Venturescence: December 27th & 28th

Communication and connectivity have been a bit of a challenge in France so we are finally back in Goetteldorf and I can take the time to update the blog with our exciting adventures.

Paris is a truly beautiful and romantic city. We managed to obtain way more area knowledge of Paris City and environmens than we probably would ever need - and learnt that Sequoia, Pheonix and I are absolutely terrible navigators (new year's resolution is to enroll the three of us into some sort of course to rectify this before too long).

However, to start at the beginning...

After our night in Luxembourg, we set off for Belgium with the single-minded determination to find...chocolate!!!

We were directed to a little town in southern Belgium, Aarlon, by one of the hotel staff, so we headed off there...

Aarlon is quite a lot like Luxembourg in that it appears OLD and QUAINT.

Belgium Church

A building marked as 1634

Once we parked our car, we stopped a lady walking past who unfortunately could only speak frence to ask where we could find a chocolate shop. She pointed past the nearby church and indicated to walk up the hill and then turn to the left. We locked up the car and started walking. Just when we arrived at a little cobblestoned street, the lady appeared again and took us to a nearby cheese and chocolate shop. The owner had just arrived who then opened her store up just for us. The shop itself was quite 'aromatic' but there were some delicious chocolates there that we purchased.

Aromatic Belgium store

Kids outside Cheese and Chocolate Shop

We then continued on to another exclusive shop which was exclusively Belgium Chocolate!

The kids and I had lots of fun in there!!! Before we headed off for our drive into France, we set off to find a Post Office. We found an outdoor ice-skating rink instead, which we had a go. The kids loved it!!! The Post Office was right across the cobblestone road, so once I had gone around the rink a few times, I left the kids to it and went to get some stamps and postcards. Alas, no post cards and the line was at least 20 deep. I abandoned that mission and hurried back to the kids who I had to practically drag off the rink:

Big smiles - iceskating boy!!!!

Much fun - iceskating girl!!!

I'll spare y'all the iceskating lady pic :-)

Once we had had a nice little stop in Belgium, we headed on to France. Along, the way, we took a bit of a detour off the main autoroute and found ourselves in a gorgeous little town where we enjoyed some lunch from one of the little bakeries.

Our bakery

Lots of treats

Once we had our delicious pastries, we headed off to Paris to meet our homestay family, Leila, Omar and their three children. We finally arrived at the address I had been given only to find that we went to the wrong Avenue Paul-Vaillent Coutourier (there are apparently three in Paris). So, braving the Paris peak-hour traffic, we made our way to the correct place and boy, it was great to finally get there.

Our homestay family were very lovely people, but it was a very strange situation - but I guess this is what we had signed up for! Firstly, their tiny flat is right on the main street of La Courneurve, a suburb of Paris. You enter through a metal door on the street between a butcher and fruit and vegetable shop. You make your way down a very dodgy alleyway to another locked metal door, that leads to a little concrete courtyard. Our host family is in the middle of renovations, so there were a lot of building materials and a concrete mixer in this tiny little area.

When you enter the door (only one entrance), you make your way up two flights of stairs in a very cramped stair-well and straight into the living area. As you walk up the upper set of stairs, you see a huge picture of an older french man on the wall, which within minutes of meeting our family, we were informed was Omar's father, who passed away last year.

Leila and her family were very welcoming, although it almost felt as though they were trying to make our experience a bit hotel-like. We were shown to our room, which was a set of bunks with a trundle bed for the three of us.

I must admit that although I didn't have any specific expectations of our homestay, I was quite surprised to find that we were eating seperately from the family. I guess logistically, the flat is so tiny there really wasn't the option to all eat together, but now I think about it, my idea of a homestay is to intergrate somewhat with your guests.

Anyhow, dinner was delicious...

First dinner

After dinner, Leila informed us that it was her daughter's sixth birthday and invited us sing happy birthday with them and share some cake, which was nice. The cake was this little train that had an awesome sparkler candle (which I admired so much that Leila presented us with some the other day and has just occurred to me would be completely illegal in other countries and in no way will we be able to take back to Australia with us). I unfortunately did not get a photo of Leila and Omar, but here is one of us with the children.

Early the next morning we set out to explore Paris....first stop the Eiffel Tower!!!!!!

Eiffel Tower!!!!

Near the base of the Eiffel Tower are some gorgeous Christmas Markets complete with outdoor ice-skating rink.

One thing I will totally recommend with a visit to Eiffel Tower is to definitely book your tickets in advance. Our host, Leila, had said this was not required, but we found ourselves lining up for what was probably two hours. There were so many people!!!! And, if you go during the winter, definitely rug up! Especially when you a queuing to catch the elevator to the next level, the winds up that high are chilling - even with all our thermals, hats, gloves and scarves.

The view from the second level of the tower: