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| Family photo on the river in Lourdes |
The Hamilton family made a last minute trip to France in October for ten days. By Hamilton family, I mean there were about 10 of us- and nobody got lost or left behind!! We flew to Paris on an overnight flight, and Charlie slept on the floor under my seat on the plane for about 5 or 6 hours. We jumped on a bullet train to Lourdes and were there for 3 days. Charlie and I got to do the holy baths together, which was really very spiritually cleansing for us both. Overall, the people in France were very welcoming and patient with us. Thank goodness Eddie's Aunt MaryAnn came on the trip with us- she spoke french fluently and got us out of a number of tangles, not to mention translating the menus for us at all the restaurants. I had the best fish I've ever had in my life, and the bread in France overall was unbelievable! My favorite was called Vennoise- which was a light baguette with dark chocolate chips. The coffee was amazing too! (leave it to me to remember a vacation by what food I ate where- ;))
We took another train to Caen and rented some cars to stay at a farm (built in the mid 1700s)on the countryside in Normandy. The history buffs on the trip got to thoroughly explore the remnants of D-Day and Omaha Beach. They had a great museum (it was free) and cemetary right on the bluffs overlooking Omaha Beach. After an overnight in Caen we jumped on the train back to Paris early in the morning. Once in Paris, we broke into groups to do sightseeing for a few days. We hit all the main attractions like Notre Dame Cathedral (where we got to go to mass), the Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, L'Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elyssee and of course, the Eiffel Tower. I even got to see the "rose line" in Saint Chapel (from The DaVinci Code ...anyone?).
Charlie was an amazing baby on the whole trip- sleeping whenever he got tired and eating anything we gave him to try. He got serious giggles when Eddie flipped a hotel room card or a credit card on a table- I'll have to remember that one. He tried to get out of his stroller to chase pigeons or puppies and loved the sparkling light show of the Eiffel Tower at night. We watched Mary Poppins on the plane on the way home, and Charlie thought the "tidy up the nursery" part was really funny, and barked at the screen when he saw the scene with the animated fox hunt in Burt's drawing.
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| Charlie got a big kick out of the animals at the farm we stayed at in Normandy- horses, cows, chickens, ducks and of course the goats! |
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| Since Charlie spent most of the trip in his stroller, he grabbed everything he could that was at knee-level. We are pretty lucky that he isn't walking yet, since he was pretty content in the stroller the whole time. He went crazy at night though, wiggling around like crazy to burn energy that he'd saved up all day. It won't be long until he's walking though- he pulls himself to standing constantly on anything that will stay still and "transfers" all over a room. |
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| This is where he took all of his naps. Probably not the most comfortable, but he is such a chill kid he slept everywhere. |
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| Oh my goodness... he couldn't get enough of all the doggies in Paris! He even chased one- crawling across the grass after it under the Eiffel Tower as it yapped in fear behind its owner (who was laughing at how scared her silly dog was). Poor thing. ;) |
