Random photos of Toulon from our past trip

As you may be aware, we went to France and Italy a few weeks ago. Besides posting pictures of our farmhouse and the countryside of Tuscany, I haven't posted a thing from France or the rest of Tuscany. To be honest, I didn't know what to do next. I could probably easily do another six posts on our trip but so much time has passed now and I just want to share a bit more and then move on. There are so many other things going on and I'm falling very behind! :( To complete my documentation of our past vacation, I will do this post and one more after this. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I think the best way to share our experience is through some of the pictures we took.

Omg. There are so many pictures! I am just overwhelmed. Over 1500 pictures were taken! This is part of the reason why I have been taking so long with these blog posts. Wouldn't you procrastinate too? How do I share just a few pictures when there are probably 1000 good ones? Omg.

We stayed in Toulon for a long time because Tristan's grandparents lived there, as well as his great grandpa. Our only plan in Toulon was to see relatives and hang out with them as much as possible. We had no plans to go anywhere or do anything in particular. When there was nobody left to see, we actually found ourselves bored silly. We spend countless hours playing with Tristan, going for walks, and watching television at his great grandpa's house. Jean-Louis even went out for runs while Tristan and I sat around home waiting for him.

Tristan got to see his family a lot but most of the time, it was just the three of us alone doing things like playing and walking into town. It actually made us notice even more how the South of France really isn't kid-friendly at all. It's better than Paris perhaps. Besides the beach and playground near the beach, there is nothing much else to do. As far as I know, there are only two public playgrounds. One is a 25 minute walk and the other is about a 1 hour walk. None of them have any shade. Most playgrounds are inside of schools, which are gated and locked. We went to the same playground over and over and I was getting so sick of it. Luckily, it was a nice playground. The lack of playgrounds is one thing and the lack of child-friendly restaurants is another. Tristan is a good eater and is well behaved when we dine out so it isn't ever really a big deal for us. When Tristan's little cousins came to visit though, we almost went to Ikea for a family lunch! It was the closest thing they could come up with that was kid-friendly and that wouldn't cost a fortune. In the end, we decided it was going to be too busy at Ikea so we settled for fast Chinese food in town. Oh, the horror. It was as yucky as I had expected. Seriously.

Tristan got to hang out and bond with his French family and that was the most important. As an added bonus, we also took some great photos of him with his grandparents, great grandpa, and his little cousins. He got along so well with his three girl cousins! It was so cute :) It was also great to see people our age with little kids too who we could hang out with.

Wordless Wednesday: Computer Babe!

Been meaning to post these shots from my father-in-law's office in Toulon :)

Tristan gets baptized at l'église Saint-Antoine de Padoue

From the moment Tristan was born or maybe even while I was still pregnant with him, Jean-Louis' mother (my mother-in-law), had wanted to get him baptized. She is Catholic and everyone in the family has been baptized so she needed Tristan to be as well. We went along with it to please her.

Jean-Louis was raised Catholic and I was raised Buddhist but neither of us practice religion at all. We know how his mom is like and if we objected at all, we would be in trouble! However, we did make it clear that we wouldn't be raising him Catholic and that we're only doing this for her and Jean-Louis' late grandmother, who passed away last year.

The event took place at l'église Saint-Antoine de Padoue in Toulon. There were two babies being baptized at the same time. The other was a little girl named Stella. Normally, parents get their children baptized when they are around 6 months old but they had to make an exception for us since we lived out of the country far away. 18 months old? Maybe a bit strange but no problem :)

The ceremony took about an hour to complete. I did not even try to listen and understand what they were saying or singing since I was focused on keeping Tristan quiet and happy. There were lots of church choir singing and passage readings. The priest applied oil on Tristan's forehead at one point but the climax of the event was when water was poured on Tristan's head. That was the only thing I expected to see. They did the baby girl first since they thought Tristan would be more difficult. The baby girl was sleeping at the time but then cried anyways. Tristan was remarkably quiet and didn't even whine. He just had a confused look on his face like what the heck is going on? We walked around the church and read more passages and listened to the priest. Then we all signed papers. After that we all walked outside the church.

Everyone was so surprised and pleased with how well-behaved Tristan was during the whole ceremony, including myself. The event took place when he was suppose to have lunch and it ended around the time he should have been napping. Once it ended and we were outside the church, we gave him his milk right away. Moments later in the car ride back home, he passed out. Poor little guy :(

Later that afternoon, we all reunited at Jean-Louis' grandfather's place and had dessert and champagne. With many of us dressed up and wearing white, the ceremony at the church, and then the champagne, it really did feel like a wedding. I would call the day a success and I hope my mother-in-law agrees with me too :)

Mt. Faron and the zoo

We took an afternoon trip up Mt. Faron. Mt. Faron is probably the only real big attraction in Toulon. It's close to the city and there are stunning views when you drive up. The drive is a bit nerve wrecking though since there are often no barriers on the side of the road and if you aren't careful, you can drive right off the mountain. I remember when we first took my parents up, they were even too scared to look out the window on our way up. Mt. Faron is definitely a must-do for those visiting Toulon though :)

At the top, we walked around for more views of the city and surrounding area. Tristan got to play in the playground a bit and then we visited the zoo. It was a cat zoo. Mostly tigers, pumas, jaguars, panthers, cheetahs, bobcats, etc. There were monkeys too and a bear. At 18 months old, I think Tristan is still too young to enjoy the zoo. What he was really interested in doing was just running around. Go figure!

Family time and touring in Toulon

It took five days for Tristan to recover from jet lag. It was kind of horrible. There is a 9 hour difference between Vancouver and France. Typically, we can adjust to the new time zone in a day or so but we found out the hard way that we could only adjust as quickly as Tristan could. When he would wake at 2AM several days in a row, we felt like we were back in the newborn days. We were so tired! He had a hard time adjusting to the changes too and he had trouble sleeping and would cry more often too. For the first five days, we basically didn't do anything aside from visiting with Jean-Louis' grandfather.



This was a family trip. We knew that it would be so we didn't expect much fun from it. The plan was for Tristan to meet his family on Jean-Louis' side and to get to know them a little better. But two weeks of just that is a long time. We found ourselves very bored. This is usually the case anyways when we visit France. Toulon, in particular is pretty boring. Sure there are beaches and shops but after two days, you just get bored. Nearby Toulon is much more interesting but we have to drive out. My favorite part of Toulon is definitely their farmer's market. Strawberries and cherries were in season and Tristan couldn't get enough of them!



Tristan was in new territory and was fascinated. He would run everywhere, touch and grab everything in sight. He learned quickly where things were and when we would release him in the morning, he would go to the same places and start pushing buttons and turning knobs. He would climb where he could and when we wouldn't let him do something, which was often the case since my parents in law's place was not baby proofed, he would some times throw tantrums. He acted out on us because we imposed too many boundaries on him and he was turning into a terrible two before our eyes.

It was great for Jean-Louis' parents to finally meet their only grandchild. Tristan was mostly scared of them since they were like strangers to him so we never left Tristan with them. They are also not used to being around small children and we weren't sure if we could trust them with Tristan's safety. Just from our observations, we didn't think they could last more than 5 minutes alone with our hyper-active toddler :)

In terms of having lots of family time, this trip was a success. We got to see everyone in the family. Jean-Louis doesn't have a very big family so it wasn't too hard. His two cousins and their kids came to see us. One drove into Toulon from Orange and the other took the train and met us in Paris from Vernon. It was great for Tristan to be around some children during the trip, even though it was only for a couple of hours at a time. I think it worked well because everyone was looking forward to meeting Tristan for the first time. Of course, that also meant that he was spoiled! It was great though :)

Our 23 hour journey to Toulon, France

Considering we had no experience traveling with a toddler, our long journey to the South of France was actually not that bad. We boarded the plane around 12PM and remained on the plane for 12 hours. It was nice being one of the first ones to board for a change. When we first boarded, Tristan fussed a bit because he didn't know where we were and it was a bit hot. We sat in the middle of the plane but had an aisle seat. There were three seats in the middle so a lady sat next to us. When Tristan fussed, I noticed the lady glared at us and I am pretty sure I could have guessed what she was thinking. Long flight and I'm sitting next to people with a baby. Crap. I'm sure that was it. Hours into the flight, we proved her wrong. She was French. She ended up telling Jean-Louis how good Tristan has been on the flight. Sure Tristan poked her a few times while she was sleeping and even tried to grab food off her tray but overall, he was well behaved :)

Tristan is your typical toddler. He always has to be doing something and is always moving. I had prepared lots of wrapped toys and snacks for him to have throughout the trip. Thank god for the different toys. We brought out a new toy every few hours and then rotated them afterwards. We also walked him up and down the aisle a few times for exercise. We sang to him, we read together, we tickled him etc. We did everything we could to keep him happy. Unfortunately, we sat right underneath the tv screen and when we would look up and watch every now and then, he copied us. He has never really watched tv before so he was obviously fascinated. It didn't happen a lot since he had toys to play with. He probably watch a bit of tv for something like 10 minutes. But still. Another annoying thing was that the people on the left side of us had their window shade up most of the time and there was a lot of light in our direction. That didn't help with getting Tristan to sleep at all!

Thank god for the snacks! I had to throw away most of Tristan's lunch since he managed to put his shoe in the bowl and then I realized I forgot to pack his dinner that I had in the freezer. Basically, he had no meals for the next 20 hours. It sucked. I did have lots of fruit packed, cereal, and Mum-Mums. We fed him some of our dinner too. He drank lots of milk and water and it turned out just fine in the end. Food wasn't the problem. Sleep was.

Nap time for Tristan was a breeze. He fell asleep over us on the pillow I brought when we laid him down and rubbed him a bit. He was pretty much on schedule for the nap so that was perfect. He slept for an hour, which is more than he typically naps for too. The night sleep was a mess. He tried to get comfortable and we tried to help him but nothing worked. An hour before we landed, 11 hours into the flight, it was 2 hours passed his bedtime in Vancouver. I think it was something like 11PM time back home and by this time, he was overly tired and ticked off. He basically went insane on us for 15 minutes or so. I had to get out of my seat and carry him over to the bathroom area to calm him down. Of course at this point everyone was staring and probably pissed off too since it's been a long flight and they were all tired too. I felt embarrassed. It felt like time stood still. This was exactly what I feared and it was happening. When Tristan finally passed out, I sat back down and he had a good 30 minute nap before we landed but then he woke up screaming again. He was so tired and scared of the plane noise. Man, I couldn't wait to get out of there. When all the people stood up to get their stuff, Tristan freaked out again. Man, there was no place to go. It was hot and everyone was tired and we were trapped. It was a terrible feeling. He basically freaked out on and off until we arrived in the customs line. It sucked. We had no sleep at all on the plane, but that is nothing new for me.

There were maybe 5 or 6 other babies onboard. There was this one baby maybe 20 rows down from us who cried a lot. The baby was maybe a few months old and haven't been able to sleep much. The stewardesses were often crowded around the mom trying to help out. The mom was tired and frustrated and the baby was crying for hours. I felt so sorry for them :(

It was morning when we arrived in Paris. When we stepped outside, there was the smell of cigarette smoke. Ah, the memories! Then we had to pay 0.50 Euros at the train station so I could pee. Again, great memories! :( Because of the sunlight, Tristan was wide awake but then he became overly tired again about an hour or two into the train ride. Luckily, there was a compartment I could take Tristan in between the train wagons where they normally store food and no one sits in. I walked and rocked him there for probably 20 minutes or so before he passed out. He then slept for maybe 2 hours.

We timed our journey from the time we left our house to the time we arrived at my parent in law's place. 23 hours! But we left 2 hours after Tristan woke up that morning, which means in over 24 hours, he only slept maybe 4 hours. I maybe slepted on and off for maybe 30 minutes during that period. It was definitely rough for the little guy :( I felt so bad putting him through all this. Tiring for us but maybe worst for him, I think.