Tryphoon's Lair

Part 2 - November 23rd – 2:00pm – November 25 – 8:00pm.

This is it. We are on our way to the airport and from there, on our way to London. The weather in Los Angeles is great and we already know that we might not see the sunshine for a couple of days, maybe even weeks but who cares: We are on our way to renew our visa and see our families while over there. We still have Thia’s passport issue to get resolved but we now have a plan: As soon as we land in London, we rush to my little brother Jef’s place, his cleaner will be waiting there for us and so we can drop some of our bags, get his car keys, got to the Disney office, put Thia in a photo booth in the Hammersmith shopping center and get a Disney lawyer to certify the pictures. From there, easy, we drive to Dover and hop on the Shuttle, go to France and have dinner with my big brother Serge at his place.

Well, that WAS the plan! We did follow it by the letter, sadly not all of the parts fell into places. Actually, none did! This trip’s curse was now in full effect!

So here we are, in lovely Acton town, at the bottom of a council block, with all our bags, 2 over tired kids (Sophia didn’t sleep through the flight), in the rain, with Thia complaining about how cold the place is… Our driver dropped us there (after much complaint about the amount of bags and car seats) and disappeared. Then the long list of setbacks started:

1. Jef’s cleaner wasn’t there. Her brother, however, who “doesn’t live far, will be with you momentarily to open the door”, is. Momentarily? More like 15 minutes in the rain…
2. Sarah couldn’t find Jef’s car parked somewhere in one of the 10 car parks around the various buildings. Add 20 minutes of fun in the rain…
3. Traffic in London really sucks but we made it to Hammersmith. At this point, we are already 30 minutes late on our tight schedule to catch the shuttle in time.
4. While I am finding a lawyer at Disney and saying hello to everybody, Sarah rushes downstairs and tries to get Thia in a photo booth, while catching up with Alex, one of Sarah’s best friends. Well, the only one working that day had a broken seat, so Thia’s pictures are a fail for her new passport. Option B is to use the pictures prepped for her Visa application and get them signed by the lawyer. Issue there? Thia will now HAVE to attend the Visa interview as well. At this point, we couldn’t care less as the Visa interview seems so far away.
5. Finally, we are ready to leave. It is dark outside. It is rush hour. We’re stuck in traffic. We have no chance to make it to the shuttle in time.
6. GPS in Jef’s car had a new “Recompute route due to congestion”. While it did sound great at first, after 4 route changes, we did end up driving on a tiny 2 lanes road, half the size of our street in Burbank, going towards the South West, while our real destination is South East. We reset the bloody GPS and ended up driving back towards London before finally going in the direction of Dover!
7. At this point, rain is now heavy and driving is difficult. Sarah is tired. The girls are hungry. The mood in the tiny car is fabulous!
8. Finally, the shuttle! We’re only a couple of hours late but make it to the next shuttle towards France at the time we were meant to sit down around a table and share dinner with the family

The shuttle trip itself is fab. The girls have the time get out of their seats and Thia enjoys being in a car, in a train, in a tunnel, under the ocean, all of it at the same time!

"cartraicean": A car in a train under the ocean...

Finally, France! It is so late! We are exhausted, hungry and only 40 miles away from our goal for the day. The GPS doesn’t sent us off piste this time, but the rain has now turned into a storm. Finally, around 10:00pm, we made it to Serge, who had patiently waited for us before eating a fantastic “Boeuf Bourguignon”. All the girls finally passed out and went to sleep, I stayed behind for an hour or so, fighting jet lag and catching up with my big bro.

Family in a C5

The night is short. We get up, re-pack our 5 suitcases (we totally invaded Serge and Sylvie’s living room and Kitchen) and have a copious breakfast made of French delicacies. Loulou then simply decides that she has adopted her uncle Serge and she refuses to be anywhere else than on his knees. I have so far never seen her be that close to anyone…

Loulou meets her Uncle Serge for the first time and she likes him a lot!

And here ends our 10 hours bubble of peace in Armentieres. Time to hit the road once more.
Armentieres – Langres is a fairly simple drive. 300 miles of freeway from one end to the other. Easy! Well, easy when the weather is fine, but believe or not, from the second we started the engine of the car, the sky opened and a storm followed us during each step of the trip. Visibility is close to null, exhaustion is at max level. A fantastic trip! Finally, after 6 hours (and not the usual 3 1/2), we made it to Langres, almost right in time to go for an early dinner before everybody passes out.

Jet lagged baby

Even Loulou is shattered and cannot resist sleeping while at the restaurant. But we made it. We are in Langres, with my parents, for a whole 2 1/2 days of peace and relaxation, as long as we can forget for a couple of minutes about the Damocles sword above our head that is Thia’s new passport issue…