To much for one post!

Lots to cover so here we go...

Paris was AMZING. Angelo spent his 8th birthday at the eiffel tour and eating a parisian macaroon cake in a small french park complete with topless sunbathers, smokers and well dressed children. At dinner we had the waiter bring a candle in Angelo's creme brule. Angelo looked very upset when the whole restaurant sang happy birthday with heavy french accents. I asked him what was wrong after the excitement died down, "I just was hoping they would sing in french". That disappointment aside we had a magical time in Paris. Doing nothing really. We coveted parisian style, shopped at the big yearly sales, went to pocket parks and just enjoyed the amazing eye candy that is Paris. Angelo wanted to save a wrapped sugar cube it looked so pretty. I felt that way about everything.

In Paris we rented a car an drove to Antwerp to pick up our van. We picked it up in a warehouse district, fields of corn and cows grazing between the buildings. We dropped the rental off and drove to Lille france for the night. It was a great thing to ship our car. So nice to have something familiar, bikes and a place for all our junk. Three kids on trains and taxis around Europe... every bag of luggage feelt like the weight of the world.

From Lille we headed to see Josh's cousin who lives in a farm outside of Mayenne. We got to check out french country living and try out camping in the van. It felt like heaven to be parked under a fruiting cherry tree on some farm in france. We really relaxed for the first time on the trip... that is until mid-day we heard Angelo scream, "AHHHH, Babe is hurt!". We rushed outside to see Apollonia standing on the gravel driveway blood dripping from her face. Since this wasn't the first head wound suffered by her I new the ropes. Pressure to the cut on her forehead and a trip to the doctors for stitches. Were talking an inch long gash between the eyes. At the french country hospital they were very confused by us. I guess they have english speaking patients but never from america. Fortunately Josh's cousins girlfriend spoke to them in french. A nice doctor glued her up and told us to look for any signs of infection. O course by the next day we could see under the glue an infection was brewing. I was not looking forward to going to the hospital again and having to explain that in America our phone numbers are longer and we don't have green health cards, that our health insurance will pay them directly. Anyway I did what anyone who has delt with a bureaucracy in a language they didn't speak would do. I sent in my husband. Josh did amazing, Apollonia got her cut cleaned, stitched and even got awarded a certificate of courage. They did ask Josh to pay which he did. Do you know how much it costs to go to the ER in france two days in a row and get stitches? $80! Prescription medication? $10 I think in the US our co-pay for one ER visit would be more than all combined. That evening we decided to stay in Mayenne at the farm and even got a cool tour of the cousin's bronze casting studio.

From the farm we headed down and over to the atlantic coast. We stopped at country farms and bought fresh milk and cheese. Tooled through little villages and eventually made our way down to Biarritz a surfer town on the border of Spain in Basque country.

It is almost time check out at our hotel in Perpiguan so I have to sign off. I will try to catch everyone up tonight on our time in the Pyrenees mountains, attempted car jacking in Barcelona and one long night of driving to make it back to France.