Saturday 19 December

While our hotel, the Astoria, is beautiful and spacious and well-organised for groups, it appears to have either a nightclub up on the seventh floor attached to the bar and restaurant where we had dinner, or somewhere down at street level, because most of us could hear a party going on, until sometime after 3am!! 😠 I was awake anyway, having a little panic attack about getting back on the bus today – the last twenty hours have been a good reminder for me that, despite my well-intentioned plans, I do not actually have control over my life! 

We left at 7.15am today, the earliest start yet as it is an eight hour drive to Paris. The long bus drive has allowed me to read, reflect, meditate to some songs on my phone, and catch up on my diary (…and not look in the driver’s direction because I have decided ignorance is bliss!). I also bought a couple of children’s books in Italian and French which I am hoping to translate and learn a few more words – Peter has been teaching us some each day on the road. Sam’s favourite is the Swiss word for exit: Ausfahrt, and everywhere we go we say in Italian “undiamo!”: let’s go! 

The kids were well entertained by some movies put on using the coach’s entertainment system. We also used the long drive as an opportunity to catch up on some sleep (which is aided each day by the travel director bribing the kids telling them if they have a sleep he will buy them some chocolate! They have enjoyed a lot of Lindt!!)

Tim and Abi have enjoyed chilling on the bus after the busy year they’ve had, and Jarrod has entertained himself by binge-watching 4unit maths videos – please note those are his words and that is his definition of being entertained, not mine…

There are several other kids on tour, and everyone is very friendly. A family from Brisbane with a 17yo girl and 13yo boy adopt Jarrod and Tim every time we need to split into groups of 6 (they are Tottenham Spurs fans so can entertain J&T’s EPL conversation for ages). Another family from Singapore with a 16yo girl and 9yo boy are also lovely, and adopt the kids every time we get off the bus. Their dad has also taken a lot of photos with Belle and Sam in them!

We stopped at a road stop for lunch and everyone enjoyed baguettes, although Ross dared me to order in French but I chickened out and just pointed at the pictures in the menu! The scenery is beautiful countryside. However, it is only now I realise that no photos were taken in the making of this post! 

An optional extra for tonight was dinner at the Moulin Rouge, which we declined in favour of a quiet night and doing some washing! The travel director told us France is now the safest country to visit since the Paris attacks, and we are staying in a good neighbourhood tonight, but it was still suggested that Ross walk the washing to the laundromat 😬 so he is doing our washing for us yet again. What a good boy 😉