Jason decided we should make one more quick trip and do a bit of shopping. It was a lot of driving for such a short time, but worth it. Since we got a late start on Friday, we stayed in Calais and then drove into Paris Saturday morning. Our regular hotel was full but we found another one in the same area that had parking and a kitchen. After checking in and cleaning up we went out to find something to eat.
It is always a challenge to feed kids-but we managed to get Griffen to eat some onion soup and Kaitlyn cleaned up on a quiche. Jillian just ate some bread and a few bites of my omelet. We gave Vania the afternoon off and went out on our own.
The plan was to go back to Luxembour Gardens, but the rain halted that plan. Two more options-dinosaur and mineral museum or to try to find ice skating. The museums are free in London, and probably better so we opted for ice skating. Buying metro tickets tunred out to be harder than usual. We only needed a pack on 10 single rides, but the ticket attendant said he didn't speak English, and we had to buy those tickets from the machine. Ok. We see 2 different ticket machines, one to add money to passes, which had both English and French, and the other machine which you bought tickets from, and only had French. Tell me who is more likely to add to a pass and who is more likely to buy a ticket? We couldn't get the machine to take our credit card and it didn't take bills only coins. The attendant wouldn't give us change and told us to go across the street to the other station-even though he said he didn't speak English. That all taken care off, we were off.
So was everyone else. I felt like a cow being herded into a pen, no need to hold on. We never did find the ice rink. We walked around a bit and found a creperie instead. After the crepes we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel rathet than brave the Metro again. As we drove past the Eiffel Tower, we noticed large crowds and a lot of tents. We asked the driver to let us off here instead of the hotel. Good move. The ground was saturated with rainwater, turning the sandy paths into a nice pasty muck.
The smell of cheese, mulled wine and sausage soon assulted our senses. Apparently-for just this weekend-people from every region in France had set up stalls offering free samples of thier specialties. While wandering through the stalls, a group of Brazilian drummers walked up and down as well-I am only assuming they were Brazilian by their chosen attire of Brazil Football shirts. The kids were soon rewarded for walking thru the muck-At night the Tower is normally lit up-but on the hour for 10 minutes, the twinkly lights go on. Since it is winter and dark early, they got to see it this time around.
Having our fill of wine and stinky cheese, we started back to the hotel only to be distracted once again. The church bells were ringing for 6:30 Mass. Much to the kids' dismay, we took it as a sign to go now instead of Sunday.
After Mass we picked up some dinner for the kids and went back to our room-where Vania took over so Jason & I could eat without the kids. We strayed away from our normal dinner spot and found an out of the way restaurant filled with locals. I asked the woman who brought our menu if she could speak English and she laughed. I pointed to what the diners next to us were eating (looked good) and when I didn't understand her response, she went "baa baa" and laughed. We ordered the duck.
Sunday morning we wandered around the market as the kids marveled at the different foods-cow tongue, some sort of hearts, livers, whole bunnies, pigs, chickens with feathers still on, octopus ('you can't eat octopus thats disgusting' from Jillian). As we entered the market Jillian said, "mommy I smell that market smell" ie stinky cheese. We tried to go up the Eiffel after that as Vania said there were no lines the day before. It was probably the rain, because now there were lines. We promised Griffen next time and he said he wanted to skip breakfast next time and come straight to the tower before anyone else.
After one last crepe we loaded up the van and headed for the boarder. We made pretty good time, hoping to give ourselves 2 hours to shop at the boarder. We almost did, except Jason has a heavy foot and he couldn't get the cruise control to work. We did think it odd to see a large white car with a man hanging out the window just sitting on the side of the motorway. About 5 miles later as we paid our toll, a Gendarme flagged us down and told us to pull over.
He first asked if we spoke French, then said 'thats ok, I speak English.' Apparently that man sitting in the white (unmarked) car was his collegue who clocked us at 150 km/hour. He asked for Jason's drivers license and seemed puzzled with the California one-as he was expecting UK. He then asked Jason if the car was his, we said yes. "Ok, that will be 45 Euros fine please. You pay now with cash, no credit cards." We had no cash. So, he gave us directions to the next town, 10 minutes away and kept the drivers license. We debated not returning. After 1 wrong turn and 20 minutes later, we retuned with 40 in bills and 5 in coins (not going to make it easy on him are we?). The Gendarme asked Jason to come to his van while we wrote his ticket. I think we were targeted because we were in a GB car and once he found we were not British, had to fine us anyway, saying we almost were at the next fine level. At least no points will be added to the UK license!
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