Day 7 - Paris (Versailles)

We slept in and woke up to delicious pastry and ham, bacon and eggs made by the big ah yee chef. It was definitely finger licking yummy good. We hadnt had hot bfast food for a long time and had been surviving on cold ham and bread bought from supermarket usually.

Then we took a train to Versailles, to Uncle C's parents' place. Given that we didnt attend ah yee's wedding and didn't get to meet her in-laws, it is only right that we paid them a visit now that we were finally in France. I heard that they were excited to see us. My only worry was the hours long lunch that ah yee had been telling me about. My kids can't sit at the table for longer than  30 mins. I felt faint at the mention of long lunches. Lol.

Their place is at the outskirt. Versailles is like a quiet town. We had a nice 15 mins walk to reach their place. 

Lunch wasn't that bad. Uncle C's sister and bf were also at parents' place. Upon arrival, we had nice quich and sausage as appetizer. Then we moved to the dinning table for starter - salad and some not sure what (lol). Then, it was followed by the main meal - cassoulet - which is a dish of duck, baked beans and more sausages. I was worried that they would cook some French delicacy but weird food to us. Luckily it was sausages and our kids love sausages. The food was really good anyway, just a little salty for our asians' tastebuds though.  

After main meal was cheese and finally dessert. It was blue cheese and some cheese that looks like what mice would crave. The family kindly told us that we can say no if we didnt want the cheese and only Daddy Lim was daring enuff. 

I was bursting by the end of lunch as there was so much food. Uncle C's parents were very nice and ah yee also helped to warn them beforehand that Asian kids do not sit for hours at the dinning table. They even prepared paper and crayons for the kids and Lil Shauna happily drew for his parents and his sister. 

After lunch, we hid in Uncle C's old room and were happily bouncing on his old bed. There were many old golf balls lying around and the kids each got one as present. They had been eyeing the balls for a long time and were so thrilled. Lol.

We had a slow walk to the famous castle in Versailles. There are plenty of such pathways in France - so romantic.

Unfortunately, the palace was very crowded and we didn't go in but took famous tourists pictures. 

We left Versailles and went to visit the famous  Louvre - the one with the inverted pyramid. Daddy Lim wanted to take pictures with the inverted pyramid. We didn't go into the museum since it was very crowded and kids not interested.

At Louvre, we also visited this very expensive and atas toilet. It cost Lil Shauna and me 1.50 euro to pee in the toilet and there was a long q!

We ended the day by walking to the Japanese street for Japanese ramen. Unfortunately, the ramen tasted like Chinese noodles soup. Daddy Lim's noodles tasted exactly like wanton noodles soup. Lol. It was then that we realised that the chefs were all PRC Chinese. Lol. 

On the way, we walked across a bridge with plenty of locks on the side. It was so romantic - don't we only see these on TV? Hehe.

Mummy Lim

Day 6 - Geneva to Paris

We made it out of the hotel safely and the kids weren't found out. Hehe. We also managed to catch the 5.10am shuttle to the airport. It was still dark when we arrived at the airport. 

Bye, bye Geneva.

We lingered in the airport for a while before heading to the train station for the train to Paris. The train ride takes about 3 hours. Ah yee was seated separately from us given that her train ticket was purchased separately.  

It appeared to be a full train and so Lil Isaac had to sit on my lap. He doesnt need a ticket but also meant that he didnt have a seat in a full train. We were seated in a cabin with this big family of adults and teenagers, who were very noisy. They talked and laughed loudly and were changing seats. We also had this other screaming infant in the cabin and I started wondering if the French were as quiet on public transport as ah yee claimed they are to be. 

The ride was pretty smooth given that Lil Isaac fell asleep shortly and only woke up towards the end of the journey. Lil Shauna took a short nap and then we went to explore the train in search of the snack station and also to look for ah yee. It was then that we realised that all the other passengers were super quiet. Maybe that big family in our cabin were not French. Lol. Lil Shauna ended up posing for pictures at the staircase to burn time.

We arrived at this super big station. Hello Paris! The station was super crowded and every other person seems to be smoking. Unlike Singapore, people smokes all the time and everywhere. Even the parents smoked with their little kids in tow. It takes some time getting used to and it was a little of a culture shock for the kids. 

We then had to take a tube to ah yee's home. The interior of the tube actually feels like our bus and eating and drinking are allowed.

Then it was a long walk from the station to ah yee's home. Uncle C met us midway and helped us lugged the luggage home. We past by ah yee's favourite bakery and bought super nice french toasts back for bfast. The buildings along the way are all super nice.

We had to lug our luagge up to the 4th floor where their home is. My poor back!

We then headed to a supermarket for grocery shopping and ah yee cooked us fried rice and soup for lunch. We were thrilled given that we hadn't had Chinese food for many days. Of course the food was superb. Ah yee's skills have improved tremendously and she reminded us to tell Popo about it. Lol.

After lunch, we headed to the famous Eiffel Tower. It was super crowded and we figured out that it was not worth paying big money to travel to the top of the tower. We did take our tourists pictures though. 

We also tried some not very successful jumping shots. Lol.

Then we went to a nearby park and the kids took a 100 years old merry go round that is operated manually. The kids were given a stick to try to collect rings while on the ride and they had so much fun.

After that, we headed to another tourist attraction - Notre Dam, which is a huge cathedral. It was funny that the tourists were touring part of the cathedral while a mass was ongoing. The cathedral was very magnificent. 

We of course took the all important pictures. 

We had dinner at this French restaurant be for heading back to ah yee's place. Ah yee and Uncle C had snails!!??

Along the way, we came across and used one of the public toilets.

Not all of them are free. The one that we visited isn't the most pleasant but reasonable for a public toilet in the middle of the road. It is interesting that after each usage, the entire  toilet self washed via water sprinkled system. Lil Isaac was almost caught in the toilet when it attempted to close the door for self washing bcos we didn't follow the instructions. That would have been super traumatizing for him. Haha. Oh, the toilet will open up automatically after 20 mins. That wouldn't be very nice for somebody with a bad constipation. Hehe.

Back home, Ah yee kindly gave up her room and bed for us. The 4 of us squeezed into her queen size bed while she and Uncle C slept on an inflated mattress in the living room. I was so grateful for that, just that it was difficult not to wake them up if we need the toilet. There was no way to not step on their mattress to get to the toilet. Oops.

Mummy Lim

Day 5 - Geneva

I was again out early in the morning for my last day of meeting. Daddy Lim and the kids were still sleeping when I left the hotel room.

I heard that they didn't do much. It was rainy pretty much the whole day. They went to a park with a little farm and playground. 

Unfortunately for the rain, the animals were mostly hiding. But the kids looked like they had fun in their rain coat. Hehe. 

They were back in their hotel room at about 3ish. 

There was no official dinner and my meeting ended at about 5.30pm. The company transport sent us back to the hotel and the kids were all waiting excitedly for mummy.

We made a trip down to Old Town for dinner and had wanted to walk around town only to find that most of the shops were closed. It was only 7pm then and in a Friday night?!?!!+ We headed back to the hotel and the kids watched TV while the adults packed. Ah yee found that there was normal TV that we could watch, we just didn't press the right button.

It was an early night given that we had to wake up really early for the 1st shuttle bus at 5.10am to the airport the following morning for the train  to Paris. 

I was so excited that my meeting had come to an end and I am finally going to start my holiday! I was also so sick and tired of sneaking the kids around and I can't wait to get out of Geneva. Hohoho. That night, we even discussed with ah yee on the final sneaking kids out mission and I was so worried that the hotel did find out and hold us accountable. It is no big deal to pay extras. I just didn't want to bring any disgrace to the company since the hotel booking is official. Fingers and toes crossed.

Mummy Lim

Day 4 - Geneva

My meeting starts again and had to head out in the early morning. Daddy Lim also made the trip to the airport in attempt to make the police report. Unfortunately, it turned out to be an empty trip when he mistakenly told the police officer that we "lost" the bag. He was made to go to the "lost and found" department to make a report before he could make a police report. He had to wait for the L&F department to open and was then given a number to call the HQ instead of being allowed to make a report. Since nothing could possibly be done, he headed back to the hotel with no report and they started their day nevertheless.

They went to walk the Old Town.

They also took the sightseeing train, which I gathered was pretty boring. Ah yee said that Lil Isaac started asking the "are we there yet" questing barely 5 minutes into the ride. 

The kids got their toys though and were happy.

Daddy Lim did head back for the police report in the late afternoon. This time, he correctly reported that our bag was stolen and finally got his report. Unfortunately, most of it was in French and we had no idea if it was properly recorded. We bought travel insurance but the claim amount for lost cash was low. I have the company travel insurance too and hope that I can also claim some money from there. Haiz, let's see how it goes. 

I had a long meeting that ended with a dinner. It was almost 11pm by the time I was back in the hotel. Yawn.

Mummy Lim

Day 3 - Geneva (Montruex)

This was a no meeting day. Yeah! We had great fun but a misadventure too - our bag and money for the other 2 legs of the trip were stolen. Boo. Bad luck. That was a lot of money. Haiz.

We woke up at 8am, had bfast in the room and got out at about 10 am to meet ah yee at the airport. We haven't seen ah yee for almost 6 months. The kids were excited to see ah yee and so was I.

We took a train to Montreux and it was about 1 hour ride. That was my 1st train ride in Geneva since almost one year back. Ah yee was very skillful and led us to the right platform.

The train ride was ok.

It was basically a very relaxed day. Upon arrival at Montreux, we spent some time trying to figure out our way bcos mummy didn't do her homework properly. Haha. 

The initial idea was to visit the Cheateu de Chillion and maybe a picnic if we had extra time. We could take a bus to the castle but opted to take a slow walk along the lake to the castle. On the internet, it was stated that it is a 45 mins walk but I think we took longer than that. I didnt mind though i think the kids did. The weather was very cool and it was a scenic walk. Montreux is a nice town, like Geneva.

There were quite some buskers too.

We also took our very 1st family picture in Montreux.

After like walking forever, we finally got a glimpse of the castle and weren't too impressed. It looked a little rundown and small to be a castle! The kids, particularly Lil Shauna, were disappointed with its exterior. They were expecting Disneyland princess castle. Lol. Luckily, there were more things to see and explore in the castle than what it looked.

We spent about 2 hours at the castle and had a full workout climbing up and down the stairs.  The castle was 800 years old! There was plenty of creepy corners and rooms and the kids had plenty of fun.

On the way to the castle, we spotted this little lagoon and saw people picnic. We headed back and had a nice and relaxed time while the kids entertain themselves by throwing stones into the lake.

Soon, it was time to catch the train back and we had expected it to be a nice ride. It would have been if not for that misadventure. We left our backpack on the rack above our seats just like any other travellers. When we were exiting the train, we realised that somebody had took our bag and put an empty bag at where our bag was supposed to be. The most unfortunate part was that we had still kept the rest of the money in the bag. The past 2 days had been a mad rush and I forgot to take out the money and put them in the safe. We had done that for our ppts and the SGD. I had told Daddy Lim where I kept the money while packing but he was on his computer at that time.  Haiz.

We tried to make a policy report at the airport but was told that I have to have my ppt with me to do so. We had wanted to go back to the hotel to fetch the ppt but was told that the police post closes at 7pm and asked us to come back the following day. It was plain frustrating to be unable to communicate properly with the police officer. We had no choice but to head back.

We lost quite some money and we were all upset. However, we got over it after figuring out that it was just money and we are all safe and sound. Daddy Lim just had to forgo some of his shopping list. Lol. For the other legs of the trip, we had to loan money from ah yee. Ah yee is our lifeline.

Our hotel room was very crowded that night. We brought a sleeping bag and ah yee camped in our room for the next 3 nights in the sleeping bag. Poor ah yee.

Mummy Lim