Our Camping Adventure!

The past couple years, our vacation time has been spent around the house, but with this being our last summer here, we decided to actually go somewhere new as a family! It's the busiest and most expensive time of year to travel and stay places, so we decided to camp to save money. We weren't really sure how it would go with two little ones, but after we all adjusted, it was really enjoyable!

I did a Google search "camping in Southern France with toddlers" and was amazed at the campsites that I found! Almost every one had electricity, evening activities, craft times (for kids) swimming pools - with toddler pools, restaurants and stores where you can buy bread & milk and other things. It's been awhile since I've been camping, but I don't remember camping at places like that in the States!

The main place we wanted to go was Southern France. Driving straight through, it would take about 9 hours, which would just be too much for the kids, so we opted to camp along the way in Italy for two nights to break up the trip. It was sooo hot there!! Thankfully, our campsite had electricity and we had brought two fans (can you believe it?!!) and we put those to use those two nights. The evening entertainment (for families) that we thought would be fun to watch if the kids weren't sleeping didn't turn out to be very "family friendly" in our book, so we spent time at the tent...although, we were about 100 meters away from the program that went until 11pm. It was a bit crazy those first two nights, but we all survived.

The next day we headed to our next campsite in France that I had booked online for 6 nights. It was about an hour from the coast so would be cooler and had some amazing swimming pools with slides and playgrounds. It was supposed to be about a 5-6 hour drive and turned into 9-10. We were all exhausted! Joel came out from the registration office asking if I had my confirmation email--which I didn't. Uh Oh! Then he and a girl who worked there came out and explained that during their busy season they don't take bookings online, you have to call to reserve your place. That would've been nice to know!! Thankfully, they had a spot for us to sleep that night, since it was almost 8pm, but we'd have to leave the next day and move on....to where?

Joel & I were both very disappointed and tired, feeling like we were on vacation and yet, miserable at that point. The kids were also tired but were being really wonderful! We decided to head to our next campsite (which we KNEW didn't take reservations, but we could call along the way to make sure they had room.) It was supposed to be a 3 1/2 hour drive and was turning into one that felt much longer. In France, you have to take a paper ticket when you get on a freeway and then whichever exit you take it calculates your toll. Well, we missed an exit and then had to drive 9 miles in the wrong direction before we could take an exit to turn back around...and then we had to pay a toll! Oh my...we were so frustrated.

By the time we got to about an hour from our next destination, we were all hot and tired and ready to be done traveling. The campsite kept saying we had to just show up for a campsite, they wouldn't reserve one for us or even tell us if there were any available. Joel finally said, "We're going to stop and get a hotel. Our family needs a break." He was so right! So we did! It took awhile to find a hotel with any rooms available, but the Lord had one for us and we were grateful. There was a nice sandy beach about a 10 minute drive from the hotel that wasn't crowded or busy and was just what our family needed.

In addition to that, the town that my Grandmother's sister lives in was just 20 minutes from the hotel! After calling my Grandmother in California and asking someone on the hotel staff to call the sister for me, we were all set to go meet her the next morning! Joel took 4 years of French years ago, so quickly got online and started giving himself a refresher course!

When we got to my Great Aunt's house and she walked out, my eyes filled with tears. She looked so similar to my Grandmother that I was instantly glad we took the time to meet her. We ended up spending 5 hours there! Joel did an outstanding job speaking French and trying to communicate. We drew a family tree so she would understand exactly who we were in relation to her, looked at pictures of her family, even spoke to her son on the phone for quite awhile! We were trying to figure out a way for Abigail to understand who these people were in relation to her and finally just told her, "they're like your French Grandma & Grandpa" and she just latched onto that! She quickly decided that she liked her French Grandpa and followed him wherever he went. She read one of her story books to him and sat on his lap...to her, he was her Grandpa! I don't think George minded at all! It was such a special part of the trip for me! I am so, so glad the Lord worked that out!

After that, we headed to another campsite near Nice & Cannes. It was actually situated about a 15 minute drive away from the coast, outside a small village and was nice and shady throughout most of the day. It was a perfect place for us to spend the next 5 nights. There was a pool at the campground, which we visited the first day, but spent the rest of the days driving in to go to the sea. The town, Villeneuve-Loubet, boasts of how wonderful it is for families. They even have a beach with sand that is reserved for families! There are students that work at the family beach and have crafts for the kids to do, music and toys to play with the sand. It was a perfect location for us.

Also, besides the nice village of Villeneuve-Loubet, there were other small villages around there to visit and we enjoyed that. Sometimes the kids were wiped out in the afternoons, but because of the heat, had a hard time sleeping so we would load up in the van, turn on the AC and head to a nearby village to explore, then head back for dinner and bedtime. It really worked out well for us!

Our final night we visited St. Paul de Vence and fell in love with it! It was a Sunday night and we didn't expect it to be as busy as it was. There were sooo many people there! We got there a bit later too, around 8 and the kids were tired, we were really enjoying the city, Joel said, "Let's go tonight and just come back tomorrow morning on our way out of town." Then I saw a sign that said something about a fireworks show that night at 10pm and the best places to see it were outside the city walls. Aha! So that's why there were so many people there! We quickly headed back to the car and as we were leaving town the fireworks started! They show was amazing! They lit up the whole city with their different colors! We pulled over to watch, but the kids didn't like the loud booming of the fireworks, so we kept driving and watched as we were able to.

The next morning though, we headed back up, expecting the city to be a lot quieter after their big show the night before, but it's like the city never stops! It was just as busy as the night before! It was fun to walk around it in the daylight, get some lunch and then be on our way!

To the Cinque Terre in Italy! We had a campsite planned, although not booked, in a city about a half an hour away but we stopped at a gas station as we were getting close and the Italian man working there said, "no, it's not nice there...you want to go to Levanto" so we went there instead! It turned out being the town just north of the five towns that make up the Cinque Terre and was just a 5 minute train ride to the first town. Besides it being quaint itself! The Lord reserved a campsite for us...literally the next to last spot available! But again...it was so hot there and we didn't have the connector for switching from the Italian electrity and we weren't able to use it. So after one night, we decided it would just be better if we moved on again.

After that, we headed to Vicenza, Italy, mostly to just break up the long drive home again, but also because it's about an hour from Venice and the kids have never been there. Joel had reserved us a hotel there for the last two nights of our vacation, but we were there 3 nights early! Thankfully, the hotel had room for that night, but were booked full the next, so we spent time in the city, enjoyed a nice Italian meal and ended up heading home the next day. We decided to skip Venice...getting pictures of Elijah with pigeons all around him might have been fun, but the expense and time to get there would've been a lot. We were all tired and ready to make the 3 hour trip home.

Here is a slideshow of pictures instead of posting individual ones...enjoy!