Leaving Paris – August 18th 2017
We left Paris with a new lease on life, well, a lease on a car that is!!! This was now going to be our wheels for the next 60 days in Europe. We chose to drive for a couple reasons.
1. We thought we could do more exploring, going where cars can and buses and trains won’t go.
2. It was actually going to be about the same, maybe even cheaper than getting all 5 of us a Eurorail pass. The Eurorail may have been pretty good, but we would still need to factor in getting from train station to airbnb or other places. Extra cost there with the city transportation.
So Mark picked up our car from the airport and drove it back to us in the city to load up. We picked a midsize. It was a small SUV. From all the pictures we looked at beforehand there was going to be more than enough trunk space. Let me tell you, it was like a puzzle trying to get everything to fit when we left. We were stuffed to the roof in the back and had bags all around us. This was not going to work for 60 days.
Our first stop after leaving the city was to Norauto (similar to a Canadian Tire). We purchased a roof rack storage bin. Slightly costly but it was going to make our next 2 months way less stressful. We fit half our stuff up in the storage bin and therefore had more room to stretch out, which meant we were all happier!!
The thing with the roof storage is that as we were driving the highway, all we saw were small little adorable cars with roof storage bins. No joke, so many people have them here and it absolutely makes sense. We will need to figure out what to do with the storage bin when we leave Europe. To sell it and recoup some money would be great, or we have thought about shipping it back to Vancouver along with a suitcase as we really need to downsize!!
After a 2 hour delay we were back on the road. First pit stop after our purchase I got to experience my first no toilet-toilet. Just look for the picture. No words needed. Let me just say the kids wouldn’t go!!! Besides the toilet we discovered that roadside stops in Europe as so fantastic. They are right off the motorway so it’s super convenient. Most stop areas had a gas station, picnic area and convenience store or small cafe. They were efficient, well taken care of and a perfect spot for what we needed.
We finally arrived at our little cottage and were ready for a couple days in the country. We were in the middle of corn and cows and no wifi for 2 whole days! The best part of this place is that we were 2 mins down the road from a LOUIS VUITTON factory. Weird location, probably low rent. Haha
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