Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Paris, Ypres, London 2012

My husband has been trying to get me to Paris for several years now.  It's not that I didn't want to go but life and other things take over and the timing was never right.   Finally this year we decided it was time to go.  We had been promising our two younger children a trip overseas for years as we'd taken their older brothers to England and Wales when they were young.  

The trip happened to coincide with my daughter's 12th birthday.  During the planning we had not intended to go to England at all (I have been several times) but we could not get a direct flight home from Paris on the airline we chose so we decided to take the train to London to catch our flight home and spend a couple of days there.   The big surprise was that I managed to pack their Hogwarts Robes from Universal Studios without their knowledge and my daughter spent her 12th birthday on the sets of Harry Potter...pretty freakin cool if you ask me.

Over the next few pages you will see an account of our trip.   We started in Paris, made our way up into the Canadian War memorials where the children learned of their heritage and the sacrifices their countrymen made so they could live the life they do.   We stopped along the way in Pierrefonds where a certain young lad was in Heaven as he wandered about the halls of "Camelot" from his favorite Tv show Merlin which is filmed in Pierrefonds.

We hired a guide to take us through the battlefields in Ypres, and their father taught them about the Newfoundland Regiment as we stepped upon Canadian soil once again in France.  The kids saw live ammunition recovered from farmer's fields, war graves and trenches.

Off the train in London they relished in the childhood joy of playing on the film sets of their favorite young wizard hero Harry Potter.  (Their mum and dad had a great time too!!!).  They drank butterbeer and rode a broomstick on greenscreen.   Back in London they posed at platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross station.   We meandered past Parliament, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace.   We ate Birthday cake along the Thames and took a ride on the London Eye.   They explored the intrigue of the Tower of London and sang London Bridge all across Tower Bridge.

It was a grand trip.  I hope you all enjoy our adventure as I document our trip.

No comments:

Post a Comment