French Whirlwind--Ari

Ari Day #74

5/29/2022

Azay Le Rideau, Loire Valley, France

Oh boy, I am quite tardy regarding my writing commitment during this trip. I’m embarrassed to admit that I haven’t written for 11 days. Kris High told me I needed to journal every day before the memories faded, and I have failed to do so. Well, I hope my memory serves me well enough to remember the highlights of the past 11 days.

Our trip from Africa to Europe started at 7:30 am on 5/19 at Simba House in Mwandi. Lawrence picked us up in his pick-up and we made the 3 hour drive to Livingstone without any real issues, despite the god-awful road, thank god for Lawrence and his Toyota pick-up. It was hard to say good bye to Lawrence, knowing that we all would likely be much older if/when we see him again. We then checked in for our flight to Johannesburg and we were informed that South Africa decided to require a QR code for your vaccination status rather than the hard copy of your vaccine card in the past 1 week. After freaking out for 5 minutes, Cris and I found the QR codes as we did anticipate this may happen during our trip. Man, we have been lucky as we have had very few issues re: the COVID issue during our world travels. That is a true miracle.

Our 1.5 hour flight to Johannesburg was easy, and our 3.5 hour layover in Johannesburg was perfect as we needed to go through customs and re-check in for our flight to Paris as the tickets were separate. We then loaded on a packed flight to Paris, and despite the fact that we were in tiny seats in a full flight, the 11 hour red-eye flight actually felt quite easy considering the previous places we had stayed in the previous 2 months. We arrived bleary eyed in Paris at 5:50 am, about 22 hours after we loaded onto the pick-up in Mwandi. 2 hours later, after a taxi ride, we were in downtown Paris waiting for our 9:30 check-in to our AirBNB. This is where I had prepared for the wheels to come off the Ballonoff buggy as we had a whole day ahead of us in Paris after a 24 hour journey. However, despite the dense fatigue that was enveloping all of us, the wheels somehow were staying on. I think we all were gaining energy knowing that for the first time in over 2 months we were in a place where we could drink water from the faucet and have hot showers.

We checked into our AirBNB which was called Timeline and was a cool, 3 bedroom apartment 1 block from Bastille square. It was heaven walking into the condo—almost otherworldly to drink straight from the tap. I immediately had to head out to see the city and ran/walked along the Seine, through the Louvre square, through the Jardin de Tuileries, through the Jarins des Champs-Elysees, back onto the Seine, and then to the Eiffel tower. This run/walk became my standard daily routine as it was truly unreal to see the amount of history that can be packed into 6 miles of land. During that stroll, you go by Notre Dame Cathedral, Sainte-Chapelle, Esplanade des Invalides, Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, Place de la Concorde (has a large Egyptian obelisk) and tons of “little” things like the Paris police station which is a monstrous beautiful old building made almost purely of glass. I was taken aback by my interest in Paris as I have told myself I truly detest cities—maybe I was wrong. I returned back to the place and the 4 of us promptly headed out and made the 6 mile walk back through the Louvre plaza and to the Eiffel tower. We walked half-way up the tower, and then took the mandatory elevator to the top. We were at the top around 7 pm, and got a great perspective of Paris and what the next 3 days had in store for us. I was so impressed by all 4 Ballonoff peeps as we travelled for 24 hours and then had a full day in Paris, and we loved it.

We spent 3 nights in Paris and we all really enjoyed it. Bastille was a perfect place—easy walking/subway access to the Louvre/Eiffel tower yet away from the crowds and the expensive stores. Food was actually reasonable. Speaking of food, breakfast was always either a croissant or a chocolate croissant or both, lunch was a baguette with brie, and dinner ended up being pizza most of the time. I’ve realized that although I really love the French pastries/breads (who doesn’t), French food is really not my cup of tea. I think someone with a gluten allergy would die in ~5 minutes here…

Day 2 in Paris was Louvre day. We purchased the audio tour of the Masterpieces, and of course became completely confused by the tour that was based on a Nintendo mobile device. Thank god we had Asher, who, after 15 minutes of seemingly wandering aimlessly in circles through the Louvre with the other 3 Ballonoffs in tow, figured out how the darn thing worked and we all started following him. The tour took ~1 hour 45 minutes, including going by the famed Mona Lisa which had a ~30 minute line in front of just to see it up close (we decided just to pirate a look from the side although we got in trouble by a Louvre worker—it works great when you put on your “I don’t speak French as I’m just a clueless American” face). Linden liked it just about how much I liked it at her age when I visited Paris with my parents (not much at all). However, Asher, Cris and I all really thought it was fascinating to see so many famous pieces in one place. I still don’t know if I was more impressed with the building or what was in it. We then walked to the Arc de Triomphe, something that was not quite as stimulating as our previous 2 days. Going down the Champs-Elysses was like going to Cherry Creek shopping district X 1000—not really what any of us were looking for. This stress once again manifested itself in Asher fidgeting and walking in a braided pattern, bumping off all 3 of us like a pinball and Linden losing her mind threatening to disembowel her brother. Thus, we split up into 2 teams: bros and hoes (excuse my inappropriate verbiage, I’m getting a bit loony towards the end of this journey). Cris and Linden headed back on the subway and Asher and I went through the tunnel to the Arc de Triomphe which was busy, but still pretty cool.

On Day 3, we had a relatively chill day. Our main outing was to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night. Asher and I walked there and had a dudes’ dinner at the local burger joint (the French need to stick to making baguettes), and Cris and Linden had dinner together and took the subway. We then watched the lights go on on the Eiffel Tower—pretty cool, including a flashing light show. After buying a $1.50 bottle of champagne that tasted like swamp water from the Seine from a dude walking around the Eiffel Tower square for $35, we headed back.

On 5/23, we rented a car and drove to Deauville, a town in Normandy, where we had an AirBNB for 5 nights. Driving in Paris was a trip, but once we got out of the city, it was a nice drive. Deauville seems to be the Aspen of France: expensive but pretty. Our place was a condo on the beach—a beach reminiscent of the Washington/Oregon beaches: uber wide all sand beaches that literally fluctuate by about ¼-1/3 mile between low and high tide. There were more shells than I have ever seen in my life—piles upon piles of beautiful shells along the vast expanses of sand. Also, the beach goes on for what seems to be forever: about 2 miles for the Deauville beach, and ~4 miles for the Bonneville sur Mer just south of the Deauville beach, and these are connected during low tide. What also was similar about these beaches and the ones in the pacific NW was the weather: the first 4 days had highs around 60 with clouds and intermittent rain. This didn’t stop the Ballonoff kiddos from plunging into the freezing waves.

On 5/25, we headed to visit the DDay beaches—the reason we went to Normandy. We drove ~1.5 hours to the American Cemetery (including the museum which is very good—goes through so much of the history of WWII in France/Europe), then to Omaha Beach where Linden and Asher ran around wading in the water despite clouds/rain/wind, then to the Overlord Museum (named after the codename from DDay—Operation Overlord) which was also really informative re: how WWII played out. We offered to Asher to stay a night near the beaches so that we could continue to see other DDay beaches, but he declined the offer and wanted to head back to Deauville. This day made me so thankful to have a group of 4 people who had their own wishes on this trip, and we all experienced them. Asher wanted to go to Normandy, something the other 3 of us wouldn’t have done by ourselves, yet we all learned so much, a lesson the other 3 of us would have never learned on our own.

On 5/28 (yesterday), we drove from Deauville to Tours where we were to start our 4 day bike trip on 5/29. The driving in Tours was truly a nightmare—trains on the roads, no indication regarding whether streets were 1-way or not, and lots and lots of people. We somehow survived and remarkably didn’t run anyone over, and returned the car. Our whole B crew was just about done yesterday, and still had a 4 day bike trip to tackle.

This morning, George, with the bike tour, met us at the hotel and got us the bikes. We did a 30 mile bike ride from Tours to Azay le Rideau today and luckily we all did well. We are now in a very comfortable hotel, and other than our butts hurting (despite all our new spandex—4 women’s spandex for 2 females and 2 males—story another time), we are doing great. Once again, a bit of pain turning into a sweet core memory…maybe that’s what life is about…