France Summer Road Trip | Amiens

I know I planned a post for each place we visited but oh well, I got caught up with life since coming back, especially Izzy returned to school less than a week later.  

After crossing the channel, our first stop was actually MacDonald's because we needed a toilet break, and we thought it would be a good idea to get some breakfast.  To our surprise, the doors were locked and after knocking on them and wondering if they were closed, the manager came out and asked for our passports.  "Passports?" we asked in surprise.  He didn't speak much English but I soon guessed what he wanted - our covid passports.  Geez, even MacDonald's?  Well, we later found out that not only MacDonald's but every single restaurant, cafe, that we went to - they all needed to validate our covid passports.  They are also very strict on their mask mandate, well I say strict but because England has no more such rules and we live in complete freedom as if pre covid, we had a bit of a shock in France.  In any case we were prepped for this - we both are vaccinated and have got our legit covid passports so we were good to go.

On our way // On y va!

The drive to Amiens ("ah-mien") took less than 2h and we were there in time for lunch.  I had pre booked a steak house somewhere in the city centre.  It was full of locals so it should be good, but somehow I didn't enjoy my steak that much.  K did though, which was good.  We ordered a kids meal for the kids to share, but they didn't like the minced beef patty.  However their eyes soon lit up when they saw their ice cream dessert.  

After lunch we walked toward the main cathedral (that's what you do in every French city or town - visit their main cathedral which would be in the city centre and a good place to start your visit).  It had a square outside and the Tourism Office was right next to it.  We visited the cathedral and then decided to walk towards the river and the houses around it (similar to Clarke Quay in Singapore).

Almost impossible to take a decent photo with these two kids

I love classic French doors and windows like this

And their colourful shopfronts

Including this cute bookstore

We then decided to check into our Air BnB in the late afternoon before heading out for dinner by the river.  That dinner was... a disaster.  The kids were tired out and Gabriel cried and cried because he refused to sit on the baby booster seat.  He then broke a wine glass.  Izzy refused to eat, ran around and fell.  Started crying too.  Seriously, the night was getting from bad to worse.  I could have hid under my chair.  The food was bad and I could feel all pairs of French eyes on us.  K and I barely touched our food.  Quel horreur!  We gave up midway and asked for the bill.  The poor waitress sensed the tension in the air and tried to explain to us in French that we were yet to have our desserts but we just kept saying no, it's ok.  I mean, K and I just wanted to leave that place ASAP.  The moment we stood up and left, I could almost feel a collective sigh of relief from the rest of the diners.

We decided to have a good rest that night and hopefully start the next day on a better note than that evening.  

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When K was packing the stuff for the trip, I sighed when I saw him loading up the scooter and the balance bikes.  "Will we even use them? They take up so much space!"  I said to him.  He was confident that we would, and said we would find a park for them to have fun and release some energy.  True enough, the next morning in Amien, he suggested visiting a local park for the kids to have a bit of fun.  I was actually glad he said that, because I was so focussed on visiting the places we had to visit as tourists, but forgot that for them, what is the most enjoyable is not visiting a cathedral but being able to ride on their scooters or visit a playground.  

Saint-Pierre is a local park and it so happened they had a summer playground set up in this park where kids can play for free.  Izzy joined in for one of them, and she enjoyed it.  Gabriel was just happy on his doggie balance bike.  We spent more than an hour here, before deciding to find a place for lunch.

After lunch we did a very local tourist activity, which was taking a canal ride on a boat with other French tourists.  The tour was done by an older man, in French.  We didn't understand a word but admired the scenery around us.

The tour was approximately 45minutes and after that we walked back to the Belfry (big bell below) and towards their high street where the shops were. 

What I love about their pharmacies in France: there are endless rows of facial products.  I mean, it's paradise.  I could have spent hours in here exploring if not for K coming in to hurry me up.  I didn't buy a stash in case you were wondering, but I had lots of fun browsing.

What the kids love about supermarkets in France: their super cute mini-sized shopping trolleys.

We spent two days in Amiens, and the house we stayed in was clean with good facilities.  It's the first time I've seen a washer-dryer machine made available so readily for us.  For a 10 day trip, I was prepared to wash some clothes along the way and having a dryer made all the difference.  So yes I did my first load of laundry on our second day in France ;)