Dear Family and Friends,The Onstott Family has somehow managed to get through its first Holiday Season in France. In addition to getting things ready for Christmas, we had much work to do to clean out our old house, prepare the new house with room for some of our things, and pack for our vacation trip. Thanks to Julie’s hard work, everything went surprisingly smoothly.
The kids enjoyed a fun Christmas morning filled with presents even though they missed spending time with Grandparents and family. Nathaniel received his annual allotment of toys from the movie Cars, Elyse was given an American Girl doll with hand-made changes of clothes, and Nicolas finally got the Nintendo DS about which he had been bugging mom and dad for some time.Following a relaxing Christmas day of watching the kids play with their toys and talking to family on Skype, we used the next two days to transfer our possessions from house to house, look for hotel deals online, and pack the car for our trip to England. We also managed to visit with our neighbors and watch a few holiday shows and BYU games via the internet thanks to Kevin.
Having learned from past trips, we made sure to leave very early in the morning for Versailles. The kids were very good during the drive and with the exception of repeated hurried bathroom stops for Nathaniel, the time passed quickly. We arrived at our hotel at about 2:00pm with plenty of time to look around the grounds of Versailles.
This included the small Chateau used by Marie Antionette to escape palace life called the Petit Trianon. This private residence matches the grandeur of the larger palace, but on a slightly smaller scale. Unfortunately, the kids got tired very quickly of the sub-zero temperatures and we had to cut our visit short.
The next day, we left the hotel and drove three hours to Dunkirque to catch the ferry to England. We parked our car below decks and found a table at the front of the ship where we were able to watch the workers cast off the lines and see the ship navigate through the harbor to the open sea. Julie enjoyed a relaxing couple of hours while the kids played with their toys. Joe, of course, felt right at home on the ocean and was in no hurry for the voyage to end.
The ship arrived at the famous white cliffs of Dover at about 4:00pm. Once moored, we got back in our car, drove off the boat, and speeded towards our room near the London Temple. Joe was glad to have practiced driving in England just a month before and found it much easier to drive his left-handed car on the wrong side of the road than a right-handed car with a manual transmission.
After checking into our room, we decided to look for a place to eat diner. Just a short distance away, we found what we were looking for – an American Pizza Hut. Even better than that, we discovered a megaplex theater next door showing all of the latest movies coming out of Hollywood. For a very brief period, we felt as if we were back at home.
The following afternoon, we drove about an hour to see Windsor Castle. Our tour consisted of a walk through the grounds followed by a stroll through some of the rooms used long ago as well as in modern day by English Royalty. One room contained an intricate dollhouse given to the Queen as a present. There were also many rooms with amazing works of art, intricate carvings, suits of armor, and other weaponry.
Wednesday morning, we packed up and drove to our next destination, Oxford. Since this was New Year’s Eve, we were a little worried about our accommodations and were presently surprised to find that we had booked ourselves into a quite bed and breakfast in a sleepy area of the town.
We then drove into town to tour the shops and colleges. For example, there was a small shop dedicated to Lewis Carroll and Alice and Wonderland. We were also able to visit Christ Church College, a rite of passage for each freshman attending Oxford University. There, we saw several scenes used in the making of Harry Potter films, including the stone staircase, dining hall, and courtyard.
The kids enjoyed playing a head-hunt game in which they had to locate different shapes, faces, and images from the carvings and reliefs in the Christ Church chapel.
The following day, we packed up again and drove back to London. We then took a train down town, where we hopped a couple of subway trains to our destination – the London Eye. We boarded the world’s largest observation wheel for a thirty-minute flight above London. Although it was dark at the time, we enjoyed spectacular views of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Thames River. 
On our way back home, we decided to stop in Paris so that the kids could finally see La Tour D’Effiel (the Eiffel Tower). We set the GPS to the correct coordinates and hoped that we would survive Paris traffic. As fortune would have it, we ended up driving around Napolean’s Arc de Triumph and down the largest boulevard in Paris, the Champs-Élysées, to get there. Everything, including the Tower, was still decorated in blue and sparkling lights for Christmas. 
As we crossed the English Channel back to France, we began to realize that our vacation was coming to a close and we would shortly need to resume or normal routine. Nevertheless, we were glad to have brought in the new year Exploring Northern France and England as a family.
Bonne Année and best wishes for 2009.
The Onstotts
The ship arrived at the famous white cliffs of Dover at about 4:00pm. Once moored, we got back in our car, drove off the boat, and speeded towards our room near the London Temple. Joe was glad to have practiced driving in England just a month before and found it much easier to drive his left-handed car on the wrong side of the road than a right-handed car with a manual transmission.After checking into our room, we decided to look for a place to eat diner. Just a short distance away, we found what we were looking for – an American Pizza Hut. Even better than that, we discovered a megaplex theater next door showing all of the latest movies coming out of Hollywood. For a very brief period, we felt as if we were back at home.
The following afternoon, we drove about an hour to see Windsor Castle. Our tour consisted of a walk through the grounds followed by a stroll through some of the rooms used long ago as well as in modern day by English Royalty. One room contained an intricate dollhouse given to the Queen as a present. There were also many rooms with amazing works of art, intricate carvings, suits of armor, and other weaponry.Wednesday morning, we packed up and drove to our next destination, Oxford. Since this was New Year’s Eve, we were a little worried about our accommodations and were presently surprised to find that we had booked ourselves into a quite bed and breakfast in a sleepy area of the town.
We then drove into town to tour the shops and colleges. For example, there was a small shop dedicated to Lewis Carroll and Alice and Wonderland. We were also able to visit Christ Church College, a rite of passage for each freshman attending Oxford University. There, we saw several scenes used in the making of Harry Potter films, including the stone staircase, dining hall, and courtyard.
The kids enjoyed playing a head-hunt game in which they had to locate different shapes, faces, and images from the carvings and reliefs in the Christ Church chapel.
The following day, we packed up again and drove back to London. We then took a train down town, where we hopped a couple of subway trains to our destination – the London Eye. We boarded the world’s largest observation wheel for a thirty-minute flight above London. Although it was dark at the time, we enjoyed spectacular views of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Thames River. 
On our way back home, we decided to stop in Paris so that the kids could finally see La Tour D’Effiel (the Eiffel Tower). We set the GPS to the correct coordinates and hoped that we would survive Paris traffic. As fortune would have it, we ended up driving around Napolean’s Arc de Triumph and down the largest boulevard in Paris, the Champs-Élysées, to get there. Everything, including the Tower, was still decorated in blue and sparkling lights for Christmas. 
As we crossed the English Channel back to France, we began to realize that our vacation was coming to a close and we would shortly need to resume or normal routine. Nevertheless, we were glad to have brought in the new year Exploring Northern France and England as a family.
Bonne Année and best wishes for 2009.
The Onstotts
2 comments:
Sounds like an amazing trip. We hope your move went well. Let us know when you have Internet again...so we can chat.
Love you,
Kevin, Amy, Matthew, Ryan and Zach.
Julie, I love checking up on you guys through your blog. Way to live life to the fullest! I love that you are visiting everywhere and doing everything! I will get my Europe fix by living through you through your blog! Tell Elise hello for me!
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