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France Day 10: Sainte Chapelle

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For our first day back in Paris, I got us tickets to see Sainte Chapelle. I couldn’t get us tickets to Notre Dame, so I figured that we’d just Go get in the ticket-less line. Unfortunately, one look at that line said that there was no way that we’d be able to actually get into Notre Dame before we needed to be at Sainte Chapelle, so we settled for looking at the outside and figured that we’d try again later to get inside. A lot of the outside was still blocked off for reconstruction. But we got to see the most incredible stained glass at Sainte Chapelle! Then we wandered the Consierge, which was used as a prison during the French Revolution. And we found the cell that Marie Antoinette was imprisoned in. By the time we finished all of that, the fact that we hadn’t had lunch yet was very apparent, so we got a very late lunch/early dinner, went back to the house and finished Harry Potter and went to bed.
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France Day 9: Back to Paris

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Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and that included the gypsy wagon. I took a walk early before everyone else got up and enjoyed the quiet countryside. Then we said goodbye to the donkeys and headed back to Paris. There were definitely tears from the back seat. Driving in Paris is bad on a good day. But on Bastille Day? Oh boy. There are not even words. Let’s just say that we were all very happy to drop off the rental car and just deal with the metro from here on out… When we got to our place, we calmed down with some Harry Potter… …and then we walked to dinner and then wandered the park nearby where we found this little gem. And then we went back to the house and crashed, all exhausted and wishing we were back in the countryside.  
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Day 8: Guedelon

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Last year, my brother Matt told us about this castle that was being built using entire 13th century methods and tools. Pat was fascinated. That may have been a big part of why he suggested that we go to France on this vacation… So naturally we had to plan this stop into our trip. We started the morning with our breakfast basket and hammock time.   The we headed to Guedelon. Every single thing that is done to build this castle is done like they did in the Middle Ages. They used plants to make paints for the paintings, they used an ax to build the beams for the doors, they pulled the stones out of the quarry, they made nails at the blacksmith. Everything. It was fascinating! And they let you wander around while they were working, so we got to others the whole thing. I signed us up for a stone carving demonstration. The whole thing was amazing. Then in the way back to the gypsy wagon, we hit a deer on the road and that definitely put a damper on things… But for dinner, we had personal...
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Day 7: The Gypsy Wagon

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We packed up all of our stuff and headed to Menou. On our way, we stopped for a bathroom/coffee break at some random little town that I don’t even know the name of, but it was super cute. Rather than eating on the bench, Gabe was worried about the sun and chose to eat on the shade in the parking lot… This was a common view on our drive. At lunch we found a tv playing Spongebob at a gas station. Another super cute town. Then we got to Menou, to the gypsy wagon. It wasn’t really a gypsy wagon, it was a roulette, but it looked like a gypsy wagon, so we called it that. It was the best airbnb I’ve ever stayed at and the kids still say that this was their favorite thing to do in France. There were some donkeys that the boys got to feed. They mastered this parking lot game. There were no restaurants nearby, so our hosts made us a picnic dinner with local ingredients. Then we sat and read Harry Potter until it was time for bed. It was perfect. And Josy was clearly very relaxed while reading… ...
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