23rd December 2015 - 7th January 2016

Wednesday 23rd December 2015🇬🇧🇫🇷

Today was a travelling day along the coast through to Dover and the white cliffs. We boarded the ferry bound for Calais France. The actual journey was about an hour and wasn't rough. Ed and the kids had a good look around - me? well I just sat tight and waited it out. I didn't want to tempt fate and get sea sick!
As advised by everyone we drove straight out of Calais and north to Dunkirk. Where we had a look at the beaches and camped for the night.

Thursday 24th December 2015🇫🇷

Today we drove to explore the town of Lille and to get some supplies before Christmas. It is also part of the WW1 trail as its in the Somme area.
After exploring town we came back to the van to discover that someone had broken into it via a window. Luckily we had all the important stuff with us, however we lost Ed's phone. All our bags had been emptied out and all the cupboards had been searched.
I went to the police station to make a report for insurance purposes but after 2 hours of waiting I gave up as it was getting dark and we went to a campsite just out of town. As we had power we stayed up and watched a movie with the kids before going to bed.

Friday 25th December 2015🇫🇷

Merry Christmas! Unfortunately no snow so we are hoping that we can see some in Switzerland for New Year.
Thomas was a little concerned that Santa wouldn't find him however amazingly he did!
The kids received a family ticket to Disneyland Paris, a book each, Lego for Thomas and the girls got a movie and a bracelet each.
We after some nice hot showers we decided to spend the day exploring the battle fields of the Somme (WW1).
The farmers fields are all dotted with memorials and cemeteries throughout this area. We followed the tourist trail through the area and went to several memorials such as VC Corner and Bullecourt. So many young men died in this area, many buried in unmarked graves as the couldn't identify them.

We ended the day at the beautiful Villiers Bretonnoux Memorial. It was amazing - even in the fading light. You can still see the bombing marks on the memorial from when the Germans bombed the area in WW2. All the cemeteries and memorials are so beautifully maintained and we signed the register of each one that we visited.

Saturday 26th December 2015🇫🇷

Today I wanted to visit my Great Grandfathers grave in a town called Crouy St Pierre just out of Amiens. He is buried in a British cemetery which is in the middle of a farmers field.

AJR Taylor died in May 1918. He left behind 6 children including my Dad's mum Molly. It was lovely to visit it again and to show the kids some of their family history.

We then decided to drive through to Paris. After a bit of investigation we found an Apartment to stay in for 4 nights so we could explore Disneyland and Paris. (Plus I had loads of washing to do!)

Sunday 27th December 2015 - Disneyland Paris by Thomas🇫🇷

For Christmas Santa gave us a family ticket to Disneyland Paris. We were so excited!

We caught the train to Disneyland and joined a big queue of people going in.
We went to a Haunted House and we saw lots of dead brides on the ride through the house that moved a lot.
After the Haunted House we walked through the Wild West area and joined another queue for the Indiana Jones rollercoaster. When the rollercoaster started I closed my eyes straight away because I was a bit scared! On the ride we did a 360 loop and when I got off I didn't stand up very well because I was so dizzy after the ride.
After that we walked through a jungle maze and swing bridge as part of the Pirates of the Caribean ride. We all got a bit wet as there were a few sections where it went down a bit fast and there was also a water jet.
After the Pirates ride we went on a little kids rollercoaster train ride and the spinning tea cups.

Every time we had to wait in long lines.
After lunch we all went on a racing car around a track. Dad, Charlotte and Olivia had their own cars and Mum and I shared a car. I was driving and my car was blue. They look like little Ferrari Cars.
We then went to the Nautilus adventure in the submarine with Captain Nemo and based on 20,000 leagues under the sea.
When went to Space Mountain we had to line up for over 50 minutes. When we got in there Olivia decided that she didn't want to do it because it was too scary so just Mum, Dad, Charlotte and I did it.

Mum and I were in the very front carriage and I closed my eyes and pretended I was asleep because I thought I was going to fall. I opened my eyes for a tiny bit but then I closed them as we were going down a big hill. When we stopped I felt really scared but happy that I went on the ride.
I bought some Mickey Mouse ears with a wizards hat and the girls both got some Minnie Mouse ears with a red bow.

We finished off our day buy watching the Grand Parade through Main Street USA.
We all had fun but there were loads of other things to do but the lines were so long everywhere!




Monday 28th December 2015🇫🇷

Today was our first day exploring Paris. The train station is next to our apartment so we just jumped on for the 40 minute train ride into central Paris. We headed into the Champes Élysées and jumped on the hop on/off bus tour of Paris. It was a great way to explore all the sights and to get your bearings around the city. The first glimpses of the Eiffel Tower were very exciting!
We saw everything from the Arc de Trimphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre and even Moulin Rouge!





In the afternoon we walked along the busy Champes Élysées and explored the Christmas markets and had some yummy food before hoping back on the bus and going to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. such a beautiful sight!
Tomorrow we are going to brave the crowds and climb it!




Tuesday 29th December 2015🇫🇷

Well we decided to get going early as the Eiffel Tower opened at 9.30am. We were a little slower to get going than we would have liked and then we had to get off the train a few stops early due to a security incident. Apparently it's a daily occurrence. Anyway we arrived at the tower and joined the line to climb up to the first 2 levels of the tower. The line for the elevator all the way up was really long!

Our line moved quickly and after about 20 minutes we started climbing to the first level. They have clear sections that you can walk on and they even have a mini ice skating rink there! After exploring the first floor views all around which were beautiful we climbed to the second floor for an even higher view which was stunning. We then joined another line to catch the lift up to the top floor for the highest view. This took at least 30 minutes +. The ride up,was a little scary as we were up so high but once we got there it was an amazing view of the whole of Paris. Well worth the wait.

We then had to line up again to get back down to the 2nd floor before we walked back down the stairs to the bottom. It  took us around 3 hours to finish. There are a lot of tourists around so the lines to get into everything are huge. It's not uncommon to have to wait 1-3 hours to get into things!
We enjoyed a yummy lunch in a cafe close to the river before catching the bus down to the Louvre.
As the lines to get into the Louvre were huge yesterday we decided to go today. Much to our disappointment it was closed. We missed out on seeing the Mona Lisa :(

We then walked down to see Notre Dame Cathedral and you guessed it another very long queue! It was lovely seeing inside the cathedral with its beautiful stained glass and altar. There was another line for climbing the towers which we didn't get to do. We then went back to look at the Arc de Trimphe with the idea to climb it but honestly we couldn't be bothered with another long line up.

We walked down the Champes Élysées and had a pizza dinner followed by sweets down at the Christmas markets.
Another long day being a tourist. I can't remember the queues being this bad last time I was here. If it's this bad in winter I would hate to be here in summer!
Goodbye Paris. Tomorrow Versailles and driving towards Switzerland for the new year.

Wednesday 30th December 2015🇫🇷

Well we slept in a little and took our time to get going after the comfort of the apartment!
We drove down to Versailles and joined yet another long line. Ed wasn't completely sold on the idea as the line was huge. We were in the line for at least 1.5 hours so Ed & Charlotte left the line and bought us all lunch to get us through the long wait. Olivia did wonder if it was worth the wait the see the house that the lady who liked cake lived! I persuaded everyone that the place was worth the wait.


It was super crowded but still enjoyable strolling through all the various rooms of the palace. Thomas decided that he could live in the palace with Ed, myself and Stella and that the girls could be his servants! Both the girls though that they would enjoy living like princesses and they would like their rooms decorated like some of the rooms in the Palace.
Even though it is winter the gardens are still a marvel, so well maintained and set out.
We left there around 3pm and drove towards Dijon. We camped by a river for the night in a small town along the way.
Thursday 31st December 2015 🇫🇷🇨🇭

Today was a long driving day across the rest of France into Switzerland. We have been avoiding toll roads so 'Luna' (the GPS) took us on a few interesting smaller roads over the mountains. Ed drove really well. We made a few driving errors trying to find a campsite around Geneva so we drove an extra 70km and found a nice place open in Lausanne. We were so tired that we collapsed early and had a good sleep in on New Year's Day.

Friday 1st January 2016 🇨🇭

Buon Annie 2016 everyone 😀🎉🎈🎊🎈🎉🎈🎊
We caught the train up to the lovely town of Zermatt followed by another high train up to Goronghott to view the mighty Matterhorn mountain. The kids were super excited to see snow, even if it was old. It was a lovely clear day with blue skies and fantastic views of the Matterhorn.

We could see some people skiing which made Ed super jealous, but they needed a good snow fall to make the skiing better.


We returned to Zermatt and the kids had the most expensive Macca's ever!
It was really lovely being in the town for the evening with the Christmas lights along the main street. We returned to Lausanne tired but happy to have shown the kids their first real snow on New Years Day 2016.

Saturday 2nd January 2016 🇨🇭

It rained constantly overnight so we were hopeful of fresh snow today.
We took the scenic train ride for 3.5 hours to Interlaken driving through some amazing Swiss countryside surrounded by snow capped mountains. We then took 2 smaller trains up to Wengen and as we got off the train it started to snow.

The kids were so delighted as were Ed and I. We had a walk through town and then we took a short gondola ride up the the ski fields. It was magical and the kids had their first ever snow ball fight and had fun playing in the snow. It didn't take long for us all to freeze and we made our way over to the cafe and warmed up. Our faces were red with the cold and we had a ball playing in the fresh, powdery snow.

We returned to Wegen refreshed and excited after a fun time in the snow.
After getting back to Interlaken we caught the fast train back to Lausanne which took 2 hours.
It was loads of train travel but the excitement on the kids faces was worth it.

Sunday 3rd January 2016 & Monday 4th January 2016 🇨🇭🇫🇷🇮🇹

We decided to drive straight down Rome and base ourselves there for our Italian exploration.
We drove back through Geneva and crossed the Alps via the Mont Blanc Tunnel. It was a beautiful ride across the mountains and into Italy.

As we wanted to make up time we decided to take the toll road which cost us quite a few Euros. We camped just outside of Modena and drove the next day to Bologna and then onto Rome.
We found a great campsite close to Vatican City to use as a base to explore Rome.

Tuesday 5th January 2016 & Wednesday 6th January 2016 🇮🇹

We started the day at the Vatican Museums. We had another line in the rain this time which moved quickly for us to get inside and start exploring. As you can imagine there are so many galleries within the museum to explore. From Italian art to Greek statues and old maps there is loads to see. You also can't forget to look at the beautiful rooms that house all the displays. All the ceilings and walls are richly decorated and very ornate.
The end point comes with the viewing of the beautiful Sisteine Chapel with its Michelangelo ceiling.

We then moved onto St Peter's Basillica to explore inside and then we climbed the cupola to get some amazing views of not only the Vatican but of the whole of Rome. It was over 500 steps apparently but well worth the climb.


It was around 2pm ish when we finally left and we were desperately hungry so we stopped off at a pizza store and had some of the most tasty pizza I have ever eaten.
We then jumped on the Metro and made our way over to the Colesseum. To explore for the rest of the afternoon. It is magical to walk through and image all the activity that happened here years ago. It's also hard to imagine how they even built it in the first place.

Our tickets also cover entrance to the Roman Forum so we will attack that tomorrow!
Despite our tired feet we got going early to explore the Roman Forum. Even more ruins close by have been excavated which are new from my last visit in 1998. It is amazing to wander through the ruins and imagine what life would have been like.

We then continued our walking tour of the main sights of Rome. From Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and several churches we walked everywhere. The kids are so good really as we were all tired but with a pizza lunch and gelato you can achieve so much!
We finished the day exhausted but satisfied that we had explored many parts of Rome.
Thursday 7th January 2016 🇮🇹

Today was the day to explore Pompeii. We took the fast train from Rome to Naples (goes up to approximately 300 km/hr!) and then another train out to Pompeii. It is a huge place to explore but we felt satisfied with what we did over 5 hours. If we had time we would have also explored the Herculaneum and more of Napoli but we couldn't.
Pompeii itself is a much larger city then I imagined. It's actually surprising to actually see how much remains intact to this day. We had a wonderful day exploring many of the features of this wonderful place.
I was glad that we booked the fast train for our return journey as after 3 days of exploring we just needed to get back to the camper and rest our tired feet!
Off to Florence tomorrow!