Our First Cricket Match!

Brandon's team all got tickets to the see the local cricket match--our first one! We got there early so we wouldn't have to fight the crowds, but I got stopped at security because of my bag full of things. We carefully read the rules beforehand about what we could and couldn't bring, but it didn't mention some things so we risked it and brought them anyway. Basically, we were worried about the temperature (mid-90s when we got there), and that we would be sitting in the sun the entire time (I even bought Brandon a very fancy cricket hat for the occasion, which he didn't really need since we weren't in the sun very long), so we geared up accordingly. We were told by security that our disposable water bottles were not allowed and neither was our bug spray, but remarkably, the battery-operated spray fan was allowed in. We all took a gulp or two of water and sprayed ourselves down with bug spray before leaving our bottles behind, and then went on our way. 

From the get-go, we stuck out, but everyone seemed very happy to see us and the guys sitting next to Brandon made friends with him right away. It was also obvious that we would have to guard all Brandon's coworkers seats until they arrived because otherwise anyone else--everyone else--would try and sit in them. (I mean, we had good seats, so I can't blame them. Plus, some of Brandon's coworkers didn't show up until we were a couple hours into the game). Delhi won the coin toss and chose to bowl. Yeah . . . I didn't know what that meant either, but H was happy to explain it all to us. He was in his element here.

The enthusiasm from the crowd was contagious--everyone was so pumped up!--yelling "RCB" or "suuuuuuper" over and over. There were cheerleaders who went from place to place in the stadium where little cages were set up for them to dance, play drums, hold up signs, do break dancing for a little while before getting out of the cage to go to the next one and do it all over again. Even not knowing exactly what was going on, it was a fun time!

I couldn't get a video of the cheerleaders doing their thing,

but here they are on the jumbotron

Plus, food! There was biryani, pizza, and momos if you left the stands, but there was plenty to buy from the hawkers wandering the seats. There was soda by the cup (you know, pre-filled cups of various soda flavors), Mangalore churumuri (the vendors yelled "Mangalore!” to get people's attention; grocery stores sell puffed rice just for this kind of dish. We buy it to make rice krispie treats.), samosa (but they yelled "samosi." Which made me wonder, do non-Indians say the plural wrong?!), and buttered popcorn (emphasis on the 'corn' when you say it) with black pepper for just 70 rupees (about 85 cents). Nearish the end, Brandon's coworker bought us all ice cream bars and that's what sustained us for the entirety of the four hour game.

I would totally go again.

Normandy and Paris, France!

Brandon and I couldn't decide on a destination for Spring Break, but he had a great idea: everyone in the family would choose a place and then make a presentation to the rest of us about why we should go there. CJ picked Paris, E picked Italy, H picked Australia, I picked eastern Spain, and B picked a Baltic road trip. After everyone's pitch, we had a family vote and Paris won. Now, the vote wasn't definitive, but after Brandon and I priced out flights and hotels (Paris was still way more expensive than we anticipated), discussed activities and places outside of Paris that we could visit, we were sold!

That said, France took way more planning than I initially anticipated. Scheduling everything out and getting all the tickets--even though tickets for different places were released at different days and times--and then making sure we had all the time we needed to see all the things? It was a lot. Sure, we could have just showed up to all the sites and hoped they had tickets available, but how lame would that be if we couldn't go the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre because we had waited until we got there? It took some planning and rearranging our schedule based on when tickets were available, but we made it work.

And then, a couple weeks before our trip, Air France cancelled our return flight and rescheduled it for the following day. So we had to stay in France a day longer than we originally planned. It meant booking a new AirBnb and buying tickets to see more things, but we made the sacrifice. 😉

So after a uneventful 10-hour red-eye, we landed in Paris and went straight to the car rental so we could drive to our first stop: Rouen. We ate lunch (the first of many stops for shawarma!) and then went to the Rouen Notre Dame--the tallest cathedral in France, and unique because of it's different steeple styles!

We passed this place while walking to the cathedral.

No, we did not eat there.

And this is where I tell you--if you couldn't already tell from the pictures--that we were freezing our tails off. High 50s/low 60s didn't sound that cold when we checked the weather beforehand, but we didn't take into consideration that that also means that most of the day the temperature is . . . a lot less than that. Plus the clouds and occasional rain made it feel pretty dang cold. Basically, we totally overestimated our ability to withstand any kind of weather. (BLR's moderate year-round temperatures have ruined us.) 

After seeing the cathedral, we walked down the street behind it to our quirky AirBnb (picked because of it's amazing location!), reachable only by going through a narrow alley and up three flights of stairs.

Back entrance to the cathedral grounds

 

 

The only bathroom was up a steep and narrow staircase.

Hi Brandon!

But the view from our place was unbeatable!

After dropping off our bags, warming up a little and putting on some more layers, we walked to the St. Maclou Catholic Church. It wasn't open to go inside, but it sure was pretty.

Isn't old town Rouen adorable?

We walked around a bit and went to the grocery store, but the kids were pretty much done at this point, so Brandon and I dropped them back off at the AirBnB and went exploring. We had some hot chocolate at an outdoor cafe (they had heaters and blankets, which was nice) and bought some thermals for the girls at a Decathalon to wear under their pants. It was not enough.

We had hoped to go to church in Rouen, but we contacted the local ward beforehand and it was going to be watching general conference, so the next morning we opted to walk around to see more of the city. 

Seriously loved the view from our AirBnb

To be honest, I'm not sure

what was going on here, but I love this picture!

First we walked to the dungeon tower where Joan of Arc was held before her execution (sadly, the tower was closed), and then headed to the square where the execution actually took place. They built a church on the square in her honor (also inexplicably closed, even though we waited around for it to open) which looked like it would have been really cool inside.

 

No idea what was going on with the giant teddy bears

We walked back to our AirBnb via a different route, saying goodbye to the cathedral on our way. We wished we could've spent longer in this beautiful town, but we grabbed our stuff, and headed out.

And then we were on the road to our next destination: Mont Saint-Michel. This place? Just as beautiful as it looks in the pictures. We took a shuttle to the island (if the weather was better, this would have been an amazing walk or bike ride), hiked our way up to the abbey, and then explored the rest of the town. We also ate our first crepes, galettes, and quiche of the trip and all of them were divine!

After a lovely afternoon exploring, we went to our bed and breakfast: a restored 16th century farm house that was idyllic in every way. The beautiful countryside, goats, dogs, geese, and a cute little chapel next door. The owners were so nice, and they fed us an amazing breakfast the next morning including homemade yogurt, jam, kefir, and sweet bread.

Between Mont Saint-Michel and our beautiful bed and breakfast, we were sad to say goodbye to Normandy! But happy to raid the clearance section of another Decathlon along the way to get everyone some coats! It was a bit of a drive to go back to Paris, but we made some stops along the way. First stop was Chateau de Robert le Diable, a completely random destination that we spotted from the road as we were driving. It was sadly closed for admission, but it was still fun to see up close.

So after a quick stop we decided to get some lunch. We tried wandering through the main drag of the nearest town, but nothing was either open or appealing, so we found the nearest doner place on google maps. It was a little out of the way, and we were the only ones there that didn't look like we were on their lunch break, but it was the best doner of our entire trip! Also, dragon fruit Fanta!

On our way to our next destination we decided to stop when we saw a little patisserie. Everyone picked something to picnic on when we got there (Where are all my food pictures? Seriously, I don't think I took any.) and everything was so. good. 

We plugged in our destination on our GPS but it wasn't until we were getting close that H pointed out that the GPS said we needed to get on a ferry. Um, what? Yeah we didn't even notice. So the GPS took us to the ferry pickup, we assumed, but just to be sure, Brandon got out and asked the driver of the car in front of us if we were in the right place. Yup! The ferry ride itself was no more than five minutes long, but it was a fun surprise.

On the other side, it was a quick drive to the amazing Jumieges Abbey.  If there's anything we love, it's exploring ruins and this one was fantastic!

 

 

With that last stop, it was time to go to Paris, return our rental car, and check into our interesting hotel. We walked a short ways to a restaurant, but there was a line out the door so we pivoted to the taqueria across the street. Our expectations were low, but the food was actually pretty good (that, or we're used to Indian-Mexican food).

The next morning we met Chelon at the Eiffel Tower! (So glad we booked our tickets ahead of time because the lines looked brutal!) We booked tickets to the "second floor," about half way up the tower, which meant hiking 669 steps up and 669 steps back down again. We were super impressed with how well the kids did on the stairs. Plus the view was pretty sweet!

You all know by now that I love a tower, but my knee did not love those stairs going down the Eiffel. By the time we were done, I was limping, so it's a good thing that our next stop was just a short bus ride away: the Arc de Triomphe! 

Did you know that you can go inside the Arc de Triomphe and that there's a view point from the top? Because we sure didn't until we started planning this trip! Lucky for my knee, they let us use their elevator to go back down.

 

Freakin' stairs. Freakin' knee.

 

Tried to get a kissing pic, but this was the best we could do.

I actually sort of love it.

We had reserved tickets for Sainte-Chapelle in the afternoon, but with some time to spare, we took the nearest metro that direction to get some lunch. We got off at the river, crossed the bridge, and found our restaurant. We had planned to get Vietnamese (banh mis with fresh baguettes! Yes please!), but the line was out the door, so Brandon scouted out a café around the corner where we could eat. 

[Side bar: if I haven't said it before, can I just tell you how awesome it is that we can travel to wherever and we don't have to worry about whether there will be "something for the kids to eat?" I mean, France is not a huge stretch here, but still. CJ ordered a caprese salad and she and I shared my ham and egg galette. H doesn't like eggs, but he tried a quiche in Mont Sainte-Michel and then ordered one every chance he could the rest of the trip. My kids rarely use the kids menu because they'd rather eat real food than whatever dumbed down stuff they think kids like. Raising kids that are willing to try new foods is not easy, but it makes travelling so. much. easier. And yeah, this is me patting myself on the back a little.]

So after some amazing galettes, salads, and sandwiches, we walked over to Sainte-Chapelle to get in line for our ticket time. When we got there, there was a crowd of people blocking the sidewalk. It took a while to figure out that the crowd was actually a set of lines and then determine which line our time was for. It seemed that Sainte-Chapelle was over an hour behind schedule in admitting people, so that meant waiting until our scheduled time came and went, and then waiting some more. 

To pass all this time, we began to play all sorts of clapping games, which caught on with the other families in line until all the kids around us were all playing hand clapping games, too. Eventually, the games got old, but Brandon suggested we take bets on what time we would actually get inside. This made the rest of the wait entertaining because anytime we moved, there were a lot of cheers. All told, we waited 1 ½ - 1 hour forty-five minutes.

Was it worth it? It was cool, but honestly I think the only reason that the lines were so long was because this place makes for great social media fodder. It was really just one pretty room--ok, a really pretty room--but probably not pretty enough for such a long wait. 

I'm not sure how long we had been waiting in line at this point

but looking at the picture time stamp, we still had another hour of waiting to go 

Not much to look at from the outside

The pretty room before getting into the really pretty room:

And finally the pièce de résistance!

Ok, ok, it is pretty cool.

Our ticket booking came with free access to the Conciergerie next door, which had interactive audio tours, but by this point we were anxious to keep going so we cut it pretty short. I found a bench and rested my knee while H and CJ did a sped up version of the tour. 

And then we headed to Notre Dame; obviously, the place is still under construction from its fire, but you could see how awesome it once was. The girls and I sat to look at it while Chelon, Brandon, and H wandered around. We also stopped at the archeological crypt next door (again, it came with our tickets) which talked about the history of Paris and the ruins that have been found there.

After a full day, we found another Vietnamese restaurant for dinner (we were determined!) and stopped in a Russian grocery store that we happened to walk past. The owners were thrilled we came in--poor folks probably don't have much business right now--and we left with some tarkhun, pryanik, and sushki to snack on during the rest of the trip. After a great dinner (even though the baguettes weren't that fresh), we called it a day and went back to our hotel for some much needed rest.

The next morning, we headed to the catacombs! This was a must-see for us because we're kind of macabre that way. But for real--underground caverns stacked full of bones? It's a no brainer.

 

Air hole.

Basically, we were in the Pit of Despair.

We had afternoon tickets for the Louvre, so we headed in that direction and moseyed our way over. 

As soon as we got close to the Louvre, we could see the masses of people waiting to get in and quickly found which line was ours. It looked like it was going to be a long wait, and we were a little scarred by experience waiting to see Sainte Chapelle, so we pretty quickly started making bets. We all scoffed when Chelon said a ridiculously short amount of time--like fifteen or twenty minutes--but her optimism paid off! Shortly after we had established what times we thought we would be inside, our line started moving and Chelon was the clear winner! 

In line and ready to wait!

Once inside, we had a quick snack and then went straight to the sculpture section, but I don't even know if we saw them all (probably not). The sheer size of the Louvre coupled with the masses of people made the museum overwhelming, so eventually we looked at the map to prioritize what other things we wanted to see and planned a route. We could have spent all day there!

Look! We saw the Mona Lisa!

Just kidding!

Rather than waiting in line, we walked over to where people 

were exiting from the line and took our pictures from there.

Boom. Mona Lisa.

After, we went to the Pantheon, but wouldn't you know it? It was closed for a private event. No worries; we stopped at a patisserie and each picked out some treats to have a picnic with a pretty great view. (Although I gotta say I was pretty bitter that I was stuck with applesauce--albeit freshly made and delicious--when the rest of them got pastries. I'm not sure if that's why I'm making a face here or not, but there you go.)

 

Next to the Pantheon was a beautiful church that was open to visitors, so went inside to explore. 

Not bad for a random church in Paris!

After, we walked to the Luxembourg Gardens to hang out until our dinner restaurant opened. We watched kids push their boats around in the lake and then wandered around the gardens. 

We got Georgian for dinner, which was excellent!

What is that face I'm making?

Do I always cross my eyes when I take a picture?

What's going on?!

The next morning Brandon and I did something that we should have been doing every single day since we arrived in Paris: walked to a nearby gluten free patisserie and bought a whole bunch of pastries. They were divine! 

But the rest of the day had one goal: Versailles! It was an hour-long train ride to get there and then we rushed to get into line (we are line connoisseurs by this point), but we were told we had to wait--they didn't have a line for our ticket time yet. So we had a snack (the Russian snacks came in handy here!) and found our line again, only to be told when we got to the palace entrance that we didn't have the correct tickets. 

So here's the thing: before out trip, we bought a pass which gave us tickets to most of the major sites, but we still had to reserve our times for the more crowded places, such as Versailles. However, those passes only gave you access to certain parts of Versailles (Versailles is massive, btw), which, it turns out, were not the main attraction. But instead of getting a timed ticket for the part of Versailles that was included in our passes, Chelon bought a ticket to an additional part--the cool part we all thought we had tickets to. The tickets she bought we were actually way better than ours, so she went in to tour the palace while we figured out what our tickets actually did give us access to--some side palace on the other side of the estate. However, because of the strikes, the Versailles employees weren't sure whether our portion of Versailles would even be open that day or if it would just open late. (The strikes hadn't affected our trip at all up to this point, thank goodness.) So we bought tickets to see the gardens (you can tell it was still pretty chilly at this point) while we waited for Chelon, and for news about whether we would be able to use our other tickets.

 

By the time Chelon was free, we had heard from Versailles employees that the Estate of Trianon (the portion that we had tickets to), was opening afterall--albeit a couple hours late. Chelon walked the long way around to meet us at the estate, but it turns out there wasn't that much to see at Trianon. So we walked back through the garden to the entrance, seeing things we had missed along the way, and called it a day. 

We had a quick dinner, said goodbye to Chelon, checked out of our hotel and then took the train to our new digs for the remainder of our trip in a suburb of Paris. Why? Because the rest of our trip was going to be at Disneyland Paris! 

When AirFrance extended our trip by a day, we opted to spend two days at Disney instead of our original one. It worked out great because there were two parks so we went to one each day.

Day one was jam packed--the bigger of the two parks--and we went on all the rides!

  

Day 2 was just as fun! And we ended the day getting burgers at Five Guys, which hit the spot, before heading to the airport to go back home.

Tower of Terror is awesome! Brandon and I went three times

Just so you know, I rock at those laser shooting games

Until next time, France, au revoir!