Little late be better late than never. We did the annual French pilgrimage/vacation in August. However, instead of going to the sea (Mediterranean) we went to the ocean (Atlanctic) for a bit of surfing, wine tasting, visiting the tourist attractions and lounging on the beach.
Last weekend we met my family in Paris. Let me say first, it is hard work to take a group of people around Paris especially when you are not getting paid!, but we still had a lot of fun. Below I have posted a couple of pics from the trip.
Last weekend we spent a night at a Refuge called Entré Deux Eaux in the Parc de la Vanoise. The Parc de la Vanoise is a national park in Savoie (not to be mistaken with Haute Savoie where Val’s father lives) about 2 and ½ hours from Lyon.
The refuge is located up at 2300 meters and there is still snow on the ground in some areas. We weren’t quite prepared for this seeing as we were both wearing running shoes (opps). However, it wasn’t enough snow to stop us especially when you see views. It takes about 2 hours normally to get to the refuge from the parking area. However, we managed to get lost adding an extra hour and we ran across a waterfall that we could not cross so we had to turn back and find another way down.Coming back up was difficult but shorter since we knew what not to do.
Today I am suffering from post vacation/ jet lag blues.. Depressed, very depressed… We got back home at 8pm on Sunday night after a grueling 15 hours of flights. No time to acclimatize since we both had to work Monday morning so we dropped our bags did a tiny bit of unpacking and went straight to bed.
Well, today is Tuesday and I feel completely exhausted. Mathieu slept all day yesterday and of course was wide awake at 2am in the morning. My guess is that he will sleep all day today as well and be awake again at 2am. The good news is that we have a short work week thanks to a holiday on Thursday. We are going to make it a long weekend and head to Ardeche a bit south of Lyon. It should be fun and allow us to recuperate a bit from our vacation : ) Nothing like the French life style…
It was really difficult to leave this the US this time. Probably because the apt exchange that we did (once again a success) couldn’t have been better. As I mentioned in a previous blog we stayed in Oceanside. Well, the apt lived up to all expectations and Oceanside was a lot more fun than we expected. The complex included a pool, spa, gym and a view of the ocean from our balcony. On top of that we were no more than 100 yards from the ocean. It was definitely one of the most relaxing vacations we have taken.
Each morning consisted of surfing, pool, gym and/or all the above. Mathieu spent a ton of time swimming and jumping of the edge of the pool into daddy’s and mommy’s arms. He definitely preferred the pool over the beach and ocean. The afternoons consisted of the usual SD hotspots: PB, downtown, Del Mar, La Jolla and several margaritas, chips and salsa.
We were a bit disappointed that we couldn’t eat a burger at Hodads though. We stopped by one afternoon around 3pm and there was a line down the street thanks to a recent ranking putting it in the top 5 US hamburger joints.
We broke up the vacation with a short weekend in Sac. My Mom had spent the week with us in Oceanside so the visit to Sac was to see the rest of the family and to meet the newest addition Sarah Coolican who was born 2 months earlier. It was great to see everyone and we can’t wait to see most of the family again here in Paris in July.
Here is a quick update from a previous blog. If you follow the blog you know we had a problem with getting a car seat for Mathieu. We didn’t want to pay $160 to rent one. Well, we solved the issue by finding a local Target about 5 minutes from LAX. Yes, we had to take Mathieu there without a car seat. We bought the car seat for $59 and used it throughout the trip and then returned it on the way out. Not very ethical I know, but extremely effective and cheap :)
