It’s an interesting thing, planning a trip of this scale. We had no idea what we were doing when we started thinking about it. We still don’t always know what we’re doing and the trip has started!
We figured we needed some parameters to guide our planning. So, we considered three main things in the choosing of places to visit. First, we decided to rule out any places with travel warnings from the Canadian government. Second, we need access to medication periodically as Shawn is a type 1 diabetic and we can’t carry enough insulin and everything with us to last the full 10 months. Third, we wanted to consider each of our bucket list places. All these factors played into our decisions of where we would visit on this 10 month adventure.
That was the plan…but everyone knows what happens to the best laid plans!
This is what happens…the day of departure you find out the very first accommodation of the trip is a fraudulent rental. You spend the entire morning on the phone…literally 5 hours…when you should be getting ready to go. You speak to 8 different agents, get disconnected 4 times, tell your story to each agent, find out the place you booked doesn’t even exist, worry that you’ll have no where to stay and your overseas flight is that night, learn that the rental company’s guarantee is a good one and they are arranging alternate accommodations for the first night in a hotel then contacting properties to find a new place for the rest of the stay. You spend the 2-3 hour trip from Stratford to the Halifax airport on the phone or email figuring out where we will stay for the rest of the 6 nights in Paris. Just before going through security you finalize another place to stay.
You sit down to wait for the flight, relieved you won’t be homeless in Paris, and find out your son’s headphones have already broken and we aren’t even yet on the plane. But, as luck would have it, there just happens to be a vending machine for a rather large company selling headphones… all you need is your credit card!
You board the plane for the overnight flight at 10:30 pm. No one sleeps very much. You get to Paris and get the bags and a taxi. Partway downtown in the taxi your 9 year old starts to complain she doesn’t feel well. Then, while you are stuck in crazy traffic, she more loudly says she thinks she is going to throw up. You frantically look around thinking, what can she throw up in so you don’t have to pay to clean the taxi and the only option is the water bottle in your bag. So, you are driving into the ‘City of Light’ making sure that she only throws up in the bottle all the while watching the 12 year old ‘chain puker’ to make sure he doesn’t start too as a result of hearing his sister!! I’m quite certain the poor taxi driver was lamenting this fare! Crazy Canadians…!!!
Well, all worked out in the end. We are now settled into our apartment (pic above) for the remainder of our stay in Paris. It’s lovely and spacious and literally a 3 min walk to the Eiffel Tower….Eve is in her glory! We have been eating way more carbs than usual and getting acquainted with our neighbourhood! Maybe the best laid plans sometimes go awry but, if you just roll with it and see where they lead, you might be pleasantly surprised by what you find at the end!
Cheers,