Trip to France

Sully-sur-Loire

We spent the end of May and the early part of this month in France. For a number of reasons, this holiday was different. There were only four of us as my eldest son wanted to stay in Singapore for his school camp and hopefully fit in some revision as this is an exam year for him. It was also the first summer holiday in Europe for my daughter. My son had been to the UK in the summer but he was only two back then. First time driving on the right side of the road which took a bit of getting used to.

My first experience of France was two days in Paris back in 1991. I was speeding through Western Europe with a Interrail ticket ticking off the list of the tourist highlights from my Let's Go travel guide. It was so long ago that traveller's cheques were still in use. It was before the time of mobile phones, internet, googlemap, tripadvisor - all the technology that made travelling in a non-English speaking country a lot less confusing for a non-French speaking Singaporean. 

It took a while to work out the high-level itinerary. Far too much to see, far too little time. I decided on a bit of variety so that I won't be accused of us just looking at buildings. Loire Valley for the chateaus, Chamonix for Mont Blanc, Colmar because it is not too far away from the Alps, and maybe Bern since we have to cut through Switzerland to get to Colmar. Maybe Strasbourg because it is near Colmar. Versailles because it is a must do that I didn't do in 1991 and then finally Paris. The detailed planning was left to the evenings in the hotel.

As can be expected, the kids fussed about the heat, too many historical buildings, always posing for photos, walking too much, having to bring their sweaters along, eating Chinese when we happen to find a Chinese restaurant. They are a joy to travel with but they need persuasion. Yes we will feed the ducks later, yes we will have ice-cream and lemonade, yes we will take the train later but now we have to walk, no we are not going in but we should take some photos. I explained to them separately that memories are important because they are growing up too quickly - they seem to understand.

They enjoyed the cable car rides up to mountains and playing with snow. They were proud of themselves when they made it up a few hundred steps after visiting the glacier grotto. They enjoyed playing next to rivers and the walk in the forest. The best bits about visiting Chateau de Chambord and the Palace of Versailles were the gift shops. The best thing about Paris must have been the rides on the Metro and the funicular up Montmartre. They enjoyed the unplanned cruised dinner along the Seine and surprised me when they asked me to take photos of them when then cruise passed by Eiffel Tower.

In the recent years, I have made the effort to print out a photobook after every family trip. I find myself looking at them more often when they are readily accessible. I used to do my best to choose the photos where everyone is smiling but these days I settle for photos of them looking anywhere but the camera. I settle for photos of them putting the napkin over their head during dinner. I hope that when they are older the carefully selected photos will help them remember the great time they had despite their occasional fuss. I hope they will also see how happy their parents were travelling with them.