Paris-France

Early July we arrived here, Zoe had been walking one day. The bullet trainride from Rotterdam to Paris was lovely, then we hit the underground chaosof Paris metro trains. A nice lady at the newspaper stand was very helpfulin pointing us in the right direction of accomodation and metro train to get there. We stayed in a hostel and had a room to ourselves which was nice.

The next day we caught the metro into the city centre and walked from one famous monument to another taking the appropriate pictures. We were all very tired at the end of the day. The lady at the newspaper stand was helpful again and rode on the metro back to the hostel with us. She invited us to her home where they pulled out their maps of France and suggested a nice place stay in the South that was small and not so overwhelming like Paris. I was able to bath Zoe there and she played with their child's toys. (Zoe has got good at finding other children's toys and helping herself!) Simple things like meeting someone friendly like this women make all the difference to a day. The next day we headed to the south of France.

Carcassonne

This is where we next stayed. It is near the town or city of Toulouse on the east side. Our first night was spent in an expensive hotel as we arrived at the end of the day and were tired of everything and needed to stop. The next day we found a much cheaper hotel in a quieter part of the town where we were provided with a porter cot and baby bath for Zoe , plus there was a balcony larger than our room for us alone to use. We spent a week there.

　

We really enjoyed our stay in Carcassonne and the guy who owned our hotel was the nicest French man we ever met. St.Josephs hotel it was if anyone is planning to go to Carcassonne.  It was here that we posted the laptop back to Rotterdam as we were having problems with connecting and finding a place to connect, so rather then lug it around we got rid of it. So that is why there was silence from our end for a while.

There was a medieval city over the river and up on a hill right next to the more modern town where we were staying, which was ancient as well. We spent a day in the medieval city looking at the shops that sold all sorts of things, walking along the city wall, eating and generally enjoying the place. There was a fantastic merrygoround which Zoe had a ride on, she didn't seem to sure about it at first and couldn't decide which thing she wanted to ride on the donkey or the horse????

Back to the part of the town we stayed in. There were people busking in the streets and in the square of the town there was a huge market every other day where fresh fruit and vege were sold, breads and sweets, baskets etc. There was a performance in the square one day of dances and musicians from an Asian country and we were able to watch along with the rest of the crowd. (pictures of this also). In the square every evening the pub come restaurants spilled out into the open and you could eat there. In France you cannot order the evening meal until after 7pm. People sit around drinking waiting for the food. Zoe began to sleep later in the day so she would be awake to take to dinner. She would go to bed around 9:30pm each night and sleep till 8-8:30 each morning. It seems to be the culture in France to have children running around late. Many families seem to eat out, mum and dad sit and eat while the children run around the  square climbing steps, mucking around with the fountain etc. This was where Zoe began her relationship with fountains. In between meal courses Lyndon and I would take turns at letting her paddle her feet in the water. She enjoyed being around other children at this time of day and would squeal with laughter and try hard to keep up with their running. Many people had little dogs in Europe and Zoe loves dogs. What was amusing was that she would see a big dog say 'dog' and with a small dog she went'meow' Lyndon and I thought this was hillarious.