Torino, Italy - 22 and 23 April 2014

When planning our French adventure we quickly concluded that it would be great to include a visit to Northern Italy en route to Uzès.  One of the main reasons for this was to catch up with Andrew’s cousin Tania, her partner Giulio, and their two kids Santi and Holly, who live just near Torino.

Our two days in Torino were the perfect antidote for the stressful drive from Paris.  Giulio and Tania both took time out from running their own businesses, and treated us to a great mixture of family hospitality, city sightseeing and a lovely day trip into the Piedmont wine region.

Family Hospitality

The kids had a great time playing with Santi and Holly, and relaxing in a family home, with Xavier not surprisingly taking a liking to Santi’s battery-powered quad-bike.

(Can you believe his PJ top says "Lovable" after the previous day's highjinks?)

Andrew and Elle were just happy to learn about Tania and Giulio’s life in Torino, to meet Giulio's parents, and to catch up on family gossip, while consuming antipasti, local wines and some delicious home-cooked meals.

We also visited Tania’s business, The Language Centre, and Andrew joined Giulio watching two evening Champions League soccer matches, with Italian commentary, proving that when it comes to sport, he will pretty much watch anything. (Elle’s note: I did not write this.)

City Sightseeing

None of the Five had been to Torino before, so it was great to get a tour of the City Centre, guided by Tania and Giulio.  In addition to seeing several highlights, such as the Mole Antonelliana, and the outside of the Cinema Museum (there was a long queue to get in - need we say more? – but it appeared to be hosting an exhibition of female Oscar winners - Dive da Oscar) and the Piazza Castello, it was great to just walk around and take in the architecture, the history and some of the shops, largely through arcades at the front of the city buildings, which were built so royalty did not get rained on. Of course they took us to a great cafe for delicious pizza, and then Tania treated us at her favourite gelato shop, Grom.

William was very happy to spot a Snoopy sticker on a red Vespa, while Andrew wondered if sister-in-law and fashion counsellor, Gervase, would approve of him buying a new look.

Piedmont Wine Region

For our last day, Tania came up with the inspired suggestion that we leave the kids with her lovely babysitter, Juzi, and drive about 70km south of Torino to a small village called La Morra, in the Piedmont wine region, for lunch.  It was a cracking blue-sky day, and once off the motorways, the sights were amazing, particularly the panoramic view from La Morra (click on the photo below for a better idea).

Lunch was fantastic, with awesome antipasti plates selected by Giulio, which were delicious, but huge, so we followed with more moderate main courses and desserts, accompanied by some fine Barolo wine (one of the most famous wines in Italy, which is produced very close to La Morra).

On our departure, early on Thursday morning, we were well-rested and very pleased with what we had seen in and around Torino.  It has been a real highlight of our adventures. Thanks to Tania, Giulio, Santi and Holly for making us so welcome!

Five on an International Roadtrip - Easter Monday, 21 April 2014

Paris, France to Turin, Italy.  It looks so simple on Google Maps, especially for Australians used to driving long distances. 

OK, so first there was the small matter of the dimensions of the boot not being quite the same as Andrew carefully researched and then measured at Peugeot in Balwyn... or maybe our packed suitcases were a bit fatter than the empty ones he had carefully laid out at home.  But pushing the kids’ seats forward and giving them a bit less leg room soon compensated for that, and we were off!

Cruising around the Lyon ring road, two-thirds of the way into the trip, everything was going to plan (including eating pretty bad food and drinking definitely bad coffee at the road house where we stopped for lunch), until two events:

1. Payment of the first toll (for the 400km Paris-Lyon leg). 

2. Xavier decided he didn’t need a sleep

Tolls

OK, so it was a few hundred kilometres longer than Citylink, but there were no tunnels (yet), so we were not quite prepared when the person requested €35... and so the toll rush began.  Between Lyon and Turin, we remember at least five other significant toll payments, with most in the €10-30 range.  As we approached each tollgate, the stress levels in the front seats of the car rose dramatically, with:

• the driver (Andrew) frantically trying to decide which queue to enter - machine, person, Telepass (like our “e-tag”, oh if only the Peugeot people had mentioned tolls and offered us a Telepass!), cash-only, credit cards-only, etc; and
• the navigator/cashier determining whether we were paying a toll or just taking a ticket for the next section of auto-route, and whether our rapidly-dwindling cash reserves could cover the toll.  We confess that we did raid William’s Christmas Euros from his aunty and uncle, Gervase and Cade, to cover the last toll, but can confirm he has been repaid!

Xavier

Today was the X-man’s day to plumb the depths of unacceptable behaviour. 

Despite being offered all sorts of entertainment, inducements, encouragements, his usual sleep music, and flat-out bribes and threats, he refused to sleep or rest and gradually became more irritated and irritating.  Being in the middle seat, poor William drew the proximity short straw.  Unfortunately for him, we had drummed into him the message of not retaliating, and he took a hammering from Xavier, including a huge hair pull which elicited a decibel-record scream.  Other party stunts included throwing shoes, and Houdini-esque slipping arms out of (really tight!) straps and defiantly refusing to put them back in.  Car stops sailed past the three we had budgeted for, and approached ten before he finally fell asleep 30 minutes before we reached our destination.  Thank goodness for small mercies... and a very warm welcome (including wine) in Turin!  But that's a story for another day!

Joyeuses Pâques! Paris, Easter Sunday, 20 April 2014

In France, oeufs de Pâques (Easter eggs) are said to be brought by the Easter bells (cloches de Pâques), which fly from Rome and drop them in people’s gardens, but we found out that if you are an Australian kid in France for Easter, the Easter Bunny still delivers the chocolate. (When we visited cousins in Torino the next day, we found out that he also delivers to Australian kids in Italy.)

Our kids were particularly missing their cousins and the Easter egg hunts they have done with them in recent years, but Sarah, the owner of our “Airbnb” apartment in Paris, thoughtfully emailed us “Le top 5 des chasses aux oeufs" around Paris.  From these we selected the one on the Champs de Mars at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on Easter Sunday morning. 

We took a by-now favourite métro trip from Edgar Quinet station on line 6 – it emerges from underground just after Pasteur station, and presents a rare métro-view, including glimpses of the Eiffel Tower. (For what it’s worth, Wikipedia concurs: “it is one of the most pleasant lines on the Métro. This is due in part due to is numerous views, sometimes exceptional, of many of Paris' most famous landmarks and monuments.”)  This time, we disembarked closer to the non-Tower end of the Champs de Mars, at La Motte-Picquet – Grenelle.

Numerous marquees were set up on the Champs de Mars – we headed for the one with the large “Kinder” chocolate brand signs and registered the three kids for five Euros each – apart from the value of the activities, this was money very well-spent, as the event was a fundraiser for Secours Populaire Francais.  Each child received a sheet of paper instructing them to hunt for three different-coloured plastic eggs.  This could be done by “fishing” for the eggs on the lawns, or visiting different boxes, each labelled with a child’s right, e.g ‘d'avoir un nom et un nationalite' (to have a name and a nationality).  Our kids chose the fastest option – fishing (no translation required), and it wasn’t long before they each had caught their three allocated-colour eggs, and traded them for a bag containing three Kinder surprise eggs (and a pouch of fruit puree and a bottle of water). 

The chasse done, we spent another happy hour or so at some of the other marquees, playing old-fashioned games like sack races, skittles, coin toss and getting (in kids’ age order) a balloon butterfly, a dragon and a monkey.

This was a very memorable Easter morning!

After lunch, it was time for Andrew to venture out to Orly airport to collect the Peugeot 5008 we have leased for a trip into northern Italy and the rest of our time in France.  Grace joined Andrew for the task, partly for company, and partly as an interpreter if required.  Fortunately, everything went smoothly, and a couple of hours later the car was safely parked close to our apartment, all car safety seats installed, and ready to be packed early the next morning.

Mission accomplished! And with a few sunny hours left in Paris, we returned for one last visit to our local park, le Jardin du Luxembourg.

Paris - Saturday, 19 April 2014 (continued) - The Eiffel Tower (again)

Returning readers may recall that Grace had her heart set on going up the Eiffel Tower, and we tried to fob... err... substitute the Montparnasse Tower?  Well, it wasn’t a good enough substitution, so when I asked her today what she really wanted to do in Paris before we leave, she told me she wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower, and she wasn’t afraid of a queue. 

Lucky she wasn’t, because she and I queued with Xavier, in an ugly, irregular, snaking queue, for over two hours.  To be honest, for most of that time, I wasn’t even sure which leg of the tower we were in the queue for (the key difference being lifts all the way, or stairs to the 2^nd level and then lift to the top).  Grace valiantly amused Xavier with games and stories.  Then, just as we got to the metal barricaded section of the queue, approaching (but still half an hour away from) the ticket box, Andrew and Will arrived from Les Invalides, and we subbed Will into the queue and Xavier out to go home and have lunch and a nap.  Fortunately this substitution did not raise the ire of the people around us, unlike the real queue jumpers who were boldly and shamelessly seeking to insert themselves in the queue around us (although the assertive Englishwoman behind us evicted two groups of them). 

 

Finally, finally, finally, after two-and-a-half hours of queuing, we made it to the ticket box, and then, after passing through a second security check, we quickly ascended in the lift (yay!) up the Pilier Nord to the 2^nd floor...

 

 

...where we had to queue again for the lift to the top. 

Will wasn’t sure it was going to be worth it, but even he was delighted by the views when we stepped out of the lift at the Sommet.

I was so tired and cold by the time we got to the top, that we didn’t linger long before catching the lift back down to the 2nd floor, and then being sufficently motivated by the queue for the lift to the ground to take the stairs.

But it was enough to satisfy my daughter’s heart’s desire, and therefore mine.

Paris - Saturday, 19 April 2014: Boys' Own Adventure

One of the rites of passage planned for this holiday is for Andrew to take William to the Imperial War Museum in London.  However, sometimes the unplanned events deliver great enjoyment, and so it was this morning when Andrew and Will visited the French equivalent, the Musée de l’Armée, at Les Invalides in Paris.

Andrew had never visited this museum before, and soon declared he could easily spend two days there.  In addition to the regular collections, the boys visited a special exhibit on the Mousquetaires (which Will turned into his joke of the day, “What lives in Les Invalides and eats cheese?”).  Other highlights were the numerous canons, suits of armour, and hand-held weapons.  The three barrel pistol bemused us, as we debated whether it was designed for soldiers who were bad shots, or soldiers who could use it to shoot more than one person at the same time!

 

Paris - Good Friday, 18 April 2014

This morning we thought we had discovered the elixir for jet-lag management of two-year-olds – deprive them of their routine afternoon nap.  Sure, we had paid a price yesterday when coming home from Parc Astérix, as Xavier melted down over the course of six to eight Metro stops; but this morning all three kids slept in until 7:30am (French time!)... ah, the elixir!

However, like many elixirs, the side effects do not become apparent for several hours or days; and so it came to pass that our otherwise wonderful family excursion to view the Jardin des Tuileries, the exterior of the Louvre, and Notre Dame Cathedral, was interspersed with numerous and varied behavioural discussions with all three kids.  We have carefully selected the photos below to show Jenkin-McKinna family members appearing to be happy (these were taken in between "incidents", and mostly under the threat of “consequences”).

 

 

 

At Notre Dame, we were confronted by yet another long queue for entry to “Visite”, but adjacent, with no queue, an entry for Good Friday “Messe”.  Relying on her Catholic heritage, but still somewhat cheekily, Elle confidently took Grace and Will in the entrance for “Messe” with a polite “Bonjour” to the security man.  The three sat quietly and respectfully in the back pews for some prayers and reflection.  However, with mass not starting for another 45 minutes, and with Andrew waiting outside with Xavier, we thought we shouldn’t wait.  So we took a quick “visite” past the numerous little chapels and alcoves where people were making their confessions, past the beautiful stained glass windows, and then out.  Then home via the beautiful Art Deco Cité metro station and another delicious meal at Vavin café.