Paris in the spring (...is not where we went)

So the day before yesterday Carrie returned from Geneva... but I'm such a procrastinator that this story isn't even about that trip. Let's back up.

So about a month ago, Carrie went to Geneva for a week of doing whatever law stuff she does out there. I felt the itch to go see the world, so we decided to make a family vacation of it.

Lily and I left two days after Carrie did; the plan was to spend a few days in Geneva until Carrie's work was done, then head to the Provence region of France for six days.

Well, as anyone who follows the news can tell, you can plan all you want, but those airlines...

Lily and I were waiting at Ottawa airport, destined for Geneva via Montreal. First an announcement that our flight to Montreal would be delayed. No biggie, we can probably make our connection. Then the delay grew. Not cool. I headed over to the Air Canada service counter to ask "So, any chance we'll make it to Montreal in time for our red-eye connection to Geneva?" No sir; in fact, that's the last flight to Europe today, and the next flight to Geneva won't be for another two days.

I didn't particularly like that answer so I tried to press for a better solution. I decided that going home would be a real downer so getting to Montreal would be a start. I got a guarantee of a hotel in Montreal and some food vouchers, and it was pretty much left at that.

So off to Montreal! It was clear our timeline was derailed, but having Lily with me helped me successfully change mental gears and get into holiday mode. She was a perfect travel companion, and we treated this hiccup as just another part of our vacation.

Landed in Montreal at 9pm, on a tiny scrambled-together-at-the-last-minute plane with hardly any passengers on it. We had to collect our luggage, which inexplicably took an hour. Then off to the ticket counter, which of course was closed by this time. So I found someone at the baggage/check-in area, where it took almost two hours to line up another flight for the following evening, via Brussels.

Armed with a hotel voucher and even more food vouchers, we headed off. Shuttled to our hotel and slept like the dead until 10am. Of course the hotel voucher conveniently failed to include breakfast, and our airport-only vouchers weren't accepted. Checked out at noon and shuttled back to the airport.

Quick stop at Tim's in the airport for a snack. Show food voucher. You don't make change, you say? Well I don't want extra soup and 20 donuts, so um. Weird policy that you have to spend the whole voucher, but whatever. I treated the lady behind me so as to minimize the waste. That's called paying it backward, right?

Time to complain some more! We found the Air Canada service counter and asked to see a manager. Half an hour of waiting later, I explained our sob story whilst looking tired (by needlessly holding my tiny 4-year-old) and requested access to the lounge since we had six hours to kill. To my surprise this was granted ("sir, this has never been done before, and don't tell anyone." yeah right).

So at least the wait was comfy. Not much food, but free booze and comfy seating. The lounge really filled up towards evening, so it was good we got in there early to nab seats.

After dinner, we were finally off to Europe. We had three seats for the two of us, so Lily got two hours of sleep overnight, and I got none.

Hello Belgium! Brussels, to be precise. Can you claim to have visited a country if you merely hung around the airport for seven hours, bored out of your tree? Well, we can scratch that off our bucket list. What a yawner. No Air Canada lounge to talk our way into this time. The best part about the airport was the moving sidewalks, which Lily enjoyed for hours.

Oh, and the sweet Tintin rocket.

I did of course come prepared with colouring stuff and three phones, so there was never a dull moment for her. Did I mention she's a great traveller? (Can never bring too many devices, parents!)

Eventually we boarded yet again and flew to Switzerland on a wonderful Brussels Airlines flight. They fed us well and gave Lily even more colouring things.

A mere 30 hours behind schedule, we arrived in Geneva. Right around ten years (give or take two weeks) after I last saw the city, I was back!

We took the train from the airport into town and walked to Carrie's hotel. After a little rest and a chance to connect with Carrie over wifi, we headed out to meet her. With a friend of hers, we found an Indian restaurant where, since we had no reservation, they parked us in a hot corner right beside a big radiator. This helped Lily to zonk out immediately. The meal was good.

The next day was Friday. Carrie went to work, while Lily and I toured the city; the hotel provided free transit passes, giving us access to trams and buses.

First stop: the Reformation Wall. Lily danced while Calvin & co looked on approvingly.

We wandered over to St. Peter's cathedral. Since I've blogged about it before, I won't go into great detail. The very steep spiral stairs up the towers proved tricky with the child carrier on my back, but we managed. Very glad I took that thing (so was Lily).

She had to pee so couldn't relax for the shot with John Calvin's chair.

(I'd had the presence of mind to raid my coin collection back home, and the few Swiss francs I had on me proved useful, like the cash fee for climbing the towers, and later for ice cream.)

The day was sprinkled with ice cream breaks, playground visits, and a carousel ride.

Le jet d'eau

Every playground we discovered elicited a squeal of sheer joy.

That night was not a good one. Lily had been having ear pains back home, the doctor's diagnosis being that it was too full of wax. The flight didn't cause her any pain, but she would have issues on and off throughout our trip. We applied vegetable oil as prescribed, plus a bit of Tylenol, but they weren't 100% effective.

On Saturday we prepared to head out of town. I walked to the train station and took the train to the airport. The airport straddles the Swiss-French border, and there are car rental places on both sides. I had found a deal through Expedia, so I went through customs to find the Hertz desk on the French side. They upgraded me from the smallest thing I had dared to reserve. After taking some time to figure out where reverse was on my sweet 6-speed manual Peugeot 308 wagon, I drove back into Switzerland and to the hotel. Someone Carrie knew was kind enough to offer a car seat, so we didn't have to rent one for Lily. Got that installed, loaded up, and off we went!

Today's destination was the city of Avignon. It was a 3.5hr drive, or 5.5 if we wanted to avoid tolls. After a bit of highway driving, we tired of not figuring out the pricey toll system and its relieving us of our money, so we stopped at a gas station, bought an old-fashioned map, and starting taking the scenic route. We never ended up getting SIM cards for our phones, which (when you're used to navigating by phone) took some planning ahead and some getting used to.

Our route took 6.5 hours of rainy driving, going out of the way to see some towns we'd otherwise miss. When the weather cleared up a bit, the first major stop was the town of Sisteron, which has been inhabited over 4000 years. (What struck me about the whole region is the wealth of Roman history there, albeit a mere 2000 years ago.) The citadel was an impressive fortress up on a hill.

View of the town

Lily: "This wall reminds me of China." Presumably learned that from TV.

It was early evening when we pulled into Avignon. This city, instead of Rome, was the home of the Roman Catholic papacy in the 1300s. The nice two-bedroom place we found on Airbnb was situated inside the old city walls. Amazing location, except that it's not very car-friendly. I double-parked while Carrie ran to gain access and get the keycard for our parking spot down the street. We had underground parking, but getting into that underground with my oversized car proved a hair-raising experience every time.

Entrance to the old city

Street parking... nearly non-existent

Pedestrian-friendly, yet somehow catering to cars as well

The old city was strangely quiet for most of our stay. The first night Lily's ear bothered her to the point where she and I got no sleep. Until morning anyway, when we fell asleep until mid-afternoon. I think that was the day of the French presidential election, but we saw/heard no signs of that.

Our 3rd-floor walk-up. Nice and spacious. Can't imagine how ancient the building is; nothing was square!

Enjoying my morning (2 pm) coffee

We took what was left of the day to explore nearby. One find was the bridge of Avignon, from that famous song (that I didn't know about). It doesn't quite span the river...

Other exciting finds included cotton candy and a carousel.

Poor kid is favouring her left ear... a common theme throughout the trip. But she soldiered on.

The next day we headed to a place with fortress ruins called Les Baux-de-Provence. Bauxite (aluminum ore) was named after this town, where it was first mined. It sits on top of a rocky hill, overlooking a beautiful green valley.

And it was windy! The mistral is a strong wind coming from the northwest to the Mediterranean, affecting parts of Provence and other large areas of France half the days of the year. And this place, sitting on a hill, feels it a lot! I was leaning into the wind following a path to some plaque, when a older gentleman hollered for help, looking around like a blind man. The wind had ripped his glasses off his face, and he was afraid to move for fear of stepping on them. I found them nearby. For kicks, I didn't tell him, and watched him stumble around for an hour. Just kidding.

The ruins here date back a 1000 years and mostly haven't been rebuilt. Some replica siege engines have been constructed, and we got to see Europe's largest trebuchet in action, with a bit of winding up help from volunteers. The wind made even watching this challenging; we tourists were lined up with our cameras, and then a gust of wind would grab us all and we'd lurch a collective step backward and have to catch our breath and our balance.

These trebuchet operators look legit.

Volunteers winding it up. In the end it launched a giant water balloon.

Catapult. They didn't try this one.

Artisans ran a few shops with the trades and tools of the era.

In the village, we bought nougat, soap, and napkins, all of which the region is apparently known for. We had lunch on a patio, thankfully sheltered from the wind.

Nearby is the Carrières de Lumières, a sound and light show inside a massive limestone quarry from which the fortress's stones were taken. This space is huge, with a combined acre of wall space used to project images onto, from various artists. If the art meant nothing, the whole setting was pretty neat.

After this we hit the road again. We targeted a few nice towns, and enjoyed some awesome 007-like driving on winding mountain roads. I could stand to do that again one day.

Gordes, city on a hill

Old-town charm is not hard to discover in these parts.

Next day was our last full day in Avignon. We visited the palais des papes, the palace of the popes, steps from our apartment. While a remarkable building, it contrasts sharply with the Vatican in that it has nothing in it. Hardly any art or furnishings, just displays to make it a museum. Rather underwhelming for us. Lily didn't know any better, and she very much enjoying hearing the audio guide's explanations of every room.

Le Palais des Papes

Loving the audio guide.

Our last stop was the Pont du Gard, an impressive aqueduct bridge built by the Romans.

Overexposed selfie. Selvesie?

Yay, at the top! Boo,  it's fenced off. And all this just for a little trough? Those Romans are crazy. Or ingenious.

This was part of a major aqueduct system bringing water 50km to the nearby Roman colony (now Nîmes). The slope on this thing is so slight it drops just one inch across the whole bridge; the entire 50km system drops only 41 feet in total.

With that under our belts, we were good to go. The next morning we packed up and headed back the way we'd come, several hours away to the city of Annecy.

Lily wasn't feeling so well on this particular road trip, and she ended up barfing on herself. Better than on the upholstery though. Out came the PJs for a quick change.

We stopped by a town called Saint-Nazaire-en-Royans, with its rather prominent aqueduct. It was a quaint little town, and we enjoyed exploring its streets.

France is known for its tree-lined roads, with evenly-spaced plane trees whose canopies overhead form endless green tunnels. We saw a lot of this; very cool to drive through.

Once we neared Annecy, we needed to find wifi to contact our next Airbnb place, so it was off to the nearest McDonald's for wifi. (A working phone number would have been so handy.) Carrie sent an email, after which we waited at a nearby mall for a response. Lily found a play area and made a friend; it was fun watching them each speak their own language and not understand why the other seemed so dense. Despite that, they enjoyed a great game of hide and seek.

We finally connected with our next Airbnb host and headed into Annecy, where another two-bedroom apartment awaited. (Sure beats a hotel room, where you have nowhere to hang out after you put your child to bed.)

Annecy is sometimes dubbed the Venice of the Alps. Not hard to determine why.

We had two nights in Annecy, but effectively just one full day. We took in the town on foot.

Afterwards, we hopped in the car and drove around Lake Annecy, on which the city is situated. We stopped in the town of Talloires to explore some more.

Don't drop the camera, please.

We discovered a trail that ran along the lake from town. It went straight up a hill into the forest with no end in sight. We rewarded ourselves with a nice view before heading back down.

Eroding trail. Don't slip!

Picturesque Talloires.

After that it rained, having held off until we were done all our sightseeing. We spent a final night in Annecy, having chosen this area due to its proximity to Geneva. The next morning, we drove back to Geneva, which took a little under an hour. I dropped Carrie and Lily off at the train station, drove the car to the Canadian mission (like an embassy) to drop off the car seat (the guy who lent it to us works there), found a gas station, gassed up, drove over the border to the French side of the airport, dropped off the car, headed inside and to the Swiss side of the airport, and found the girls who'd taken the train from the station.

All this because I didn't know if there would be any agents at the border to nab us for transporting a child without a car seat (since we had to drop the seat off in Switzerland). There was nobody, but why take the chance? Oh, and I couldn't just bring the rental car to the Hertz on the Swiss side of the airport, since that's a different location and would make it a one-way (and very expensive) rental.

All ended well. We used Carrie's business class status to skip the long security lines. And she was nice enough to give me her business class seat on the plane. It's hard to fly economy once you've tasted the good life, let me tell you.

Lily visited me in my fancy pod occasionally.

I had wondered whether we should take Lily on this trip. Well, I don't regret it, even if she is perhaps just too young to remember it all. We're just happy she's such a great traveller.