at the perfect temperature, a problem I never had with Ellie / Barry. Chablis is a lovely town to visit, even during dammed siesta, you should only really go if you're a fan of the wine, there are lots of caves, I'm pleased to say jim went to one and picked up a bottle, of which I am very much looking forward to having half a glass of with tonight's dinner. We walked around, admired the nice buildings, baked in the heat and headed off! The countryside in central France is amazing to drive through thanks to the total lack of hedgerows, it's so open and just goes on for mikes and miles, I absolutely love driving / being driven through, luckily, so does jim. If you ever need to do thinking, I reckon that would be the place, I just like to daydream, poor jim has had some quiet road journeys lately!
We got back and no one was too hungry, until jim remembered the beef Bourgingon in the fridge so he had that and Ellie and I had a fruit salad to counteract the cake damage, and the general damage my more and more so by the day sweet tooth is doing to me! I sat in the relative cool (rain didn't come today as promised by the owner, who jim has renamed Accue after his Accueweather app which is always wrong!) whilst Ellie was sleeping in her tent and jim spent some time by the pool, topping up the old tan.
The afternoon was a quiet one again due to the heat, I headed off to the supermarket and jim and Ellie stayed at the chateau and played. Naturally, they were in the water when I got back having a great time. We took her for mini bike rides on the cross bar of the big bike which she loved and had a lovely chicken and salad dinner with some Chablis, jim gave Ellie a taste of it and she actually said "I need more wine!" so funny! We then watched another horrendous film and braced ourselves for another boiling hot night!
Week eighteen journal
Wednesday 22/08/12
It was another boiling hot night! We have now clicked that there is minimal mosquito presence so tonight, windows open! We headed to Troyes this morning, via Chaource, which we were hoping would be a nice little town, it was ok - we had a nice coffee (I opted for cappuccino knowing it's universal!) and headed straight off. In Troyes we got the mother of all parking spots and I looked up and instantly remembered all the beautiful old timber buildings, everything flooded back to us, I absolutely love this town, i'd say it's in the top 5 places we've been to. They were doing loads of work to the main square area so it hid the amazing buildings as you need to see them from top to bottom at a bit of a distance to appreciate how old, wonky and close they are! Naturally, in a very very old town you have Vietnamese in a box for your lunch! It was ok, a bit mass produced and over cooked. We only stayed for an hour or so, we were keen to not let Ellie get board and that be the overriding memory!
Ellie did her usual and slept in the car on the way back, I tried to gather down once we were home but I had no hope! So we headed out to the pool and to the boing. Once Ellie got cold we headed for a walk along the canal which was lovely, they're much wider than ours although the tow path very stones so hard with her pram. We were going to visit the river for a bit by the canal bridge but there were a load of unsavoury looking characters so we bolted back to our nice chateau and our nice Dutch co residents! As we got back, Ellie's little friend Sharna , Mariah her mum and her dad we're out at the pool, Sharna is getting more used to Ellie and the had a lovely time playing. Jim and the other dad who I'll call Hansel for now had a beer, Mariah had a Chablis, I had a water - a cold water, ooooh! We had a lovely couple of drinks by the pool, the owners kids were there and they were great playing with Ellie, they have a black and white great Dane which fits into the picture here perfectly! After the pool I tool Ellie and Sharna over to play on the boing with Mariah and some other Portuguese kids were playing on there, there was already a bit of them and us, the Portuguese kids looking at the very blond Ellie and Sharna like a couple of weirdos. The one girl liked to dramatically fall over and have the two boys look after her and vice versa. While she was lying in the centre of the trampoline I noticed a massive puddle headed from Ellie's swimmy nappy heading to the dramatically collapsed head at the centre of the trampoline, I'm pretty sure it wasn't pool water! I told Mariah to get Sharna out of there and we all ran to our rooms before the little girl noticed her wet hair!! We went in and had pizza for dinner, put a very sleepy Ellie to bed and put our feet up infront of a film with some, but not enough, chocolate.
Thursday 23/08/12
It's starting to click today now little time we have left and freaking me out a bit. Ideally, I'd like to go and visit friends and family, go to the doctors and get this baby on the record and then go again!
Our plan was to have a quiet day as it's our last day at the chateau and possibly a rural location as we have possible city breaks planned through now. I had a productive morning looking at Paris things to do, car parks, maps etc then we went via the supermarket and headed out for a picnic. We found a field with amazing views right by a bridge that the TGV train went over, it was so fast, Ellie pulled a different funny face or dive for cover every time! We had some lovely food and some cakes and enjoyed the sunshine and breeze, it was lovely.
As Ellie had slept in the car I couldn't get her back to sleep so she helped jim wash off the car. Then we played with some of the toys in the toy box in the room for us and we read some books, it was a nice afternoon. Big clouds came in and Ellie and I got caught twice on the trampoline as the heavens opened! She and Sharna played on the trampoline, in sharna's apartment,in our apartment, they had a lovely time. We discovered Hansel is actually called Bart. So we're going to stick to Hansel! Earlier on in the day jim asked Ellie what she'd like for dinner and she said "um, Ellie need tatoes and sausages and green" so decision made, we had sausages and mash with cheesy leeks, yum! Weirdly, as Ellie was playing in sharna's apartment, I noticed Mariah was also cooking sausages and mash!
After Ellie had gone to bed the heavens opened and a storm broke, it thundered continuously for over an hour, which u fortunately the owner was throwing a large party so meant all of their guests had to stay inside in the massive main hall, however, I feel sorry for guests who's apartments are straight off, like Sharna and her family. We couldn't hear anything though, we just aw all the cars blocking ours in!
Friday 24/98/12 Ellie is 2 1/2 today!
To celebrate, Ellie woke up at 7 after I had a pretty bad nit's sleep, the bump is just starting to get uncomfortable. We got all packed up without an ounce of stress as we had time to spare (until it was discovered I had packed jim's t shirt I had left for him to wear which he hadn't out on yet and in my haste, I grabbed anything that was in our room and not in our suitcase and packed it, then jim put the suitcase in first, oops!) At ten sharp, our electricity went out with no warning, which we think was a bit harsh but fairly clever way to get rid of us. So we said our goodbyes to Sharna and her lovely families a d hit the road. Ellie was asleep within 8km, she woke up knackered so hopefully will have a good sleep on the way to Paris. We stopped for some lunch on the outskirts and then continued on the last part which is when I discovered somehow the email which I've checked the last two days in a row to ensure I can read it without wifi had disappeared and it had all of the instructions to the apartment and how to access it! After a frantic ten minutes, I had the access code and the email resent. The next problem we faced was the roads have been changed to allow buses and nothing else which the sat nav didn't recognise so after a bit of ad libbing, we found the place in the Arabic / oriental areas, it's pretty roped on the outside, we had no parking and about 8 bits and bobs and bags to take up along with a two and half year old! Jim went off and parked the car and I started to get everything upstairs, there's a small lift so ok but the world and his wife decided to go in and out of the block as iwas trying to sort it and look after Ellie, I was all panicked as I was worried something would be taken, trying to get the luggage in the lift, run up carrying Ellie and then some hit higher up would press the button and the lift full of all of my stuff would disappear! I got sorted in the end though and was close to unpacked when jim got back.
We went for a walk to a local park which was nice enough, we stood out a mile though as tourists, especially as I am wearing an orange thirst that I my present state makes me look like a pumpkin! We walked around some fairly rough areas, there were a few drug deals going down in the park, not quite the Paris I had planned, but fully aware that we have booked the outskirts as we needed the space and this pace has two bedrooms (apartment itself is lovely) and the plan is to travel in and enjoy.
Ellie had fallen asleep on the way back, the poor girl is exhausted, I put her into bed and she would have slept through if we let her, just a half hour sleep though and we went and got a kebab from downstairs for our tea!! Ellie went off to bed and we decided to change our plans! In a last minute u turn, we have booked to stay in Brittany next week and have booked this and the ferry home on the fourth, for this we get organised...!. We would spend days looking for accommodation on other weeks. I'm gutted, really gutted. We decided a week in Brittany would be more relaxing and easier than the Belgium / holland plan. Although, again, it's a lot of driving.
Saturday 25/08/12
We had a pretty bad night's sleep as this is a pretty hot apartment, Ellie was up early just after 7 and we crept around as quietly as possible to avoid waking jim, we have the world's noisiest parquet flooring in the apartment! Once we were all fed, we made a day by day plan for the next few days and then headed out by about 10! We got the metro to Charles de Gaule by the arc de Triomphe. Because he had his hands full, jim had been holding his ticket in his mouth and ellie wanted it, we let her have them once we were outside and she was only interested in holding them in her mouth, she did it on the way home too! The Arc is huge and beautiful, the roundabout it not nearly as crazy as I thought it would be. We then walked down the Champs Élysées towards place de Concorde, the gardens and then onto the Louvre with the Pyramids outside. It was a lovely walk, it looked like there was a rain cloud about twenty minutes away the whole day, but it never hit us, we took a couple of hours to slowly do the walk and them had some sandwiches in the gardens infront of the Louvre. After we walked around, went to a park, which had guards that would blow whistles at anyone having too much fun! We walked along the Seine next to Ponte Neuf. Central Paris is far more enjoyable than the outskirts! But it's all pretty grubby from knee level down. As we were walking back to the metro, we bumped into my old General Manager from Hertz which was nice to see him as i always got on well with him, but a bit awkward, no one wants to see anyone on their holidays that reminds them of work and after the first couple of seconds of "wow what a surprise, I thought you were in Vietnam or somewhere...??" We were both keen to move on! Vietnam?! also on the way back to the train Ellie fell asleep in her pram, which she currently likes to do on her tummy lying face down in the pram, and if I have one on, with a scarf over the hood of the pram and her keeping the light out. Net result being massive amounts of people smiling / laughing / pointing at the pram with just a couple of little feet pointing out from under a makeshift blanket upside down!
We were back in the apartment by 4ish and not really sure what to do with ourselves, normally we would go swimming! We skyped William and Charlotte and had a nice chat with them, then Caz and Tom to wish Caz a happy birthday. We attempted a bit of potty training with the girl after this with her new fancy nick naks, we didn't get any accidents, but the kid's way off there on cloud cookoo when she's busy you can't get through to her, she completely balks the world out, I'm not quite sure she's ready yet, but will try as and when I remember or if she mentions it.
We had take out Moroccan for dinner which was lovely, although Elle belle didn't eat much, I think it was all the milk and snacks we plied her with to get her to behave on Skype!
Sunday 26/08/t a 12
Ellie slept better and didn't wake me up until 8, Sunday's are nice as we're aloud choc choc spread on our toast, a good way to start the day (having to give up on cakes as she won't eat something different to us and I can't let her eat cake every day for breakfast! Will definitely try and make it work once we get home to vanilla crowns and cinnamon swirls, we'll have to eat in different rooms or something!) we headed up to a park near us called Parc Buttes Chaumont which was beautiful. We found a park for Ellie to play in for thirty minutes which she enjoyed, there was even a couple of English boys there so she had a fab time, we continued walking around this vast expanse of a park, on the way back down leafy suburbs jim and I agreed it was the kind of area we were hoping to be staying in, then we walked around the corner into the chaos of the chinese area and then the northern African / middle eastern chaos. We do enjoy walking through and seeing the massive variety of foods available, I'm desperately trying to avoid baklava until our last day as I'll be obsessed and searching for it, but it's a very differ area of Paris than we thought we'd be in. However, metro is just around the corner to take us anywhere in town. We had a small snack for lunch and put Ellie to bed to rest up for this afternoon's trip. When I was getting her ready I changed her nappy and found four crayons in it! She had been putting them in the to this morning before we went out in the style of a utility belt and she must have left them there and they'd fallen in! No wonder she kept getting a bid moody, must have been uncomfortable.
Once Ellie and jim got up from their naps we headed into town on the Metro and went to Notre dame, the plan was to go in but the queue was nuts so we walked around, and along the Seine. It's all pretty dusty along there and Ellie suddenly would only move along on her tummy and back, there was a ramp next to some steps which she used as her own personal slide! She was filthy and it put a stop to our visit to the Louvre museum visit! So we headed to the park for her to have a proper play, it took us about half an hour to walk there, through it's of lovely streets filled with beautiful Parisian restaurants and cafes we would have spent all day in in a previous life (saying that, we wrecked a perfectly good trip to New York spending too much time In restaurants and cafes!) Ellie had a good time but there really are some little shits there, me kept pushing in on the train steering wheel, he was moving her hand off over and over and she was fuming, "don't touch my arm!" jim went and had a beer and we followed him about five mins later, I ordered a Perrier water, which Ellie drank (good job I'm pregnant and can't drink!) and we went to a Chinese buffet for tea. It was nice but not massive choice, once you filled your plate you put it into one of the three microwaves for 1 minute to heat up! We headed home and gave Ellie a dam good shower once we got back to clean her up. Jim went out for a drink for half an hour, he said people were drinking two or three espressos in a row! This is the guy who can't have caffeine after 12 midday. I watched 50 first dates wishing I had a slab of chocolate and realising my iPad full and can't put any more photos on :(
Monday 27/08/12
This morning was planned to be Ellie's big day, I don't think she slept very soundly in the night, she was really tired first thing. We headed right over to the other side of town to the jardin d'acclamatation, on researching the more child friendly Paris I came across this, it actually said to not bother with Eurodisney (which we aren't now) and to go here. We got the metro over, people on the metro here are by friendliest people in the world! Every time I get on with Ellie I am offered a seat straight away, quite often people will walk away entirely rather than let me say no.
The park was wonderful, it had several different play areas varying on age groups, nice open grassland to sit and eat your lunch on a petting zoo, a splash pad style water park (where we were nearly banned from after Ellie's refusal to wear anything, not even a nappy) old fashioned fairground rides, it really is a great day out, I think it cost us about €6 to get in! Ellie was tired before we got there so didn't make the most of it as she usually would, but she went on a little boat trip, the enchanted river, one of those ones where you're pushed along the route. Then Ellie and I went on the horses on the carousel which she thoroughly enjoyed, every time she got to Jim she was shouting "look a me daddy, look a me!" we finished up there after a few hours of her doing a great job staying awake (we had to wake her to put her in the water play, didn't take long to wake though) and we dragged her tired little cuteness back through to the other side of Paris to the apartment so she could have a big old sleep, although, this was 15:30 ish, not ideal... That's city break living though, now thinking it's a very good job we're off to Brittany.
We spent two hours staying still and relaxing, it was great! I had to wake her up at 5:45 and we went shopping, she said "Ellie too tie ties go shopping" bless her, but it's only around the corner and good fresh air. We picked up dinner then proceeded to fix the blocked drain. Well, jim did in the end. Apparently coffee grains not good to put down all drains to clear them, just some drains! The rest of the night was keeping Ellie awake to eat amazing steak and pasta dish, she do really well and then had a melt down about fifteen minutes into staying on great form during dinner she went into melt down, so we got her cleaned up, teeth done, milk drunk and in bed, poor girl, I could feel her relief! Me and jim settled down to amazing puddings, tartelettes caramal beurre salé (salted butter caramel tart) and Bourne identity because he's in Paris!
Tuesday 28/08/12
Ellie woke us up at 7:30 ish after a pretty noisy night at here, due to where the apartment is situated on a busy street full of middle eastern coffee shops, phone call shops and general loitering centre, also, all the socials live in the building and move stuff around, smoke and I think, tinkle! So they were busy through the night, it was pretty quickly that Ellie's mild psychosis through tiredness started to show itself, demonstrated mainly by tipping anything she could get her hands on - toy box, tub of crayons, toast... So by 11 am she was back in bed whilst jim and I started to realise that the Eiffel tower issue with tickets was a real issue. I had an "e" ticket and in my mind, that is a picture of a ticket on a handheld, but reading closer and two fairly snotty and probably unnecessary emails from me to Eiffel Tower we realised they needed printing. Oh god, what a nightmare! Luckily, jim found an Internet cafe round the corner when he went to check on the car and printed our ticket - yippee! I was dreading having to get a train to the tower, then finding an Internet cafe within the time scale we had. At one we thought we'd better wake Ellie up and give her some lunch before we went. The first thing she said to jim was "look at my pretty hair daddy!" she has never said anything like that before, it was hilarious! Especially as today is the worst hair day she has had in some time!
This is when the day became challenging. We realised Ellie had no milk so I went out to get her some, got to the bottom two or three steps, my feet went from under me and I fell down the last few, ouch! Instant bruise on my arm and a very sore bottom! Also, initially I was a bit panicked and hauled myself upstairs all shaky and had a sit down whilst jim went to the shop. I decided moving was the best course of action before I stiffened up being as we had such a busy afternoon. So we carried on, had lunch then headed off with our ticket to the Eiffel tower through the maze of tubes (which have no lifts and very few escalators, so a lot of pram and child carrying). We got there fine, although it took about an hour and went to the queue to head on up. The tower was brown, I never expected that, I thought it would be dark grey / metal in colour! The lift to the 2 nd floor was relatively quick but then we had to queue for about 40 mins to go to the very top. Once at the top, naturally, the view was superb, also, I didn't realise that Monsieur Eiffel actually lived up there! They had a mock up of part of his lodgings, how great that must have been. We spent maybe half an hour up there, then queued for maybe another 30-40 mins to get backdown to the ground floor, it was so frustrating having bought tickets in advance hoping to avoid queues, I had a sore bottom, an unimpressed two year old and a fairly decent sized bump that I was trying to stop getting bottled. It is amazing to go up and wonderful views and I'm so glad we went and took Ellie, it was just harder than I expected! We took ellie to the park and let her have a play but it was hot and we were tired so we'd head down to the Seine to look into getting a small boat trip that we could go on to get us closer to town. Seconds after saying to jim light heatedly, steps are the Bain of Paris, we were walking down the steps to the river carrying the pram with Ellie in, I got a wet step and went flying - again! Arm and bottom again! I'm lucky really that they haven't been more severe and could have hurt the baby, what a day! Damn you, people who spill drinks! Needless to say, we were unable to find a water taxi style boat so we started to walk along the very beautiful river and admired the buildings. As we got more tired we decided to get the train into town, it was boiling in there, really hot, we were all tired and Ellie was on the edge so we thought we'd head home. That decision left us with about 30 or so minutes of running up and down underground stairs carrying Ellie and the pram. In and out of ram packed trains with standing room only and lots of smelly people, poor Ellie screaming she wanted to go in her pram when there wasn't room to u fold it, it was horrible. By the time we got back to our area I felt beaten up! We out Ellie in the shower and washed away Paris as she touches everything and took her out for dinner round the corner. We had dinner, it was average, jim went to the shop on the way home and I took Ellie straight back, he was picking up the puddings from last night - they sold out grrr he did incredibly well on his backup choice though so relaxed with a chocolate pudding infront of the box. Early night, I can see how much aches and pains I'll have for tomorrow! What a moaner I am, I know I'll look back at today and laugh. Maybe I'll rewrite it tomorrow. I have enjoyed the greater part of the day, I'm just surprised at the minor catastrophes!
Week nineteen - last week :(
29/08/12
We have got packing up nailed, to the point we don't even need to do it the night before, we can now pack and move the same day! So we got our plan together to avoid theft of goods and vehicle. Jim went and got car, parked up outside, I ran the stuff down in the order he requested (bare foot because I took one step outside the apartment this morning and slipped) and he reorganised the car to fit it in as I moved it down. It worked great. We hit the road, no dramas, all went smoothly. We took turns in driving, stopped off at the services for food and grabbed a delicious "Paul" sandwich, a brand over here, Pivot poulet being my favourite (note to self for future) played in the little park area with another English girl which was nice for Ellie but she wasn't too chatty and didn't want to walk around holding hands (boo her!)
We arrived at "new house" as we tell Ellie it's called every week at about 16:30, 6 hours after leaving. It was rainy and very overcast, so on a plus side, made a long drive and a move easier, but it was rainy and very overcast. I don't think we're going to get over 22 this week or much sun, bye bye tan and going home with a golden glow, it will just be pale bace, dark circle under eyes (I haven't worn Makeup since the day we arrived in Mallorca, May 1st so no attempts at fixing my looks are likely) and also, some pretty spectacular roots I'm too scared of fixing myself in case I get my jersey shore orange / brown hair back! The house is lovely, perfect for our last week. We have stairs again! We have out own garden and pool, although the owners live immediately next door and I guess, technically share it, they don't seem to). Downstairs is all open plan kitchen, diner, sitting rom. An old barn / farm so a lot of original features, a huge fire place, big leather sofas. A lovely place for rain or shine so that's lucky! Upstairs, two very large bedrooms, each with a bathroom and it looks out over rolling countryside, very English looking rolling countryside!
Naturally with it being cold and wet jim and Ellie went for a swim. It has a plastic tunnel cover which can be pulled back to make it open air, we can't figure out if the pool is heated or if the sun light on the plastic and a long summer keep it warm. I didn't go in, but regretted it, they had such fun in there, the owners even gave Ellie a couple of pull string little swimmy toys to play with which she loved. After the swim, jim cooked a delicious co au vin and we ate being harassed by Ellie wanting all the bread to herself, I said to her, "get off, it's my sodding bread" (please note, in a fun way not aggressive way) and she said "no it's not, it's my sodding bread!" .the more and more by the minute excitable Ellie needed to get in bed, she was hitting her high as I was hitting my low, a scarey place to be! And we ate a bar of milka and watched a movies jim bought. I'm paranoid about spiders and bugs here as there are tins of various insect killer every where so I kept jumping at anything I thought may have been a predator!
Thursday 30/08/12
We all slept pretty well which was nice, and it was very peaceful so today we feel like different people. It really is it he beginning of the end, I can see poor jim looking more and more thoughtful. We needed to keep busy so headed to Rochefort-en-Terre, our local town. It's so pretty and full of little artisan shops which isn't usually my thing but Ellie and I enjoyed looking around them whilst jim sat on a bench outside as all good British men do! We were strolling around and the girl suddenly fell off to sleep, she must still be more tired than we thought so we made the most of it and headed into a crepe rises we were passing and had a peaceful lunch! We did order Ellie a crepe too and woke her up for it but she would only eat icecream like the girls on the table next door. So jim and I ate a bit of hers, the waitress brought Ellie's icecream but brought it in a cornet not a bowl, it was a very messy ten minutes with Ellie sticking her thumb up every now and again! The area is a big cider area which I hadn't known before and most if the customers were drinking what I thought was tea but jim pointed out it was ceramic jugs of cider with two large "teacups" to drink from!
We headed back to the ranch after a quick supermarket shop and put Ellie down, swapped and changed between sitting inside and outside as the clouds came and went. And I had a banana and yoghurt, my current favourite thing! Yet again, after an advert promising wifi (or wiffy) the only Internet connection we have is through a data line which doesn't fit the iPad so I won't be searching for jobs in my last week as planned, hey ho, probably a good thing to make the most of resting. We had to wake ellie up in the end and took her to the pool for a play, there is a donkey at the bottom of the garden, so I took her to see that and we saw the owner, his only words after bonjour were "attencion, brutal!" so we stayed our distance but watched him eating the grass and we offered him a few eeh oors! Jim summonsed us by bell for dinner, unfortunately we didn't hear it but would have been funny. It was a Cantonese curry and rice served on a huge plate and we all took ours off that, however, Ellie would only eat off the large serving plate using the serving spoon which was very entertaining except for clearing it up. After dinner we payed in the "park" which is the set of swings here and slowly tried to tempt her into an early night, which didn't really happen, mainly because she's at her cutest in a vest just after dinner saying "just one more then boboes" referring to this week's favourite, Charlie and Lola... We of course watched a movie - terminal tonight, very good and had some of our family pack of chocolate jim bought on our way here. By the time bed time came we were freezing.
Friday 31/08/12
We had a lovely lie in today, courtesy of either my selective hearing or Ellie having a lie in, I'm genuinely not sure which! We decided day trip to the sea side was on the cards so we packed up lots of layers including jumpers, scarves etc and headed for 16.5 degrees on the way there, brrrrrr, between that and the uncannily similar countryside, coming back to the Uk isn't going to be a shock. We got to the beach and had it been a glorious sunny day we would have been mortified, but when the sun came out it felt mid twenties, when it went in it felt 16 and so this beach with the tide very far out, rock pools between sand and sea, lots of shells and lots of pebbles was lovely to spend time on. Ellie and I'm went for an adventure around the pools while I waited with bags and then we swapped over, advise from jim being "she likes throwing stones in the rock pools, she won't wear her shoes but carry them just in case and now and then she gets the fear" and he strolled off into the distance. The fear??? She didn't appear to so I think maybe I lucked out. I tried to show her shells but she didn't really appreciate them, she just threw them along with everything else she got her hands on. I showed her some little fish and crabs and that she mustn't throw in those pools (today we're learning what is good to throw and where, marbles - no, generally, juggling balls - yes, to other people if you warn them / not to be thrown at them, stones - yes, carefully at the ground and again not at people) it turns out she didn't like the little fish so we went back to the empty rock pool and then onto daddy. Ellie tried to make sandcastles out of shells for a while and we decided to go and find somewhere to go and buy sandwiches from and have a picnic on another beach recommended. Forty or so minutes later we'd given up on looking for a supermarket or boulangerie in the sea side towns (grrr, France and your siestas when they aren't appropriate) and headed for the larger hipermarche on the way back and got bread and Boursin. That was eaten in the garden with gusto as it was nearly three and we were starving. It was bloody lovely, although haunted me for the rest of the day!
Our private pool became not so private once a bunch of kids who I assume are the neighbours grandchildren started using it which is a pity as it woke jim up, lucky Ellie's resting or she'd be stalking them. Unfortunately, they have moved the cover that keeps it toasty in the late afternoon. However, the lady came out shortly after and said that it's our pool so we just tell them and they'll go. Which made me feel suitably guilty for any negative thoughts.
The afternoon was lovely, the clouds stayed back and it was a great temperature, Ellie slept for a couple of hours and we sat in the sun in the peace and quiet (except the odd pool splash) and we read our books. Once Ellie got up at 17:30 ish the temperature dropped right off, we get about three hours of really nice temperature. We went for a walk to see the donkey, down to the lake to watch the owner and his daughter fishing and headed back for a swim. Jim and I realised we only have three full days left to enjoy so we needed to make it good. As if they heard, the owners daughter popped runs and told us all the good and bad places, so we have it planned and looking forward to our last days. It's getting pretty chilly at night so winter clothes are needed.ni dragged the case out of the car and thankfully the tracksuit bottoms ellen gave me in mallorca fit, so do my jeans (if i'm standing, if i sit for a while they may be uncomfortable) so am pleased i can keep myself warm for the next week until i purchase or recoup my maternity clothes, i pretty much give it all away everytime a close friend gets pregnant as i get excited! We put ellie to sleep and watched king kong with our family pack chocolate! Bloody hell, that's a long film - late night!
Oh crap - 01/09/12
A lie in started the month well! Down hill from here I expect. Ellie sat and watched the tinker bell DVD we found here for the tenth time already. Today we were heading to the animal park near Banefe and Muzillac which had been recommended yesterday. We walked around and it was a wonderful park, mainly because you didn't ever question if an animal had enough space. There was a great variety, loads of monkeys, various birds, giraffes, rhinos, all the usual. For lunch we all got crepes, Ellie wanted chocolate and being as she'd been so good we got it, she took one mouthful and announced she didn't like it, half gutted half elated we ate it for her and gave her all the snacks i'd brought! She fell asleep after lunch so we had a quiet walk around and came to the petting enclosure full of really happy kids, donkeys and goats so we woke her slowly and she eventually got out and had the time of her life! She loved the goats, especially the black ones she thought everything was donkeys. I think we must have been in this field for maybe forty five minutes, she absolutely loved it. Jim was trying to get her to touch the goat's horns and she would say "no, I just like touch back" every single time. Although she did in the end, she even held her hand out for them to lick. Her favourite was stroking two goats at once. We continued looking around for a park and various other animals and then called it a day. Jim had chucked my old faithful flip flops after the falling down the stairs day in Paris so I was wearing new ones and they were so uncomfortable. We bought Ellie a necklace on the way out, she chose it and loved it. The moment we stepped out of the shop she said she didn't like it and wouldn't go near it. Lesson learned, but having seen them on the way in we were able to use it as bribery for good behaviour the whole way round.
We came home and it was a bit too late for a nap so we just hung around, Ellie was really quiet, she's had a runny nose all day and dribbling a load so I checked in her mouth and she has one of her top molars coming through and I think one of her bottom, so we ran around after her trying to cheer her up, she didn't want to swim or go for a walk (it's a cloudy day today so feeling the cold, am currently in a teeshirt, thin sweater, jim's hoody which Ellie keeps calling hoodeh in a northern style, leggings and thermal socks, it's chilly) so jim cooked her sausage beans and mash, her favourite, which she ate most of. Then we put her down for an early night at eight ish as she's so weak and useless. I hope she's better for the last couple of days. We're watching the last of our unwatched DVDs tonight, which means the rubbishiest - syrianna, with a bar of the family pack and getting an early nit after the kingkongathon last night.
02/09/12
Today we were heading to the beaches recommended to us the other night. We packed up a make shift picnic consisting of left overs and very ripe fruit and headed off. It took about an hour and a half to get to the beach but we got to the area we were heading for which is on a spit jutting out of the mainland called cote de sauvage. We pulled up at a beach along there and it was wonderful, small dunes then white sand going out to the Atlantic, unfortunately the Atlantic was about five mins walk away as we were at very low tide. It was lovely, a little windy, but the sun was out, probably only 19 degrees Ellie and jim jumped down in the sea. They came back and did a bit of "rock climbing" in the sand dunes and we had some lunch and drew in the sand. Ellie had all of her clothes off by now and just rolled around, she loves it. Although her cold is still bad so her face was a mess of sand and snot - nice! She looked beautiful though. After a while the clouds started to roll in and we headed to Carnac and had a drive through and look at the beach, Ellie had fallen asleep and the previous beach had been so lovely we didn't think this one was worth waking for as the tide was well out again. So we headed on the Trinite sur mere, this was a lovely town, again the tide out so we didn't go to the beach but we drove through the town and port and it was a very cute little town, if we had more time, I'd definitely liked to have headed back. We ended up in Vannes taking a walk along the harbour and playing at a kids park. Ellie would only play on the swings, many kids would come and go waiting their turn but Ellie stayed fast. I'm a bit confused about playground rules, I always say to Ellie first come first serve if she gets to s ride she wants to go on and to wait her turn but I'm not sure if I'm meant to move her off a ride after twenty minutes of other kids queuing? I don't think I should have to, she got there first!! We left the park and picked up an eclair cafe which are my current favourite and a stick for tea and then made our way home.
We hung around the house and gardens, Ellie and I went and fed justice the donkey some grass, then we had a swim which didn't last long as the girl got cold quickly today. We gave her dinner, beef curry and rice and she wouldn't touch it so I gave her a yoghurt, then she wanted her curry, then she wanted a other yoghurt, then she had emental and bread - oh the cravings of the poorly! We managed to get her into bed after a couple of games with daddy of hide and secret (as she calls it) and the new superman flying game which includes a reverse "floppy floppy" and hopefully she'll have a great sleep and feel better for our last day tomorrow. We, of course, watched a movie and had the last bar out of the family pack of chocolate.
Monday 03/09/12
Our last full day today, we had planned to be remotely organised and get to the beach at a reasonable hour. We got to Arzon at around 11:30 after a stop at Carrefour to by snacks to eat at the beach. We pulled up at the beach and it was lovely, sandy at the back, then small pebbles, the sea was as flat as a pancake and the beach was near silent, very strange, we were whispering so not to disrupt people 100 meters away!
We ate our sandwiches, Ellie ate her crisps and French stick, we ahead eclairs and made a complete mess, it was lovely. We then went down to the sea and "dipped toes" , we played with the stones, threw some skimmers, dug a bath out of the stones for ellie, it was the greatest morning together. We headed home after a while and stopped to get dinner and went back to the house.
We spent the afternoon watching Ellie's new DVD, she had a bit of a sleep, I emptied the car and did my best to clean it up without a vacuum, once like I was back up we went and fed the donkey some grass, looked around the lake and went for a swim.
Dinner was lovely, jim cooked us steak, dauphinoise potatoes and green beans and we had some champagne to sip with it. We put Ellie to bed, who's still suffering a little and sat down to a movie, what turned out to be a horrendous movie and a chocolate fondant Gu desert which was delicious. We had a near perfect last day, the weather was a bit off which was a pity but nothing to dampen spirits to much.
Tuesday 04/09/12
Well today came, and I "looked forward to it" most of the night! We packed up and shipped out, nothing more say really, we're pros and it's now very easy! As schools went pack today, the season is well and truly over so traffic was minimal. We followed the sat nav without issue, although jim does like to check with the map at every turn off, and after a stop to get some French essentials to bring back we made it into Roscoff by about 14:30. We had a walk around the very cute little town, filled with small boutiques, gift shops and cafes and then headed on for the ferry. On the way to the ferry we wanted to ensure we got some diesel as we had half a tank of space for the cheap stuff at €1.39 in town (although it had been €1.34 in the areas further away from a port). Jim's prepaid card although loaded wouldn't work, so we went to get cash, it was card only. So we drove around searching for other fuel stations desperate to get the cheap stuff and couldn't find anything else, so with ten minutes to spare before needing to be at the port we used my credit card at the original place. Probably after the driving around and charges incurred by my card for use then conversion we will have saved about a fiver!
It was lovely using Britanny ferries again after our last few disaster journies, a nice panic free check in, when we parked it was the staff guiding us, not a scene from an Arabic civil war, we found a nice seating area next to a soft play where Ellie played for a couple of hours on and off, we got her dinner and they do little kids packs so she got a badminton set (always useful in a ferry) and a dolly (of which she's convinced all dollies and princesses are fairies, oh, and mermaids too, she thinks they're fairies). After dinner we went to the play area again, about three tables away from where we were sitting, not close enough to leave her there as we couldn't see her but close enough, there were four or five bigger kids there, maybe 11 or 12, all drinking and spilling coke, telling the small kids it was pooh ??? She settled and watched a little bit of DVD and then tried the soft play again with daddy, I heard a scream and there was my girl, no clothes, just a nappy and a cut lip! She was fine, just a cut,but eating my chocolate pudding mixed with barely any sleep is bringing out the crazy!
Gladly we arrived on time, left the boat without the feeling that we were in an uprising and made our way to Torquay, via an ill advised (by our sat nav) detour, the drive wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and everything seems strangely normal, with the exception of the first roundabout i nervously approached jim screamed "wring way, wrong way" it wasn't but kept me on my toes. We arrived at mum and dad's at around 11pm and took Ellie on in. The poor thing was so dazed and confused, we got her some milk but she just sat looking into space so I popped her strait into the bed mum had made up for her ready and she didn't murmur. We sat up until 1am talking through little bits and bobs and then that was it, night time and the holiday done... We will stay at mum and dad's tomorrow night and then head back to Worcester.
Thank you for reading this, I just wanted to say that at no point have I checked this back through for spelling and grammar as it only started out as rough notes and snowballed. I am also aware that I overuse certain adjectives, like lovely! This has been a pain to write on a daily basis and honestly, I'm glad that's it, I have my evenings back! I can't think this would have been finished if I wasn't pregnant and been able to drink. My intention is to put this into a much more visually appealing version for Ellie with pictures and hopefully bound so I can give it her as a gift one day. This whole trip was because of her and we wanted to make the most of her at her age and think about how we want our lives to progress together as a family, the pity is Ellie probably won't remember any of it but I can show her this. We have had a wonderful trip, been to many wonderful places, have earmarked a lot of places we'd still like to go and see but for now it's over. And we'll hopefully be on a whole other adventure by the end of the year! Bye xx
