Wood You Believe?: Toussaint Accompli

We have returned from our epic Toussaint pilgrimage to Paris and Normandy yesterday afternoon. I've already run two loads of laundry through the washer (but it all has to line-dry) and vacuumed the car. The kids had to get up bright and early to go to school this morning and I'll be trying to catch up on this blog, figure out the right amount of groceries for two and a half days and finalize some details for our next pilgrimage which begins on Wednesday since there is a long weekend off from school this week. (Nov 11 is a national holiday, so they take off Friday as well and call it "Le Pont de novembre" which means "the bridge.")

This is roughly what we did over the Toussaint break. I couldn't add ALL our stops to this map, but you get the idea. Plus we returned to Limoges, of course, which is not explicitly shown here. I think we drove about 1000km.

Receipts for tolls, gas, and parking. Almost 90 Euros worth of tolls! Fuel (diesel, for me) is around 1.50 Euro per liter if I'm lucky (more for gasoline). Sometimes the difference in price at various stations is as much as 35 cents per litre! I hunted around for low gas prices, and sometimes it ended up being a wild goose chase!

One time, I went a little bit out of my way, but then the pump wouldn't accept my credit card. I tried to offer other customers to reimburse them in cash if they would be willing to use their credit card for me. That didn't work out too well, so I ended up having to go to another station that ALSO rejected my credit card (I subsequently found out b/c it registered as a "signature required" card - but those are the only gas stations that have done that to me!!) However, at the second station, they have a little kiosk where you can choose an amount to pay - no possibility for change or refunds-- and then it prints out a receipt with a bar code which you then scan at the pump to get gas. I had no idea how much it was going to cost to fill up, so I chose 50 Euros and inserted cash, which was more than twice as much as I needed. Womp womp. I'm hoping that I can use the remaining balance at a gas station of the same brand, but I really don't know for sure how it works!

It pains me to think about the myriad little mistakes like this that cost me extra money, but I don't know how to avoid it completely.

Oh, but wait, the night before we were due to depart, Samuel was complaining to me about how much his foot hurt and that he was having a hard time walking on it. He had fallen in some weird way at recess at school. And when I say "complaining," I mean crying and yelling over the pain and having a hard time putting his sock on and off etc. I looked at his foot and it had a little red bump on the side. Considering that we were about to do five straight days of walking, I really wanted to make sure he didn't have a serious injury, so I took him to "urgences" (the emergency room) to have his foot checked out.

He got his foot x-rayed and nothing was broken. So they prescribed him some pain-killer / anti inflammatory and arnica gel and told us to ice his foot. He was up to his usual shenanigans and wildness within a day. The bill for that visit is yet to be received.

Off we go!

Early in the morning Saturday Oct 23.

I rely on the GPS (Google maps) to direct me where I am going. I honestly don't remember how I did this 20 years ago without GPS! I guess I must have studied maps and written out the directions out for myself. I can hardly believe that! I brought a road atlas of France with me on this trip, just in case, but I haven't used it yet.

This is (part of) the toll plaza we went through before getting to Paris. It reminds me of entering Disney World.

So sometimes google maps is a little quirky. I had plugged in "Limoges to Paris" multiple times before leaving to get an idea of the time, what route it would take me through Paris, etc. Well, on the day we are actually driving there, as we are approaching Paris, I was following the recommended route. There was a point just as we are entering the city where it showed an alternate route, which would have been the périphérique (and in my earlier planning stages, it always showed me taking the périphérique), so I had to make a split-second decision - take the périphérique or let it navigate me through Paris itself? I thought, "There's so many things we won't have the time to see in Paris, maybe we can at least get a feel of the city by driving through it." It started out great. We were driving in a one lane road along the Seine. Not the prettiest part of Paris, but easy to drive. We spotted the Eiffel Tower, so on and so forth.

Then we started getting into some more serious city driving, and eventually I found myself about to enter "L'Etoile" (star), which is the insanity that surrounds the Arc de Triomphe!! That was NOT part of the plan! I told the kids to be quiet and start praying! It is about 10 unmarked lanes of traffic circling around. The roads entering the circle have the right of way. (Thank you, Lord, that a friend just happened to tell me that the day before we drove to Paris!) Motorcycles weave in and out. Cars vie for position... Well I put on a brave face and embraced the challenge! It was rather exhilarating - similar to the rush of adrenaline one gets when riding a roller coaster!

Watch this video to get an idea of the traffic. Just turn down the sound because there is a lot of wind noise. Otherwise it's just someone speaking a foreign language while filming the traffic.

After that excitement, I made my way up to Montmartre where Sacre Coeur sits. There are a LOT of narrow one-way streets around there, and Montmartre is packed with pedestrians. So that was fun. I was squeezing through some narrow streets at about 1 cm an hour while waiting for the pedestrians to get out of the way. At one point, this guy smiled and gave me a look like, "haha, good luck, Lady!" (It was friendly and I smiled back in commiseration because I was doing something justifiably crazy.)

At any rate, I decided to go through all that driving craziness because I kept weighing that challenge against the challenge of parking somewhere far away and having to walk with all my kids and our luggage through these streets while not losing anyone or anything and I decided that I preferred the former. And by God's good grace, I made it through without any insult or injury! Although I had made a reservation at a parking garage in Paris, I was hoping against all hope that I might find a (free?) parking space much closer to Sacre-Coeur. (I had analyzed the street views around Sacre Coeur and found some promising possibilities.) At the very least, I thought I could drop off the kids with the luggage, look for a spot and then if I needed to use the parking reservation, I would.

Well wonder of wonders, and miracles of miracles, I did find a street to park on right across from the entrance to Ephrem guest house! Then, when I was inquiring with the receptionist if she thought it would actually be OK to park there because it was labeled as paid parking, but there were no parking meters to be found, she asked me about the size of my car, got up from her desk and took a look at the tiny parking lot inside the guest house gate (there are literally three spaces) and told me that I could park there that night!! And leave my car there the whole time!! and it was FREE!! and it was secure behind a gate!!! I told my children that they had witnessed a bona fide miracle! Thanks to "Our Lady of the Parking Space." 💙

Day 1 was mostly set aside for traveling and unpacking. We also went to a pharmacy for Joseph, Simon and I to get COVID tests so that we could have a Pass Sanitaire in order to enter some of the sites on our itinerary that would require it.

And I met up briefly with an old friend from Niger who now lives in a suburb of Paris with his wife. He was getting ready to leave for Niger on Monday for his vacation, so it was a short reunion, but it was nice to see him in person again.