Grey: The color of French dirt...and now, your entire family.

I packed plenty of black and navy blue. I should have packed grey.

Everywhere in Paris and the south of France we find all these beautiful public spaces filled with creamy grey stones. That combined with constantly picking up The Adorable Son, means we are usually covered in creamy grey dirt.

So, in retaliation, I bought some grey pants to match the filth I am so often parading.
I am a genius.
It's like camouflage.

The French have neutrals down to an art. You can purchase a huge variety of beautiful neutral tones in greys, beiges, browns and blues. No patterns, other than on a scarf. Maybe it's due to their tiny closets, they need limited wardrobes, and nothing is easier to put together than neutrals. They don't really do matchy-match, its more about the textures, silhouette and general tone.

I basically lost my mind at Monoprix and bought the Adorable Son a wardrobe of greys and blues. He wore this outfit today, and I had several French ladies come over and give me compliments on him.

Bonus: Those boots are an easy tracking device.

A stroller with a view

The Wonderful Husband refers to this as "First Person Stroller" to replace the gamer term "First Person Shooter",  like you see in video games. Cute.

My point is to show the experience of The Adorable Son from his stroller. I will be taking pictures throughout the trip. Here is a taste of what is to come.

Moulin de la roque, Provence

Jardin des Tuileries, Paris

Train Station, Paris

Train Station, Avignon

Horrid to Fabulous / The Baron's Estate

The TGV (a high speed train that can go up to 574 km/hr) found itself with a toddler in its first class compartment today. It was a shaky experience for all parties involved.

The toddler was not in the mood for traveling today. He threw wipes, bottles, cookies, a bus (it was small), and cried in frustration. For a nearly two year old, sitting still is just not what life is about.

By the time the taxi was pulling into the lane at the Moulin de la Roque, he had passed out, and The Wonderful Husband and I were completely, completely exhausted.

That's when the miracle happened. Wait, actually, the first miracle was my son falling asleep.

That's when the second miracle happened.
Moulin de La Roque. GORGEOUS.

There was a pool that looked like something out of a Provence brochure for the not-cheap stuff, a fabulous renovated old mill, an expansive lawn overlooked by a cliff on top of which tall pines sway in the wind, two enormous trampolines, and wild boars. Okay, we didn't ACTUALLY see the boars, but were told to lock the gates at night to keep them out.

Basically this place was the complete opposite of our last apartment. No ladies of the night, no motorcycles at 4am, car exhaust or garbage. I told The Wonderful Husband that we are never leaving, I have no problem over staying my welcome.

photo: www.moulindelaroque.com

When The Adorable Son woke up he was his usual self, delightful and curious. He was free to run around and enjoy all this nature, new experiences and maybe some wild boars.

I'm totally not locking the gates tonight.
Wild boars are way too cool.

Here is a little info on the Moulin de la Roque. It is located in Provence, south of France and owned by the gracious Gabrielle and Baron Guy Fallon. Drool worthy.

Enjoy more pictures of their estate from their website. http://www.moulindelaroque.com/

Jardin des Tuileries

What a wonderful park to take a child to!

After so many attempts to get to a park with a carousel, while my son was awake, this third trip was a great success!

This is a newer carousel than some of the others in Paris, but absolutely charming. There was a beautiful variety of horses, cars, trains, carriages and animals available to ride on.

My son was eager to try many of them, and we eventually had to pry him off once I started to feel nauseous from going around and around...and around.

In addition to the carousel, the enormous park contains slides, seesaws and climbing structures. There were plenty of children climbing, spinning, jumping and dripping off of them. A fantastic day for all of us.

Getting Around Town in Paris

Lesson of the day: Getting around Paris with a toddler is not easy, but always leads to good food.

My favorite way to get around Paris is by foot.  That is, when we are in a central neighbourhood.
This trip we are living in the 19th arrondissement, which is not central, and we really need to take the bus or metro to get around.  Consequently, we keep making plans to go to attractions that our son would like and by the time we get there he is fast asleep.

Argh.

Yesterday we attempted to get to the carousel near les Halles, and today in Montmartre. Both times he was snoring by the time we arrived. That's what happens with an hour-long commute.

Argh x 2 = frustrated grumpy Mama.

We tried the metro and found it a little bit of a pain.  These are old tunnels.  They often do not  connect on direct, even levels.  This means that, even after you've managed to get your stroller down the stairs with the help of your Wonderful Husband and the hindrance of at least one rude person with a big suitcase, once underground you may need to take more stairs, both up and down.  No elevators.

Argh x 3 = annoyed Wonderful Husband with an achy back.

The bus is easier.  No stairs, and there is a space reserved at the back for strollers. They can be very full though, and a bit squishy. I recommend getting on through the back, locking your stroller in place and going to the front to pay after. This seems to be the way its done.

Downside: the bus can be crowded. Did I mention it was crowded? It was crowded. The bus driver made a sudden stop and there was a colourful variety of French expletives. Lets write that off as a cultural experience.

Argh x 4 = new French words learned (hopefully not by my son).

My son was feeling overwhelmed today on our way to the carousel in Montmarte, and was freaking out to get off the crowded bus. So we did. He was happier, but it was cold (see other post about getting a hat) and the walk was still 45 minutes from the time we abandoned the bus ride. By the time we arrived, he was out and his little hands were chilly.

Now, yesterday we'd decided to use his nap to have a fantastic dinner at a cafe, but today, we just headed home and collapsed from exhaustion. Said exhaustion, of course, couldn't prevent a stop on our way back home at a fabulous bio pastry shop.

Final sum = wine and pastries make everything better.

Better luck tomorrow.

Arrival

Arriving early in the morning is a wonderful way to discover a city’s layers and rhythms as it moves from night into day. These are the hours when bakeries are just opening, and the brasseries (the pubs or bars) are still open from the night before.

This morning we arrived in Paris and found ourselves an hour early to meet up with the man from whom we had rented an apartment. We decided to go to a nearby café and have coffee and croissant while we waited.

People-watching in Paris is alway good, and the 19^th arrondissement (each area of Paris goes by a number) is an even more special treat. Why? So MANY dazzling characters. It is a neighbourhood in the early stages of gentrification, producing an eclectic mix of international cultures and young artists.

As we arrived and unloaded the cab, a lady wished us “bon voyage” (‘a good trip”, something you say as people are leaving, not arriving) in a warm-yet-maybe-not-quite-right-or-possibly-drunk-or-both manner that served as a perfect welcome to our new neighbourhood. 

Once we had wheeled our little caravan of suitcases, bags and stroller over to the café, we set up our chairs by the heater, sipped our coffee and watched the show unfold while our son snoozed in his stroller.

The people came in several, distinct waves. 

First we noticed the people still working on their beer from last night (or perhaps they were just starting their day off right). A few ladies of the night were walking home in colourful attire, one in a vivid bubble gum pink getup and her wig worn askew. I was starting to wonder if this apartment from a friend of a friend was maybe not such a sweet last minute score.

Next the male shop keepers surfaced and began setting up their market stalls, and we enjoyed watching as they opened boxes and laid out their goods one pile at at time. Jeans, dresses, tomatoes, trinkets, dashikis, all interspersed with busy, multilingual calls.

Soon after, we saw the joggers (only three, but remarkable for Paris) sweating so elegantly (how do they do it?), followed by the business people taking the metro with rolling suitcases, and mothers and fathers ushering children to school. In fact there were lots of children, even a few families with four kids. Where do you store four kids in these Paris apartments? No, I really want to know. I’m sure it’s impressive.

After an entr'acte of croissants, a series of cyclists streamed by - one wearing headphones, which I will call brave.

Last were the late-for-work business people making a sprint to the metro.  This was the grand finale, with ties in the wind, bouncing hair, rolling suitcases and fantastic leaps and turns over the cobblestones and around the plethora of pedestrians. Just lovely.

Overall I give the intersection of rue de Belleville and Boulevard de Belleville a 4 star rating for people-watching. There was a wonderful variety or cultures, some stylish looks, some freak flags being flown proud and high, and so the overall ambience was lively, and ultimately probably just fine for a week’s stay.

Packing light

Packing light is key to our easygoing travels. Because we often take the train to get around Europe, we can't have more than two suitcases.

Here is how we do it:

2 suitcases for clothes etc. 
Ideally one suitcase would be best for moving around... well, that or a private jet.

1 knapsack for books or other heavy items that we check-in as our third piece of luggage. 
This bag can sit on top of one of the suitcases when moving about. We keep a heavy bag so we can stay under the weight restrictions of 50lbs for each bag when flying. The bag is lightweight and folds away easily if we do not need it.

2 items of carry on luggage that are hands free. 
One knapsack for kids stuff and one messenger bag that is safe for holding  tickets and passports.

1 lightweight collapsible stroller. 
We really like our Uppa Baby G-LUXE. We roll it around the airport right up to the moment we get on the plane. 

What we skip:

1. The carseat. 
This is a heavy piece of equipment that I have never attempted to travel with. Luckily there are plenty of options to travel without this ball and chain.
Airport pick-up services such as Taxis Baby Seat in Paris will meet you at the airport with a car seat already installed. First class service, I can't say enough nice things about them.
If you are renting a car, some companies have carseats available for rent as well. Check ahead.
Second last choice is public transportation. We tried this approach in Istanbul with suitcases and it did not garner a warm reception. Many public transportation systems are pretty packed, and squeezing your family's gypsy caravan into a subway car is not a good way to make friends. Another important point is that many old European apartments and metro stations do not have elevators, and you may have to go up or down several flights of stairs. If however, you are looking for an excellent cardio and muscular workout,  this is a highly recommended training circuit. You will have sexy arms and legs at the end of your trip.
My last choice is to take a taxi. Taxis in most countries are generally exempt from laws requiring a car seat or a infant or child, but of course there is a risk involved.

2. The third suitcase. 
We could bring a third suitcase, but then, we would need a third arm. One parent is rolling our son around or running after him while simultaneously pushing the stroller, and the other parent has two suitcases and the heavy items bag. That's quite enough.

3. Keeping our purchases with us on the road. 
Who doesn't love to pick up art work or some funky kitsch as they travel? The key is to mail it back home, along with any seasonal clothing that has run it's course. 

4. The portable crib. 
Don't get me wrong, these are amazing inventions, so amazing that almost everywhere we go they already have one. If a crib is unavailable, we have a small, extremely light weight child's camping mattress from MEC which we will be test driving this trip.

5. Books. Truth be old, we always have a few books,  we love books. This trip we are trying out a kobo reader that was lent to us, and relying more on travel guides that are available online. 

Upcoming post on minimalist wardrobe that travels well.

Delayed Departure

April 8th was supposed to be the big exciting day that we left for Europe and all our glorious adventures began.
*surprise*  Things did not pan out that way.

Our glorious adventures began a little differently. They began with constipation.

Our bags were in the car, tickets and passports ready, when my son's body announced that we were not going to be getting anywhere near a plane. No one would want us near their plane anyhow. Poor lad.

So, hours before the flight was scheduled to depart, we made the final decision to delay the trip and stay in Montreal for another week. I guess this is a perfect example of travelling with a toddler. Stay flexible, because your schedule is only an illusion. The kid comes first.

Now, while I may not really have the right to complain, I mean, this is all a pretty fabulous opportunity, and I am incredibly lucky, I still just want to mourn the sad part. I had reserved a spot at the Reggio Emilia conference on early childhood education in Italy, and would no longer be able to attend or meet up with one of my best friends in Florence.

The excellent news is that my son is doing much better and has been pooping very successfully since that evening.
TMI?
If you a parent, it's basically a conversation starter. If you are not a parent....wrong blog.

Condo sold, bags packed.

It is official, we are homeless.

We placed our condo for sale last November and it sold within a whopping three weeks. We loved our home, however living on a second floor apartment with a dog and a toddler combined with the famous Montreal outdoor stairs that are covered in snow half the year was proving too complicated.  Can you imagine?

The quick sale of our apartment meant we would not have a place to call home for three months, and so, we decided to do what we love best during this time. We decided to travel.

All of our belongings were packed up and placed into storage, countries chose, flights were booked, apartments reserved, and clothing was carefully chosen and packed for three months of life on the road.

We head off in a couple days and I am going through the final rounds of  "do we really need to take this item/piece of clothing/book around the world?" Tough choices to make, especially with a toddler who has favourite soothers, bottles, stuffed animals, Lego, bedtime books, blankets and all the gear that comes with a kid. I don't need to list the myriad of choices to be made, you get the picture.

This will be my son's 11th flight, so I am getting to be a pro at suitcase packing. That said, this is a whole new level. My upcoming post will have some tips on how to pack for a family of three in two suitcases. Stay tuned!