Sunday, June 30

This morning it was a little hard to get up because everyone except Nova stayed up past 1:00am. We did get moving eventually. The bakery was closed and we were low on food since we were trying not to take too much with us so we had ice cream for breakfast. Esme and Asa wanted more pictures of their Lego creations before we left. Esme forgot to put her robot in last night’s picture. Asa built a spaceship.We got on the road a little late which meant no time to stop for lunch. No problem though, we were going to stop and get something with Nole when we picked him up at 1:30pm. So off to Charles de Gaulle airport we went to exchange rental cars (we need another seat now) and get Nole. We got to CDG in good time (about 3 hours), stopped to fill up the tank, and left it in the return area with our belongings inside. Nole had arrived to the airport and I sent him info on how to find us. See the handy photos below:I was excited because it was going to be such an easy pick-up with us being ready and waiting with the rental car when he got there! We went in and got our new vehicle then moved our suitcases over. Around this time Nole called asking for help finding us. I was a little frustrated, dealing with moving kids and bags and told him to show someone the pictures I sent and ask how to find us. I went back to loading the car and then waited…and waited…and no Nole. Finally a text!So it was off to Orly, about 50 minutes away (but sort of in the direction of our next stop). Once at the Orly, there was construction and between driving a new (and much bigger vehicle), being tired and extremely hungry at this point, we drove around in circles before finally pulling over in a “minute drop-off lot”. I tried to call and message Nole to come find us only my phone picked this time to not be able to connect to data. Luckily Cal’s was working and we got a hold of him. By this time, everyone was a little punchy. After two months apart, this was not the reunion I was imagining! Finally Asa spotted him and everyone was happy again (albeit still very hungry). We got on the road again with minimal difficulty and started the 2 hour journey to Tours, stopping for lunch at the first opportunity.Once fed we were all a little jollier and relaxed. The rest of the ride was easy with hardly any traffic. We followed our GPS and were just 4 km from our destination when I underestimated the size of the van and bumped the tire on the curb in a narrow part of the road. As luck would have it, the tire went flat and we were on the roadside.A nice man named Oliver stopped to help us (mostly giving moral support and advice to Nole in French). Thanks to him and a lot of sweat from a very tired Nole (24 hours of travel with only 3 hours of sleep) the spare was on and we went the last 4 km to Remy’s house to meet his parents Laurence and Yannick. We chatted and relaxed and later the kids spent time in their pool while Nole snuck off for a shower and sleep. Remy made an appearance but was up until the wee hours this morning celebrating a friend’s birthday and ended up going back to bed too. Cal and I went for a walk in the neighborhood with our hosts. We found a scarab, badger poop, wild herbs and took in the sunset behind a wheat field.Laurence and Yannick are letting us use their guest house with a loft and we are very lucky to be staying in such a beautiful and historic place (it was an 18th century bakery if I understand correctly).