Hello all, it's been a bit quiet here, but I'm back to blogging now :). We just did a 10 day road trip to France, being our favourite country to visit and K really wanted to bring Isabelle to Disneyland. This year we are on a mission to build as much memories as possible, and this trip is one of the highlights. It was epic in many ways, mainly because we are traveling during strange times such as this, and being the very cautious Bel, I managed to let K convince me to go ahead with this trip. Also, Isabelle finally met Elsa and Anna, so that was very epic for her. Gabriel enjoyed himself too, and recognises Mickey and Minnie now, pointing them out excitedly to me.
We had been monitoring the news carefully, and we knew that this trip would only be confirmed very last minute, as the UK government had placed France in its own special "Amber+" category, meaning if it gets moved to red (the next category), we would need to quarantine in a hotel upon our return. This was a definitely no-go for us. Luckily two weeks before our trip, they moved it back down to Amber, meaning we just had to do two PCR tests upon our return to England. I say England here instead of the UK is because Scotland, Ireland and Wales all have their own different rules. To visit France, you have to be double vaccinated which both K and I were. Throughout our trip we were asked for our covid passports to be scanned wherever we went- restaurants, cafes, even at Disneyland. People wore masks everywhere- indoor and outdoor places. This compared to rules-free England. We were really surprised.
K and I sat down together to plan our route the night the government was due to announce moving France to the Amber list and I managed to book our accommodation before everyone else rushed in. We booked the Euro Tunnel, which meant we were taking our own car and driving it into the train across the channel. I told K I didn't want to take any plane or cruise ship over. Our Holy Grail was Disneyland and so we planned our road trip to gear towards there, and then back up towards Calais.
In total K drove more than 900km in the 10 days. Go K! So glad we managed to break it up by visiting small towns and villages. I do love visiting quaint French villages whereas K really enjoys French food.
A few facts of our trip:
- We stayed in 4 different places, of which 3 were Air BnB apartments and the last being a hotel ranch within the compounds of Disneyland Paris
- We spent 3 days at Disneyland Paris. Even though our ranch was a 10min drive away, somehow it would take us an hour to drive there, find parking, walk from the parking lot to the security queue (very far), and finally to the entrance queue. There was just so much walking involved everyday.
- We visited Carrefour multiple times to get food when we planned to cook our own meals (plus point of staying in apartments). We especially love their hypermarkets. And the kids get their kids-sized trolleys which was so cute and they went crazy over them.
- Because it was a 10 day trip, we were lucky that all apartments had washing machines (one even came with a dryer - life changing). I did 3 loads throughout our trip.
- For breakfasts, we mostly liked to visit a local boulangerie for freshly baked croissants or other pastries. The baguette in France is really different and tastes so good.
- They are very strict on face coverings and you need to be vaccinated in order to eat at cafes and restaurants. Even outdoor places like Disneyland, you need to wear a mask and be double vaccinated.
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