France: Part I

Day 1
We started our French adventure on a Thursday afternoon when Patrick picked up our RV rental. It was brand new with only 12km on the odometer. I wish I could say that we had neatly stacked piles of belongings sitting by the door and that it was a breeze to move in, but we were coming off of 3 weeks of Patrick being in Italy and a whole range of illnesses on the part of the kids and I. We were tossing things in willy-nilly in a frenzy to begin driving asap, but thankfully I had put together an excellent spreadsheet, so while we were a bit disorganized at the beginning we ended up with all the right things in the end. A few of our neighbors stopped by to check out our ride and assure us that camper travel is the way to go with small children.

We began driving at 9:30pm and got a couple hours under our belts before pulling off at a roadside truck pullout to sleep with the big rigs. These apparently fill up early but we found a place to squeeze in on our second try. We were right on the Autobahn and were lulled to sleep by the sounds of cars whizzing past at high velocity.



Day 2
We started our first full day with a hearty breakfast of oatmeal cooked in our little kitchenette. There were lots of smiles and tons of excitement about our big camper adventure. For some people this excitement extended to the novelty of an in-car bathroom and our morning contained frequent potty stops. Our plan was to do a large chunk of driving in the first 2 days and head south toward friends, warmth and sunshine, taking it a bit slower after the initial push. It was a little tough on Brennan because he had gotten really excited about this trip and then spent the majority of 2 days in his carseat, just like any other road trip. We eventually found our groove though.



Patrick in his element. He's always been a big fan of road trips.



We stopped for a quick picnic lunch and to stretch our legs.



Excited to be using our camping chairs and getting some sun.



We stopped for one last tank of gas in Germany, where we are allowed to pay a rate comparable to U.S. gas rates. The town was called Neuenburg and luckily for us I spotted this ice cream cone while we were searching for the gas station, and it was just up the hill from the Esso. Parking in town wasn't really going to be an option for us so we left our ride parked behind the gas station and headed out for some ice cream, bread, and fruit.



We cut through a corner of Switzerland and paid a onetime toll of 45e. It's good for the whole year, but still seemed expensive at the time. That's because we hadn't paid any tolls in France yet. We pulled off the highway for a home cooked pasta dinner overlooking a beautiful valley and gorgeous sunset. We let the kids burn off some steam, got them ready for bed, strapped them back in their carseats and drove for a while longer until we stopped at an Autogrill and slept in their parking lot. It was much quieter on night two; we were already learning some tricks of the camper trade.