Jay woke up this morning and went for a run along the Rhone River, 10km round trip. He came across a cool park and took some photos to show me and the girls.
Back on the highway again and its almost 4pm and the GPS says its going to take about 1h45m to get to Paris, so I ask Jay to call the car rental place, which closes at 6pm to find out a) if they really close at 6pm and b) what the address is so that we can make sure that we get there. They do close at 6pm but you can leave the car in the lot and the keys in the drop box if you drop the car after hours - and I had booked the car until 9pm so this was great because it meant that we could drop the luggage at the apartment in Paris I rented and then drop the car off to the lot.
Getting off one of the toll areas the machine wouldn't take my ticket. So after trying 2 - 3 times I asked Jay to get out of the passenger side and try the second ticket taker (which is up high for big rigs), but it wouldn't take that either. So I asked him to press the Assistance button, the voice in the box asked me what I needed, I said the machine won't take my ticket, she said 'where is your ticket now', its in my hand, 'ok, place it on the video screen in front of number 5 (she could then see the ticket), now place it in the drop box, the toll was 24,50Eu so I paid with the 20Eu I had in my hand but I had to reach back into the car to get the other 4,50Eu and a car behind me honked a few cars back so I yelled "It wouldn't take my ticket!" with arm motions (not the one you think, just a general raising of the hands). Which Mom thought was funny because he didn't likely speak english. He knew what I meant I'm sure.
Driving in Paris was a bit of an adventure. We did great, we found the apartment - I parked at the side of the road with my flashers on at the curb while Jay and Mom and the girls unloaded the luggage and all the miscellaneous stuff up to the apartment. When Jay came back down we made the trek to the rental drop off. Sometimes you just have to go on a wing and a prayer and know that no one WANTS to hit you, in fact their goal is to NOT hit you (while getting as close as possible).
Jay sent this photo to Trevor asking him to find our lane.
Later, 4 lanes of traffic had to merge during a traffic light into these 2 entrances. When we were half a block before this I said "Uh, Jay, the GPS says that you go straight through here but there is a building there, do I go through the building?" I don't know - it looks like it. Yup. Straight through. We managed to find and park the car and drop the keys and then walked back to the apartment, about 15 minutes. Half way there I got a text from Mom that she and the girls were toasting Paris with champagne. First of all, where the f*%k did you get champagne and second of all, are you kidding me?! We'll be fine just trucking ourselves back to the apartment, don't worry about us. For crying out loud. She was nice enough to take a photo so we could enjoy they’re moment..just not with them.
We got back to the apartment and joined Mom in some champagne and get set up on the wifi which has the longest password in the world. 955850F043CC239C9A259412FF. The apartment has three rooms basically back to back, Mom's only has a 6' ceiling, then is the livingroom in the middle with a pull out couch for the girls (well, just Sophie as Paige is still sleeping with Mom because of Sophie's cough), then our room with a queen bed and super high ceilings (like 15'), then there is a small kitchen and 3 bathrooms (two with just showers and one with just a toilet).
We went for a walk to see the Louvre all lit up at night, its only about a 6 minute walk from our apartment.
Back towards the apartment, which is in Little Japan, a street full of Japanese restaurants, we chose a restaurant and went in. It wasn't sushi, more like Chinese - I got Yakisoba beef noodles, Jay had pan friend Gyoza and a pepper beef dish, Mom had ginger chicken, the girls had edamame and fried rice (which they didn't eat).
When he got back at 9:30am I was just waking Sophie, finishing up the blog from yesterday, and texting Mom to wake Paige (who has been sleeping in her room every night so she doesn't have to share a bed with Sickie, I mean Sophie) so that we can go and meet for breakfast. We have a 4 1/2 hour drive ahead of us today so we want to get on the road by 11am which means no time to explore Lyon today so I'm glad we did a walkabout last night!
After breakfast we went to the car, the parking is super close to the hotel, so it was great. The parking garage is the cleanest Jay has ever seen with a rubber epoxy finish on the floors and walls. Jay precision packed the car and off we went.
The girls did something and lost their iPads for the first 30 minutes of our drive this morning, a perfect time to write in their journals about their trip so far. Actually we only made them do Cannes to this point. I'm driving so they wrote points first that they wanted to touch on and then wrote a few paragraphs on their favourite things. Once they were done writing independently I asked Mom to underline the words they misspelled and to help them sound them out to write them properly. Paige was in the middle at that time and Gram helped her out a LOT in whispers she didn't think I could hear. I kept saying "Mom! Don't spell it for her, that's not the point!" When it came time to do Sophie Jay did the underlining from the front and the two of us did the helping to figure out the correct spelling. Gram was done.
When we got to Beaujolais I said "We're in Beaujolaise" Jay said "You know what Beaujolais is famous for girls?" I said sauce. He said "The largest orphanage in the world where parents can drop off their misbehaving children for weeks on end". The girls had their heads stuck in their iPads for most of the drive when they were done their journalling, so we would occasionally shout at them to focus on something out the window as we went by. After about 2 hours in the car we needed a food and bathroom break. There are rest stops about every 10km on the highway and every 4th has food and gas so we pulled off at the next one we saw to use the facilities. By the time I got out of the bathroom with the two girls Mom and Jay had pretty much decided we weren't eating there. So we got back on the highway and I asked them to find a place to eat on Trip Advisor - so we ended up getting off the highway in Auxerre and parking. As we had gotten out of the car I said "This is an unexpected.." Jay said Delay? "adventure". As we were walking towards the town square I took some photos of the very pretty little town. We continued on to eat at the only restaurant still open et quel bon chance, c'est Italien! It was 2:30pm and all the other restaurants close for a few hours in the afternoon between lunch and dinner.
After breakfast we went to the car, the parking is super close to the hotel, so it was great. The parking garage is the cleanest Jay has ever seen with a rubber epoxy finish on the floors and walls. Jay precision packed the car and off we went.
The girls did something and lost their iPads for the first 30 minutes of our drive this morning, a perfect time to write in their journals about their trip so far. Actually we only made them do Cannes to this point. I'm driving so they wrote points first that they wanted to touch on and then wrote a few paragraphs on their favourite things. Once they were done writing independently I asked Mom to underline the words they misspelled and to help them sound them out to write them properly. Paige was in the middle at that time and Gram helped her out a LOT in whispers she didn't think I could hear. I kept saying "Mom! Don't spell it for her, that's not the point!" When it came time to do Sophie Jay did the underlining from the front and the two of us did the helping to figure out the correct spelling. Gram was done.
When we got to Beaujolais I said "We're in Beaujolaise" Jay said "You know what Beaujolais is famous for girls?" I said sauce. He said "The largest orphanage in the world where parents can drop off their misbehaving children for weeks on end". The girls had their heads stuck in their iPads for most of the drive when they were done their journalling, so we would occasionally shout at them to focus on something out the window as we went by. After about 2 hours in the car we needed a food and bathroom break. There are rest stops about every 10km on the highway and every 4th has food and gas so we pulled off at the next one we saw to use the facilities. By the time I got out of the bathroom with the two girls Mom and Jay had pretty much decided we weren't eating there. So we got back on the highway and I asked them to find a place to eat on Trip Advisor - so we ended up getting off the highway in Auxerre and parking. As we had gotten out of the car I said "This is an unexpected.." Jay said Delay? "adventure". As we were walking towards the town square I took some photos of the very pretty little town. We continued on to eat at the only restaurant still open et quel bon chance, c'est Italien! It was 2:30pm and all the other restaurants close for a few hours in the afternoon between lunch and dinner.
Back on the highway again and its almost 4pm and the GPS says its going to take about 1h45m to get to Paris, so I ask Jay to call the car rental place, which closes at 6pm to find out a) if they really close at 6pm and b) what the address is so that we can make sure that we get there. They do close at 6pm but you can leave the car in the lot and the keys in the drop box if you drop the car after hours - and I had booked the car until 9pm so this was great because it meant that we could drop the luggage at the apartment in Paris I rented and then drop the car off to the lot.
Getting off one of the toll areas the machine wouldn't take my ticket. So after trying 2 - 3 times I asked Jay to get out of the passenger side and try the second ticket taker (which is up high for big rigs), but it wouldn't take that either. So I asked him to press the Assistance button, the voice in the box asked me what I needed, I said the machine won't take my ticket, she said 'where is your ticket now', its in my hand, 'ok, place it on the video screen in front of number 5 (she could then see the ticket), now place it in the drop box, the toll was 24,50Eu so I paid with the 20Eu I had in my hand but I had to reach back into the car to get the other 4,50Eu and a car behind me honked a few cars back so I yelled "It wouldn't take my ticket!" with arm motions (not the one you think, just a general raising of the hands). Which Mom thought was funny because he didn't likely speak english. He knew what I meant I'm sure.
Driving in Paris was a bit of an adventure. We did great, we found the apartment - I parked at the side of the road with my flashers on at the curb while Jay and Mom and the girls unloaded the luggage and all the miscellaneous stuff up to the apartment. When Jay came back down we made the trek to the rental drop off. Sometimes you just have to go on a wing and a prayer and know that no one WANTS to hit you, in fact their goal is to NOT hit you (while getting as close as possible).
Jay sent this photo to Trevor asking him to find our lane.
Later, 4 lanes of traffic had to merge during a traffic light into these 2 entrances. When we were half a block before this I said "Uh, Jay, the GPS says that you go straight through here but there is a building there, do I go through the building?" I don't know - it looks like it. Yup. Straight through. We managed to find and park the car and drop the keys and then walked back to the apartment, about 15 minutes. Half way there I got a text from Mom that she and the girls were toasting Paris with champagne. First of all, where the f*%k did you get champagne and second of all, are you kidding me?! We'll be fine just trucking ourselves back to the apartment, don't worry about us. For crying out loud. She was nice enough to take a photo so we could enjoy they’re moment..just not with them.
We got back to the apartment and joined Mom in some champagne and get set up on the wifi which has the longest password in the world. 955850F043CC239C9A259412FF. The apartment has three rooms basically back to back, Mom's only has a 6' ceiling, then is the livingroom in the middle with a pull out couch for the girls (well, just Sophie as Paige is still sleeping with Mom because of Sophie's cough), then our room with a queen bed and super high ceilings (like 15'), then there is a small kitchen and 3 bathrooms (two with just showers and one with just a toilet).
We went for a walk to see the Louvre all lit up at night, its only about a 6 minute walk from our apartment.
When we got there Paige stopped to look at some light up Eiffel Towers, you have to know Paige and how she shops. She asked him how much, 12Eu, and then sat back trying to decide which one she would buy with her travel money we had given her 20Eu from us and 20Eu from Mom - she wasn't negotiating but he decided to throw in a couple of keychains for her to sweeten the pot.
I took a few photos and sent them off to Joy and Laura, the girls hockey coaches "Blades in Paris!"
I took a few photos and sent them off to Joy and Laura, the girls hockey coaches "Blades in Paris!"
Back towards the apartment, which is in Little Japan, a street full of Japanese restaurants, we chose a restaurant and went in. It wasn't sushi, more like Chinese - I got Yakisoba beef noodles, Jay had pan friend Gyoza and a pepper beef dish, Mom had ginger chicken, the girls had edamame and fried rice (which they didn't eat).
It was delicious, but not sushi which is what Sophie and Paige wanted so we'll have to have sushi tomorrow!
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