Fontainebleau

Yesterday we took the train out to the town and Palace of Fontainebleau. Because it's an Isle-de-France train Daddy's Zone 5 Navigo entitled him to the trip so we just had to buy my ticket. The man at the guichet sold me a zone 5 daypass, which is €2 cheaper than the aller-retour, so that's a good tip.

This trip is clearly what is done by locals with children on the weekends, it was lovely for us and with the exception of some tourists everyone else who was there was with kid(s). We had full run of the grounds and walked and played and saw some enormous carp and fed some swans and had a lovely afternoon.

We went into the town for a hot chocolate and discovered a stunning "chestnut" chocolate (must post photo here). Walking through the town it reminded us of Wellesley, MA. We plan to go back and picnic at the chateau when the leaves are out and we can ride bikes.

Off to the UK

We don't want to spend Christmas in this tiny apartment and my father is visiting my sister and her British in-laws in Northern England, so we're off to spend the holidays en famille, though it feels odd to leave Paris two days after arriving.

We took the Eurostar to London, which was a challenge. We'd forgotten that the security is a bit like airport security so we lost our tickets and paperwork at the x-ray machine when we took everything apart and then tried to get it back together again. We're still novice at this "traveling with baby" thing, so we'll be working on that.

Hiking near the Lake District

I selected my stroller specifically to work well under most conditions (reclines to flat for sleeping, folds easily, etc.) and I'm happy to report that it stores nicely in a vertical spot on the Virgin Trains Pendolino luggage rack that is too skinny and awkward for anything else. With all the Christmas parcels it was touch and go until we got it squeezed in between the column and the end.

Our host's village was ideal for hiking and I didn't touch the stroller for 5 days, preferring to just use our Ergo to carry Eric. However, after Christmas we headed up for Hogmanay in Edinburgh and there we did enough city walking, with enough city walking napping that I was grateful for the stroller and glad we'd made the effort to bring it.

Eric was a delight on the whole of the trip, declared by many to be a "Happy Chappy" as he dispensed smiles up and down the island. At one bar a man named Dick even gave him a pound coin (specifying that it was for Eric, not us), in Edinburgh the Rabbie Burns pub gave him a keychain which I'm using as his zipper pull on his overcoat. He had his first-ever burrito made by my friend at the delicious Illegal Jack's (yes, he's been to California and Colorado and ended up with his first southwestern meal in Scotland, go figure!).

We had a lovely visit and we can't wait to return.