We're still alive! (and still having fun)

We arrived safely in Paris, France on August 19 after 5 awesome days in Hong Kong. I absolutely loved being back, especially catching up with friends and eating dim sum, but was reminded that while it was a fabulous place when Mike and I were in married and both working, life with two young boys in a small apartment was TOUGH and it certainly wasn't as child friendly as Singapore.

Paris was amazing, I can't even describe how amazing! We arrived Sunday morning and picked up the car and even navigated to our place near Canal St-Martin without too much trouble. We tried to get out for the afternoon to keep the kids (and ourselves) awake till a "reasonable" te to avoid being up all night. It worked, and while the kids were a bit peeved about going to bed while it was still light outside (and during a major heat wave) we had a pretty decent night.

Spent the next 2 days sightseeing, mostly from L'Open Tour buses and a lot of walking around. We went in Notre Dame one morning on the spur of the moment but plan to go up the Eiffel Tower when we're back in October.

From Paris, we drove down to the Loire Valley and were blown away by our next accommodation - a holiday home on the edge of Chisseaux, a tiny village a couple of k's from Chenonceau (also pretty small). It was an old farmhouse that had been beautifully renovated, sooo much space for the kids to run and a great place to relax in the evenings after they were in bed too :)

Saw just a few of the zillions of chateaux in the Loire valley. Kids weren't too interested in looking around inside them but have really taken to picnic lunches and are loving all the croissants for breakfast too ;)

Arrived in the Lot valley on Sunday. We're staying in another restored farmhouse. This one is far more "original" and the kitchen not quite as flash, but the garden is fantastic yet again and the kids are really enjoying it. We're all sleeping late in the morning - shutters seem far more effective than any blackout curtains I've come across!

We are here another night and the heading down towards Avignon. After that we only have a couple more nights (either in France or Italy) before we plan to arrive in Tuscany!

Internet access is proving to be a lot harder to come by here than in Asia, so expect the updates to be a little less frequent the further we get into our trip (sorry).

Needless to say, we are having a great time over here. Mike is doing a great job driving us all over the place and the kids are (mostly) coping really well and enjoying themselves too. Fingers crossed we actually manage to find somewhere to get online sometime soon so I can post this and we can double check the directions for our next place!!