THE TIMELINE: Adelle' s trip to France with Dad

I had arrived in Seychelles before Adelle and Helen since they had spent three days in Mauritius . On the third of July I went to meet them at the Seychelles International Airport . Adelle was delighted to see me again and she flew straight into my arms. I had missed her a lot since leaving Perth .
           
The next day on the fourth, very early in the morning, it was off to the airport again. This time we were taking the plane to France . Adelle as usual was quite excited and eager to get going. She has become quite the jetsetter and she loves traveling.

After taking off, she turned on her Ipad and kept herself occupied with her favorite movies and games. She wanted me to watch Tom and Jerry with her. After an uneventful and rather short journey, we landed in Dubai . We had two and a half hours to kill before taking the next flight so we had fun browsing the duty free for a while then we made our way to terminal C.

 It was quite a long walk but Adelle as usual turned it into a game. She enjoyed walking on the automatic ramps. We finally found out that we had to take a lift down to another level and from there we had to take a train shuttle to our terminal. By the time we got there, we had a short time to relax before boarding the plane bound for France . The new A 380 was comfortable and spacious and the touch screen television provided a wide selection of movies and games. Adelle poured through the movies and finally decided to watch "Tangled" the animated Cinderella story. At the end, she wanted to watch it a second time and she kept giggling and laughing at the funny scenes.

We landed at Charles De Gaule airport in the evening at around ten o'clock. We spent the night at a hotel close to the airport. Adelle wanted pizza for dinner so we  went down to a pizza restaurant.

It was quite late by the time we got into bed and after a few hours sleep, I woke her up at four thirty in the morning to get ready for the next part of our journey. We were going to take an early domestic flight to Toulouse to meet my sister's family.

After flying for one and a half hours, we landed at Toulouse airport and we met Philippe, my sister's partner. We drove to the flat where they were staying. Natalie who is one of their close friend had very kindly offered to let us use her flat for a week.

It was lovely to see my sister Gemma, Philippe and their  two boys again after a very long time. I remember the kids when they were mere babies when they visited Seychelles . We saw them again about two years ago back in Seychelles . That was the first time Adelle got to meet her cousins and relatives because she was only eight months old when we came to Australia .

She was very proud of her cousins and often referred to them. The weather in Toulouse was pleasant. It was quite warm and everywhere was nice and green. Adelle had a lot of
fun with the two boys watching cartoons on the computer and playing Wii games. They even got hold of a blonde wig and they had a lot of fun wearing it.

Gemma knew that Adelle wanted to experience snow and she, Philippe and Natalie went to great lengths to organise that for her and for that we are really grateful.

 

Adelle got on very well with Natalie. On Sunday, we took the underground train to go and do some sightseeing in town.

On Monday, we left for the Pyrenees mountain range. It was a good three hours driving just to get there and we came across the "Tour De France" which was being set up for the competition.

After a little picnic lunch we finally got up into the mountains and it was great. we stopped to see some wild Llamas. As it was summer, most of the snow had melted, however there was enough for the kids to walk in and play with. Philippe, Adelle and the two boys tried to climb the steep sides and they kept slipping and falling. I was wearing biker boots with a good grip so I was able to climb more easily and I just kept laughing at them. We had a great time and all too soon we had to head back down.

Gemma and I stayed back because I wanted to take Adelle to Lourdes which was at the base of the mountains. The others headed back to Toulouse .

Lourdes was a more solemn experience because we were there for the religious and spiritual involvement.

Having been to Lourdes before, Gemma was very efficient and helpful. She organised meetings for us with priests and suggested a timetable for all the events that we should experience during our short two and a half days at this most holy place.

Adelle rode around in a wheelchair since there was a lot of walking to do. I took her to the grotto where the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette. Visited a priest who blessed her and gave her the anointment of the sick. He was surprised when Adelle suddenly asked to write her prayers on some paper. He insisted that we take her prayers to the grotto and put it in the supplication box because it came from her with no pressure from me.

So when we left, we did just that. We were also lucky to be able to have a dip in the bath of the sanctuary because there is usually a long line of sick people waiting. Sometimes you can wait all day without getting to it.

Later on we got a huge candle and we both wrote our prayer intentions on it before taking it to the "brulieres" to be lighted.

On our last day, we met with Etienne, a volunteer who usually helps people to attend various events. We took Adelle to the Stations Of the Cross so that she would express what she understood by each station.

After buying some souvenirs for friends and relatives, it was time leaves this amazing place. We took the train back to Toulouse and Adelle kept up a chatter all the way. I would have thought that she would have been really tired.  Natalie and Adelle had fun making things out of play dough and afterwards played with her cousins.

The next morning at around nine o'clock, we went to the airport where we said our goodbyes. I am really grateful to my sister Gemma, Philippe and Natalie for everything that they had done to make us feel welcome. I left Toulouse with a lot of hope and very good memories. We traveled back to Charles De Gaule airport in Paris and flew to Seychelles to meet the rest of our family and relatives.

Benjamin