Our First Week in Europe
I won’t lie, it’s hard to believe we’re here.
After six years of day dreaming about this. We’re actually in Europe – without a van (for now), but c'est la vie.
For the past nine months we’ve been so focused on the actual task at hand - building out the van, renting our place, getting the dogs travel documents ready, having mini panic attacks, figuring out how to pack your entire life into two cupboards, oh, and driving across Canada to get Wylie on the boat to Belgium. You know, the usual things. However, to say we forgot about the massive, physical travel plans that would be facing us when they finished, would be an understatement.
Alas, our series of checklist items have now run out, we arrived in one piece, and to be standing on French soil was a bit of a punch to the face. I could use a strong drink.
Arriving with the Dogs
Without a doubt, this was the most stressful part of the entire journey. I am in the midst of writing a blog post about how to travel to Europe with dogs (stay tuned!), but in a nutshell, I am happy to report it was smooth sailing.
For those wanting the longer version, all human-stress aside, it was quite laughable how easy it was. I will admit, apart from one project in high school, this was the most research I have ever done in my entire life. We really love our dogs.
Finding the correct paperwork, the order and timeline in which it needed to be completed and varying levels of steps prior, during and after arrival was overwhelming. It kept me up night. Eventually, I boiled all the information down, made myself multiple checklists, schedules and just threw my credit card at the problem. Within 10 days of travel, we had two different appointments, within two hours of arrival at the airport we had drugs to administer, and I had eight months of paperwork immaculately organized in a giant folder as we walked up to the check-in desk at the airport.
Did anyone ask to see my paperwork, organized and colour-coded by dog name? Yes – one page.
Not the 15 that I legally had to have for each dog.
When we arrived in France, did anyone ask to see it? Not a single person even stopped us as we strolled out to our pre-arranged airport shuttle. We could have been importing a tiger and no one would have said a thing – well, I’m sure our chauffeur would have.
Wandering around Paris
We had four days to wait out the arrival of Wylie (the van) before we were able to access it in the Port of Antwerp. This wasn’t initially how we planned it; we were supposed to pick him up the following day after we landed, but all the planning in the world can’t account for ocean tides and human scheduling. This meant, two days before we departed Canada, we were canceling hotel rooms (near the airport), re-booking new ones (in Paris), and adjusting our shuttle address. Either way, how often are you ‘stranded’ in Paris for four days with all the time in the world to explore.
Our hotel was in the 18th arrondissement, which meant we were close to Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, and some seriously adorable streets. It also meant we were a 5-6 KM wander over to the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, The Ritz Paris and the Seine. We experienced some unusual downpours that we waited out under awnings while eating our feelings, we did long walk days, and some days we napped and enjoyed our balcony. I bought $5E bottles of wine, steak frites, ate the most delicious almond croissant I will continue to dream about, and we also made some questionable wraps in our room using the cheapest cheese and ham we could find to save some money.
Was it your average Paris dream trip? Probably not. But it was a great way to immerse ourselves into European culture, find the boundaries of our dogs in the city, and get to really know Paris in a way we never expected too.
Things That Surprised Me About Paris
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Enjoying the French Countryside
We finally got Wylie!
Jonny took the solo journey via train from Paris to Antwerp, drove 4 hours back to Paris, and miraculously found a parking garage that fit him for the night. In the morning, we double-parked him in a semi-quiet street, took the small amount of life belongings we’ve been wearing/using for the past four weeks, shoved them in and left.
I did request one final photography stop, and in doing this, we got our very first enthusiast admirer of Wylie. This French man on a scooter, likely on his way to work, weaseled his way in front of us, glanced at the van, looked at the front Canadian badge I have custom-made, and then looked up to us sporting the biggest grin, and giving us a gigantic thumbs up before wheeling off. Ah, Paris – you are your own kind of wonderful.
Driving outside of the city was beautiful. The French countryside is a showstopper. Passing by beautiful chateaus, quaint towns and fields of sunflowers was a welcomed change of scenery. We head to Jonny’s cousin’s place just outside of Saint Sulpice-Les-Feuilles for a few days, which has all three of the above within spitting distance. Apart from catching up (or in my case, getting to know) relatives, we’ve been spending our time getting the dogs EU passports, letting our OCD shine with van organization, realizing my Canadian French is only 10% helpful in grocery stores, and picking blackberries, rosemary and lavender on the farm. It’s been glorious.
The next major destination: Norway.
