Metz to Paris to Cherbourg

It took two grumpy taxis to take us to the hotel last night and two to get us to the train this morning (last night they charged us 10 Euros each, and this morning it was 8 each). In Paris though we had a very very nice driver. More on him later.

We arrived in plenty  of time for the train and a French guy we asked reminded us how to find out where our car will stop on the platform -- 18 was shown to stop at W so we went to the W sign.

We got hyper-lucky as we were about to board and a man offered to help with our many bags. He not only helped us get our bags loaded, but he sat with us and chatted the whole way to Paris and then helped us get to the taxi stand too! We could have bumbled around and managed on our own but we didn't have to and that was so lovely and relaxing.

I also want to send out a special thanks to the friend who gave us a futon, which we since re-free-cycled, but the futon was wrapped in 4 excellent black straps with tightenable clips. Those straps have been invaluable in lashing our heavy bags to their wheel contraptions. Thank you, thank you, Morrigan. We've now lugged the luggage Calgary to Luxembourg and by train to Metz (and Metz hotel) and through Paris (aargh, with its 6 train stations) and to Cherbourg. Just the ferry to get over and hopefully we'll rent a car in Ireland and get the luggage to the van and that will be the end of lugging luggage for quite some time to come. However, I am sure that the straps will still be excellently useful.

The taxi driver we found in Paris was cheerful and friendly and only mentioned once that he's a taxi and not a transporter. :) He wished us bon courage (good luck) many times.

Alazha hypnotized me into doziness on the train which was lovely, and we got a minivan taxi here to the hotel, then walked the cats to the vet. The cats are TIRED of the boxes and would rather not get back in them yet again. The vet place was on afternoon dropins and the waiting room was full of dogs, one of which was a massive black "mechant" one as his owner said -- a very strong lady who Yarrow admired every time the thing started snapping and snarling and trying to lunge at the other dogs. The cats somehow endured that in their boxes and then got their microchips read by the vet, who made them passports. They didn't need any more medicine, unlike the vet in Canada told us. The vet here says that's only for dogs, but she also assured us that the ferry company has her emergency number and she'll be happy to straighten them out if there's any question when we catch the ferry Sunday.

We enjoyed more walking around in old, old streets. Marvelled at the slate in the walls and the slates on the street, and thought the pavers, oddly cut, looked like recycled building stones probably. Or something.

Yarrow wanted kebabs for dinner, which is a good budget option so that's what we did. It was nice. It is so very very nice to enjoy the manners of the French. They are in general very kind and helpful to each other and it's nice to see and be part of. We've had umpteen casual conversations today -- the exact thing that my soul so longed for in Alberta, and missed. It's also very nice to watch how nicely the French wear their clothes. I'm not sure why it's just so nice, but it is.

Last night, we had a very nice walk in Metz. Yarrow gave me the photos so I might as well post them.

Here is me in the bus in Luxembourg, which the driver let us ride for free rather than explain the ticket machine. We took the whole luggage area (did that on the train today too! -- the biking area).

One of many, many, many beautiful buildings in Metz. We couldn't possibly take pictures of all of them.

And when I saw this building, I realized we'd stopped to change trains in Metz before, probably when Yarrow was 6 and we visited friends in Luxembourg (the same friend, Kim Rubaek, who very handily told us the bus number to take to get from the airport to the train. Luxembourg is small and lovely and easy). I am fairly certain that the last time I was in Metz, it was the first time I discovered the wonders of fruit confit -- fruits in sugar that are just vibrant and divine and like nothing else.

These are purple horses. Kind of a Metz chuckwagon shot.

Wait, let's get it closer up for you.

Here are the luggage and cats in Paris (reduced down to 7 bags from our previous 8 by the expediency of loading about 80 pounds in my backpack and stuffing the extra carryon size backpack in the giant suitcase). There's an extra blue backpack behind the green one on the right -- Boy took  photos and I didn't check them so you'll just have to squint at the grey strap poking out on the far right there and take my word for it. :)

It was pretty easy getting them to Paris and through Paris. Phew. I was very anxious about that.

Then there was the dozy pleasant French-people-filled train to Cherbourg. I didn't take photos at the veterinarian. I really should have. Blue and white tiles,  a waiting full of dogs, some not happy, some remarkably quiet, and people, and a few cats. And people generally spoke easily to each other. The guy next to us didn't have a pet with him and I remarked on it and he said he was waiting for his pet to get out after surgery this morning. When we were back in the surgery room I saw a couple of cats zonked out in their boxes.

Anyway Clara and Ala didn't even have to get out of their boxes. Just got their chips scanned for their Europassports. So there. 8 of the 12 feet in our family now have French passports. That's a start, isn't it?

This is in Cherbourg. Palm trees, old streets, old, old buildings, and all.

I like France. I like French people and speaking French and just being here. Kinda makes me not want to go to Ireland but we want to meet Gigi and I know I like Ireland too.

Hypno-cat is dozing beside me and making me think maybe I should go to sleep too. Or maybe a hot bath. The bath does seem tempting... what wonderful choices. When we wake up tomorrow we have absolutely nothing to do but

a) have a chocolate Liegeois waffle (we found a shop that has them -- this is one of the most legendary foods from our 2009 trip. Liege is the place in Belgium we meant to be right now but skipped for reasons of sanity -- schlepping luggage is no mean feat!) Anyway a chocolate Liegeois waffle is a thing to be had. Incredible. Unlike any I've ever had anywhere. To start with it has Belgian chocolate, and secondly, the chocolate is miraculously IN the waffle.

b) some homeschooling stuff of some kind. Kiddo got in some grammar practice online today and some blogging; we may approach a little math or something.

c) walking and walking.

Ah, much relief. Clara finally did potty on our arrangement. They both gratefully used it last night in Metz, but Clara has been letting us know it's insufficient here. I mean, Clara, how much cat litter do you want us to carry? We brought a couple of kilos and have been giving them a little pile of it on top of the pet-pee-pads we bought just in case. Last night Yarrow said Clara did everything but put a little bow on it, she made such a tidy package of it!

Anyway, glad she finally used it here, after about 7 times of folding it into a package and letting me know it was insufficient. Ala is still to use it, but she's been eating sparsely and is now still hypno-cat trying to make me sleep.

Yes, sleep instead of bath. Sigh. One must conquer le jetlag with a will. :)

All 12 family feet are on European soil

Thursday April 7, 2016

My computer says that it's 8:43 a.m. but here en route from Luxembourg to Metz, It's 4:44 p.m. (I guess it took a minute to write that sentence.)

Holy exhausting day. However, thanks to our best friend Henry's booking genius, not an impossible day. 

This coul perhaps use some editing but never mind, I wrote it on our last train bit and we're going to head out to walk in Metz. That seems more important than editing just now.

Itinerary:

Calgary to Frankfurt, air: 9 hours 10 min.

Frankfurt to Luxembourg, puddle-jumper plane: 30 minutes, but that much time and more again to get the bus to the plane in Frankfurt. We actually had that "passengers on the flight to Luxembourg, your flight will be closing very soon..." just as we rushed up with the cats and all. Anyway, we got there. Thank goodness. (we took a detour through a totally unnecessary security line -- sleepy mistake)

Bus, Luxembourg airport to Luxembourg train station -- free, because the bus driver thought it was easier to be nice to tourists than try to explain the ticketing system to us. :)

Luxembourg to Metz, on the train, about an hour. Hopefully we can find a taxi to the Cecil Hotel though it's only 3 blocks. We're all wheeled out. Here's how we have it: mom, backpack on back and backpack on front, wheeling one, carrying one cat. Boy: backpack on back, carrying one cat, wheeling two. It's doable except when the wheels tip over and when the wheels tip it's superhard. Contemplating getting duct tape and wrapping it round and round to make it stay. :) Just dragging it in a great hurry as had to happen a bit today isn't completely ideal. :) But it's okay if the bags are trashed when we arrive, provided Gigi can take care of it all when we get there! (Gigi is our van, if you're uninitiated.)

At 5:45 last night (so, 15 hours ago only), we left Calgary airport. Inventory: 2 cats. 2 carry ons. 2 people. 1 50-pound backpack full of schoolbooks. 1 70-pound suitcase full of kitchen knives and cutlery and games and household stuffs. 2 green duffel bags each full of 50 pounds of stuff. Me, mostly clothes, and cut back I had to alot! Yarrow: all the clothes he owns that fits, plus sports stuff like footballs and volleyballs and badminton rackets. As you see, we're packed to live, not just holiday. We still had to cut back a ton on stuff we wanted to bring, but we haven't done too badly.

8 bags and 2 people is bordering on nearly impossible, particularly since the wheels that we bought for the duffel bags easily limp over sideways. We lost a piece of metal at the Luxembourg train station and a skinhead kinda looking guy ran after us to give it back to Yarrow but Yarrow said don't worry it's garbage as we rushed along, which is kind of too bad as we might have duct taped it back on. 

Money spent today:

12.60 at Starbucks in Luxembourg on a venti hot chocolate (there called a chocolat viennois) because they didn't have Yarrow's favourite green tea latte, and a venti honey macchiato for me. Honey... honey something. I forget the name now. It's really funny for the Starbucks menu be kind of in English and mostly speak in French. A lot of people asked if we speak German today too because we came through Frankfurt.

14.40 + 16.70 = 31.10 Euros on train ticket to Metz.

Cecil Hotel, cat-friendly (so they say, we hope it's true!): 60 euros

We had nice Air Canada employees all the way through -- they even let us preboard with the cats, after the little kids, and the baggage lady was patient with us when we needed to rearrange a bit of our weight so the bags would all get in under the wire. (One was over by a pound, but she said, let's change it to kilos, and then it wasn't over by much so it squeaked through). 

Then we found the people in the Frankfurt airport nice too. The guys in the security lineup that we didn't have to go through got a lot of fun out of our Star Wars laptop speaker which keeps playing epic star wars music any time the button gets pushed (which has been a lot today).

When we ended up running like crazy for the plane in Frankfurt, the speaker kept blaring star wars music and we were running too hard to stop and turn it off. 

The cats have been megachamps. They've also been really good conversation pieces. The airline attendant on our last leg even let me keep Ala on the seat beside me, and gave Yarrow an extra row for him and Clara, and showed me photos of her cats. The airline attendant on our first flight also got us a row to ourselves, which was absolutely wonderful because originally we were squashed in with this old guy who kept elbowing Yarrow. 

Anyway poor kitties have put up with being squashed under seats, and worse, swung along as we ran to and fro. We did get free to the train station in Luxembourg, but then we had to schlep our luggage quite a way. Some kind guys took the time to help us carry it about a block, for which we were very grateful as one of the duffels was off its wheels and 50 pounds is a lot when you're tired.

I think, tired mistake, that I put my iPhone in my pocket of my dress in Luxembourg and it might have fallen out. Well, I did say i wanted less internet! It may be that we're now smartphoneless. I can get a small phone in Ireland I guess! We are going straight to our first farm when we arrive, and we'll sort out details from there.

Lots of stress around fetching the van and trying to insure her. Hopefully it will be figure-out-able once we arrive. However, today's been all about just getting from point A to point B, and tomorrow will be about that, and about getting pet passports from the vet. On the map, it seems that Hotel L'Ambassadeur is pretty close to the train and then to the vet, but we will see! They sent us a nice welcoming message when they got our booking, which is lovely.

Before we took the plane with the scream-all-night toddler (I guess the parents don't believe in soothers), I was really looking forward to Metz and walking around. Maybe we still will a little, though Boy is TIRED and so am I. We've also been both sick, me to the extent of using the airplane sick bag as we were landing and then throwing away my white shirt because it was grossed up. So maybe we'll rest a bit first, brush the good kitties and feed them some Fancy Feast. But we must stroll around Metz a little at least!

Oh -- iPhone not lost! good.

Worldschoolers

I am so happy to have found a community of people on Facebook called "Worldschoolers." Thousands of people travelling the world and schooling their kids!

A new friend from there who lives in England just sent me this wonderful link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servius_Tullius
Tee hee. no, that's not it. That's research from the book I'm writing on Ancient Rome. She sent me THIS:
http://www.france-passion.co.uk/about.shtml


Another friend (editor, in France, met through Editors Association of Earth), sent me this:

http://goglamping.net/glamp-sites/france/

Airplane tickets bought

Taking the cats along indeed is adding a lot more layers of complexity and expense than one would expect! Nonetheless we haven't wavered in our resolve: ours is a 12-foot family. We aren't going to jettison anyone.

Since we have the cats, we can't fly straight to Ireland (at least, not without about $3000 extra), so we're flying to the continent. Since one of my best friends is in Belgium, we were going to fly to Brussels, but some terrorists have bombed the airport, so we are flying into Luxembourg instead.

That means we somehow have to schlep all the luggage to a taxi and then to a train, but then our friend will pick us up in Liege where she lives. That's good.

I still have no idea, after a LOT of research, as to how I'm going to insure the van. Every insurance agency I've chatted to in Ireland either doesn't do Canadians or doesn't do campervans. I've sort of given up and decided to just go get us there and figure out what comes next, then. We are sure looking forward to meeting our van Gigi though!

Here are some pictures of her. You can see how we fell in love with her I think!

Christa

March 17, 2016. The day we get to begin

 

March 17, 2016. Today is the day we get to begin! 

I have been trying to leave this province for about 5 years now. I thought I had us pretty much away to Europe last year -- campervan in Europe purchased, 1 year visa to France applied for, health insurance got, homeschool registered for, curriculum lined up, wwoof memberships lined up. Cats inoculated and passported and all that.

And then... something unpleasant and unjust happened, and we got delayed. Since we were delayed, we moved to this beautiful touristy interesting mountain town called Banff for the winter. At least that let us have an adventurous season, even though we were kind of in jail, in a way. Boy had to go to school by a ludicrous court order (they hadn't even looked at my considerable credentials or plans, just ruled against us). 

He's learned some interesting things here. At school this year, he learned by a large body of evidence that when a bunch of short mean guys are bullying you, it's probably because they're less accomplished than you are. And he's learned that if he persists, he can indeed get hired as a busboy at the age of 12 (yes, that's legal here), and he can even convince the originally-skeptical-boss that a 12-year-old can be an awesome employee. He's left with a great letter of reference.

And I learned that my kid was top of the class. At elementary school the report cards were so extremely noncommital that I really hadn't had any inkling. Honestly, I thought he was about average in his class.  Or I didn't really think about it much.

So, I partially attribute his top-ness here to very few kids in his class here reading books at all. I do think he would have had more intellectual peers in his old school, but who knows? I didn't really get a lot of chance to compare. I do remember that they enjoyed it when he presented about his Europe trip in grade 5. As long as he can do stuff the grades that teacher assign don't mean much to me. Still, it's nicer when they're higher!

The teachers here are rather glad to have him, anyway. So, that's nice. Isn't it? I feel like I'm going on overmuch so I'll stop.

Anyway, finally, the courts ground to their slow conclusion and re-produced the same paper they had produced in 2009, saying I'm the kid's mom and nobody oughtta interfere with me doing a good job. So good! We can be away!

I have worked a lot staring at my computer this winter, because I've had to re-establish our savings, and earn enough to live here (rent was twice was it was in the city). The whole reason I have been wanting to get us on the road and wwoofing was for our health... well, winter in this mountain town, working my guts out, has only made me gain 20 pounds. Sigh.

Nonetheless, I have a dragon in the mountain here and I feel like she's been taking care of me pretty well. Except for the weight I seem mainly healthy. I'm not sure if youse all can see her in Cascade Mountain, but here she is:

 

When I lived in Fernie I loved looking at my hound dog in Mount Hosmer, and here in Banff it's my dragon in Cascade. I'm grateful to that dragon.