Once Upon a Time... At the Paris Police Station

There are many stories in our lives. This is just one of them.

November 2, 2017 Friend of ours visited us when we lived in Toulouse, France during August of 2017. The couple and their son spent some time with us in Toulouse, then continued on to Paris where the husband unfortunately lost his wallet. It was possibly stolen on the metro. They filed a police report, but nothing was resolved before they returned to the United States. Weeks later, the police contacted him and said it had been recovered. We fabricated a letter in English and French to authorize us to retrieve it.

Then, during the kids' school break in October/November, we initiated a trip to Budapest-Vienna-Prague-Munich-Paris (as you do). Dan joined us in Budapest. The Budapest-Vienna-Prague part of the trip included my parents. The Munich-Paris leg was just me and the boys. I know there is a Dracula story in there that should be told as well, but that is for another time.

When we finally made it to Paris, we stayed at an AirBnB that was a bit off the beaten path, but located near the police station where we needed to retrieve the wallet. We went to an amazing restaurant for breakfast while waiting for the police station to open. As it was off the beaten path, there weren't tourists, so the proprietors of the restaurant were actually nice to us:) And the food! It was the best French breakfast we have ever had. It was necessary to get this picture out into the world to show you the amazing breakfast. I apologize for inducing drooling.

After breakfast, we went to the police station, put our bags through the metal detector and found that Alex was carrying like 8 bottles of water. I have no idea why. For those of you who know Alex now, this will not surprise you. The police officer who was on metal detector duty just kept pulling water bottles out of the backpack. I shrugged, made incredulous hand geustures, admonished Alex, and tried to say, "He is a crazy child." in French. It probably came out, "He is fire."

Once we got inside and were actually able to wait in line, it was so slow that the guy in front of us a few places actually fainted! Emergency services had to be called. Turns out we were in the wrong line on the wrong floor, which we found out after we left the crazy line to investigate elsewhere. We got the wallet back, minus the cash, obviously, and saw the ambulance leaving when we departed. But at least we had been fortified by the earlier amazing breakfast!

If you can be a well-behaved tourist, I highly recommend the restaurant Café Arthur et Juliette in Paris. It looks like it is still there. And, according to recent pictures, they have other meals beyond breakfast!

Public Transportation to School

Mini-Commuters

The kids have been on many different types of public transportation during their lives.  Will first rode the Tokyo Subway system when he was just 10 days old.  They have both been on subways/metros, buses, boats, trains, trams, light rail and funiculars in more than a dozen countries.  They have been on the busiest and most complex systems in not only Tokyo, but also New York, Washington, London, Paris and Budapest.

Back when Will turned 10-years-old, he had a good grasp of the metro system in Toulouse.  It's got 2 lines, so it isn't terribly complex.  We told him that since he was getting older and more responsible, it would be ok with us if he wanted to go on the metro by himself.  You know, to the candy store or something.  He never really took us up on the offer except to head home after late dinners out at restaurants as we were finishing up our dessert or coffee or paying the bill.   Typically that would not really involve the metro since there are many restaurants within walking distance of our apartment.

Then, when Alex turned 10 this year, a new family moved to Toulouse and their kids started taking the metro the 17 km out to school.  They were 12 and 14 years old.  After we figured out the route, we started sending the 4 kids to commute to school on their own.  Because when you think about it, spending 3 hours a day driving and waiting for kids at school is a little crazy.  We would leave for school at 7:30am, drive for 30 minutes, then hang out for 25 minutes until Alex's school started.  Then, I would return, typically taking 35 minutes back, getting home at 9:00am.  If we left later than 7:30am, we might not make it to school by the start time of 8:30am because traffic stacks up during that window.  Then, in the afternoon, I would drive to school, leaving around 3:25pm, getting Alex at 4:00pm, waiting the 15 minutes for Will to finish school, driving back home arriving around 5:00pm.

Three hours is the estimated time spent with normal traffic.  One time it took 2 hours to get to school.  There had been a truck drivers' strike the day before.  The trucks didn't go anywhere until after the strike was over, then they all left the next morning at the same time.  Which meant we couldn't go anywhere.  After about an hour of trying to get out of our neighborhood, we finally got across the river and were sort of on our way.  We stared wistfully at the tram for a while as we were stuck in traffic near the stop.  The kids got to school just before 9:30am.  To add insult to injury, it was a Wednesday.  Which means that the kids only had a half day.  I decided to just get coffee and groceries near school until the noon pickup time.  We have had similar experiences returning home from school.  The problem is primarily on the Friday before a school vacation.  Everyone leaves a little early and tries to get on the road on Friday evening.  It's kind of like trying to get out of Los Angeles before a holiday weekend.

Back in January, when it was still dark at 7:30am, the kids started taking the Tram to the Train to the Bus to school.

The Tram in January

We didn't just stick them on the tram and hope that they could figure out the connections.  The first few times, I went with them.  For the return trip, we practiced that too.  I would leave around 2:00pm to take the public transportation to school, then return with them, trying a couple different ways to get home and teaching them how to figure out which train to get on and where to scan their transport cards.  Despite being a huge expenditure of time, it was totally worth it.

After a few tweaks in the route, the boys currently the boys leave home at 7:10am, scooter over to the SNCF station, take the train nearly all the way to school, then scooter over to school, arriving around 8:00am.  Then, to return home in the afternoon, they take a bus to the train station, train to the tram, then scooter home, arriving at different times, depending on the day and success of quick connections.  Sure, they need to spend more of their time commuting, but it's a whole lot better than me spending 3 hours per day, every day, driving them to school and back.

Fun and Fast Scooters

Of course, nothing is simple and easy.  The kids have had times where the different parts of the journey were behind schedule, connections didn't work, part of the system was shut down, or the national trains or local transport have been on strike.  Fortunately, they have been able to think on their feet, improvise, and make it to their destination without too much trouble.

One time, when Will was coming home on his own after Computer Club, the transit officials kicked everyone off the tram.  Since Will had his scooter, he decided that the best way home on the last part of the journey would be to scooter on the sidewalk, along the tram track route.  It took a while, I was slightly worried, but he made it home.

The train strike has been the most fascinating of problems.  The day before a scheduled train strike, you can check the route you want.  It will show the schedule changes and alternative transportation by bus if that is what replaces the normal train route for that day.  Most times this has been reliable.  One time when the boys' train was supposed to be on track, it didn't arrive.  Fortunately, they were able to take the next train that was 30 minutes later.  They were slightly late for school, but here in France, La Greve, the strike, is an acceptable excuse and you aren't counted tardy.

The kids have become so adept at taking the public transportation that they feel they can figure out any route.  They think that when we are in the US, they are going to be able to take transport out to visit their cousins' house.  I think someone needs to tell them that the US doesn't work the same way as Europe.  (Technically they could do it, but it would take 3 hours.)  It will be a disappointing reverse culture shock for them.

Alex Commuting Alone

Has anyone ever noticed that their children are different from each other, even though they share practically the same genes?

Commuting Generally Going Well
Will and Alex have been commuting to and from school, most days, since January.  Sure, I pick them up on the two days a week that Alex has to get to judo after school.  I pick up Alex and one of their friends on Wednesday when Will stays behind with his friend for Science Club.   I bring them out to school when I have a meeting out that way once a week in the morning.  But mostly, they commute together, and meet up with or travel with their other two friends during the commute.  

One Day, Last Part of Journey, Alex is Alone
There is one day when Alex makes the last part of his journey home alone.  He and one of our friends leave school together, but then they split up to go to their respective homes.  This usually goes smoothly.  Except when it doesn't.  One time, there was some sort of lift or construction vehicle that had tipped over and was blocking the tram line.  So they kicked everyone off.  Alex's solution was good, as he was at a major transit hub, he hopped on the metro to get closer to home.  Then, because he had forgotten his key for his scooter and had to leave it at school, he walked home from the metro.  This took quite a while.  I was slightly concerned, but he made it home eventually.  

Lost Things
You would think that forgetting his scooter key might be the exception to keeping Alex and all of his stuff together.  But it is not.  He has also lost his metro card, twice.  He has lost his scooter lock, twice.  To be fair, he is not the only one who has lost his card.  Will lost his metro card a while ago.  Dan went online and requested a replacement.  Then Will found his metro card again.  When Alex lost his metro card, we figured it would be easy to request a replacement since it worked for Will's card.  However, when Dan tried to do this, the system told him that a card already existed for Alex and that we would have to go to the metro office to make a request for replacement.  Of course, the main office is currently closed due to metro improvement projects...  So, since Will had two cards, Alex is now the younger looking Will.  Yes, he is using one of Will's cards.  

You may wonder why it worked for Will's replacement and not Alex's.  Well, we finally figured it out.  When Dan requested the replacement for Will, he spelled William without the second "i."  So Alex is actually "William" and Will is now "Willam."  This has actually worked out pretty well.  Occasionally there are enforcing officials who check the tickets on the transportation.  And this did indeed happen during one of the boys' trips home.  Alex knew he didn't have his card and he was the other "Will."  I hear that when the ticket checking guys came by, Alex looked completely terrified that he would be found out as an imposter.  Of course, the worst thing that could happen is that he would get kicked off, taken to a metro office, and we would have to collect him and get fined 60 euro.  But really, the only things the ticket enforcers care about is if you are paying the correct fare and have a validated card.  They scanned the card, found it properly validated, and continued on to search for someone who hadn't paid their fare properly.  I feel, though, that the state of panic that he experienced may have encouraged Alex to be a bit more responsible about his card.  

Alex Commuting Alone
This brings us to the next Alex Commuting story.  Normally it is Will who has a cell phone and can use it to text or call if there is a problem.  He is older and sort of keeps track of his stuff more than Alex.  I can track him on his commute if I get worried.  Well, I can if he has actually kept his phone charged.  

But this week, Will is not here.  He is on a 4-day school residential trip.  Our friend, who Alex normally commutes with, had other afternoon plans on Wednesday.  As I had already spent the morning driving both boys and Will's large trip backpack to school, it was up to Alex to make it home completely on his own.  

As part of this epic journey, we gave Alex his phone with his new SIM card.  The first time he has had a phone that actually phones and works outside of WiFi.  

On the way to school, we reviewed his route home.  He was supposed to scooter over to the bus that brings him to the tram, then transfer over to the tram at a particular stop.  If for some reason, he missed the stop, it was ok, because the terminus of the bus was also a tram transfer stop that worked.  He would just stay on until the end of the bus route, not try to catch the bus going the other way to the first workable stop.

About 20 minutes after school finished, I got this text from Alex.

This is not the bus we talked about that goes to the tram!  This is the bus that goes to the train.  And it's a train strike day.  

I'm not sure if he actually meant "sniff" or if he meant "sncf" which is the train company. (Gare = Station).

Fortunately, the bus he was supposed to get on also goes to the SNCF Gare.  So he can take the 150 bus, but then switch over to the correct bus.  No problem, just extra time added to Alex's commute because he didn't get on the right bus the first time.  

So Alex successfully makes the bus switch.  And, being considerate, texts me to tell me this good news.  A little bit later, I get a new text.

Remember how I had discussed with Alex, in the morning, what he should do on the off chance that he misses his stop to transfer?  Yeah, he missed his stop and had to sit in a bunch of traffic until the end of the bus line to catch the tram at the later stop.

Fortunately, he made it home without any other incidents of closed-down transportation.  He also had his scooter, so he made it home from the tram stop without delay.  

The whole experience of missing two different transports is probably good for him.  Most likely next time, he will think a bit more and pay a bit more attention.  

I did, however, text him this morning when it was nearly time for him to disembark from his train.  Because getting home late is a good time for learning how to handle missteps.  Getting to school late is not the time.  

I'm amazed a the kids' independence and resourcefulness.  I feel that the skills they are learning now will prepare them to go anywhere in the world and navigate any transportation system.  Plus, they have the confidence that comes with solving a problem on their own.  

The Two Musketeers Can Go Anywhere!

The Giant French Omelette of Easter

A long time ago, before I was born, an Easter Monday tradition began in Bessières, France. They prepare a giant omelette and share it with the town and visitors.

As the children were off school, we made the trek to Bessières to experience this excellent tradition.  (See how I didn't use the obvious egg-pun there... the children have enacted a restriction on egg-puns.)  Like many outings to the surrounding towns and villages of France, our trek involved me driving with the kids and Dan cycling.  

We arrived around 9:30, with omelette starting time at 11:00.  So we found parking near a bakery and consumed some pastries to keep us happy until omelette-time.  We walked toward the center of town, through a market and festival area and found THE GIANT FRYING PAN.

GIANT FRYING PAN and a fire

I know it looks like the pan is actually on the fire, but the fire is behind the pan.  It's a perspective thing.  The frying pan weighed about a ton.  And, no, it's not lifted by using the giant log handle, that's really for appearances.  It is moved with a forklift.  The legs on the frying pan are attached.  So when the forklift moves the pan, it doesn't put it directly on the fire, but the legs cause it to be a non-buring distance above the fire.  This is French Cooking, not me-burning-eggs-in-my-home-kitchen-cooking.  

On one side of the park were the omelette ingredients.  There are 15,000 eggs, a bunch of chives, some chili pepper, and other spices.  The pots on the ground were for holding the eggs after they get cracked.  Then the chefs beat the eggs with a whisk attached to a large drill.  

It's going to be necessary to break a few eggs!

Obviously, if you have a giant omelette, it must be accompanied by giant bread.

Alex near the bread, waiting for the cooking to get started

The fire was already being prepared when we arrived.  The guy on the left was the official fire tender.  I'm not sure what the guy on the right with the hat's title was, but his role was important.  One of his tasks was to drive the fort lift.  

Fire Preparation

After hanging out, just watching the fire for a while, the time finally came for the event to start!  It started with some guys dressed as chickens who handed out chocolate eggs, a parade of officials and, of course, a bunch of drummers.  Because French Chefs need inspirational music.

After a long procession, everyone was assembled.  This included the guys dressed as strawberries in red and green.  They handed out flyers promoting La Tarte Geante aux Fraises coming in June.

Strawberry Guys next to Country Western Guys (Country = USA)

Finally, it was time to cook.  
The official chefs of the day, ordained by the knightly order of the giant omelette, started with 25 liters of duck fat.  Because it's the local, probably artisanal, grease.  And it's delicious.  

Giant Pan of Duck Fat

During this whole time, people had been preparing all of the ingredients.  This includes cracking all of the eggs, slicing the giant bread, and cutting all of the scallions.  It took a long time.  I think from the time we started watching the fire preparation to the time when the eggs actually went into the pan, it was about 2-3 hours.  That's practically longer than a visit to the Louvre.  Or most museums in our travels.  The kids were prepared to wait with books and stuff to do but they were getting kind of antsy.  And hungry.  The eggs went in...

How Many Chefs does it Take?

... we heard the officials announce that cooking would take half an hour.  So, we left our excellent omelette cooking viewing vantage point and let the kids explore the rest of the festival a little.  We found snacks.  Will got fries which he declared, "The best fries ever!"  (They were probably cooked in duck fat.)  Alex had a Nutella crêpe.  After about a half hour, we noticed people walking around with plates of omelette.  

Empty Plates, Waiting to be Filled with Omelette

We sent the kids to get some omelette, but they couldn't find where and how to acquire it.  Plus, they didn't really want any, so they weren't particularly motivated.  I ran into some friends who already had plates of omelette and they told me to hurry and get some of my own.  So, I went to the crowd where the plates were being distributed.  It was kind of a process.  People in the front got omelette, they left the crowd, everyone moved up a bit, until you were in the front and could get your own omelette. I was involved in this process when I saw the kids walking back to where we had been standing (without any plates of omelette).  They are pretty independent, so I let them go.  Besides, I had omelette priorities!  I got my omelette and went back to the general area where I had last been with the kids.  

Successful Omelette Acquisition!

While I was busy taking this selfie of my successful omelette acquisition, the kids found me.  They were mildly annoyed, which is their general state of being when we force-them-to-experience-things.  But, since we were done, we headed back to the car to return home.  As an important last stop, and to bring things full circle, we once again went to the bakery, grabbed some bread and croissants so that the kids could consume non-omelette based sandwiches on the way home, and found a route out of  Bessières that didn't go directly through the festival.  

Will we go to the Giant Strawbery Tarte?  Perhaps.  Wait and see...

Glamping - Somewhere in Middle France

Glamping

Dan says that "glamping" is a real term.  It means glamour camping.  I'm not sure about this.  In any case, it meant that we didn't have to pack our car to the brim with tents, sleeping bags, kids air mattresses, etc.  We simply brought some linens, clothes, and a little food.  We rented a cottage through the British site, instead of the French site, which meant that even though this was an activity we didn't know a lot about, we could learn about it in English and arrive without too many surprises about what we booked versus what we thought we booked.

Weather
It has been quite warm in Toulouse for the past couple of weeks.  So, for the weekend getaway, we entertained the idea of going to the beach, but ultimately decided that the beach would be hot and crowded.  Instead, we headed to the mountains.

Bridge on the way to the mountains

We told the kids that it might be a bit like camping in a water park.  Given the pictures on the web site, it seemed like there would be many Will/Alex compatible activities.  On arrival, we found some awesomeness.  

Shallow Wading Pool

Deeper Swimming Pool

The pools were great in that they were quite shaded and even had a cool extendable roof that could close them in when it rains.  The different depths of pool made it easy for the smaller kids to have a place to play and the bigger kids too.  Plus, inside, through the windows/glass that you can see, was an adults only pool, spa, and sauna area.  

There were also water slides.

Will in the orange shirt

And, just in case the pool and slides weren't enough, there was another "splash pad" play area.

Waiting for the Giant Bucket Dumping

Once the kids got tired of the artificial water activities, they could head over to the beach and build a sand castle.

Now we Build!

There were also playgrounds, boating, a convenience store, and a restaurant.  Dan took the kids paddle-boating.

Alex is king of the paddle!

Will in a boat

So here in France, the food is great.  The convenience store had a bunch of local products such as cheeses, jams, wine, beer and sausage.  It also had the obligatory bakery section so that we could get a baguette or some croissants or pain au chocolat for the morning breakfast time. 

The restaurant had amazing food.  But not only did they have a wide selection of local tasty French dishes, they also had chicken nuggets and fries to pacify the children.  As we were in one of the regions known for cheese, this is my dinner.  I couldn't finish it, it was huge.  

Cheesy Tortellini and Salad

No, I promise we were camping!  Here is a picture of Alex in front of the cottage.  The cottage had two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a deck.  

Cottage

We even did camping-type activities such as grilling hot dogs and burgers on the bbq and toasting s'mores.  Of course, there are no graham crackers in France, but they do have fancy cookies that already have chocolate attached.  So we went with that.  Will decided that it was necessary to skewer all of the ingredients.  Alex decided that it was important to pretend that he was not enjoying himself.    

Feelings: Wonder and Sadness

Hot Coals Produced!

So when it comes to camping without a lot of planning or packing, this is the way to go.  The kids were completely exhausted at the end of the day.  Also, we successfully escaped the heat of Toulouse for a few days.  Perhaps we shall try it again!

Futuroscope Trip - Day 2

Day 2 of Futuroscope started with French Breakfast.  It was included in the hotel stay.  We headed over to the restaurant to find trays of bread and chocolate croissants, an option of coffee or hot cocoa, and a couple of stations with fruit and cereal.  Oh, how I do miss American breakfast with its eggs and bagels!

Immediately after breakfast, we entered the park and headed directly to the Lapin Cretin ride: The Time Machine.  We weren't allowed to take pictures, so this is the best I've got.  Alex and I in the dark, before the ride starts, wearing our 3d glasses.  The next picture is in a cafe in the park where they have the time traveling washing machine, built by the rabbits, on display.

Calmly sitting on toilets before Alex freaks out

The time traveling washing machine

When the ride first started, something whacked our legs from under the seats.  The seats being shaped like toilet seats.  Because Lapins Cretins.  This freaked Alex out.  He thought he had been shocked.  I think there were just brushes or something under the seats to help out with the "4d" experience.  The rest of the ride he was on edge, not really enjoying it.  It was really well done though with different scenes and different "4d" effects.  Overall, I'm kind of getting tired of the rides where you get wet when one of the on-screen characters sneezes at you or exhales through their nose.  I wanted to go again, but the boys weren't sure, so we continued on.   

After finally completing the activity of going on a ride (the rabbit one), we found the boys' favorite place in Futuroscope, The Arena.  It had all types of entertainment including some PS3s.  The boys played Lego Batman or Lego Avengers or something.  

Knowing what children like on vacation, video games are provided

Fortunately there were other non-video games including "Mind Ball."  This is the one where you put headbands on and they read your different brain waves, translating them into signals that move a foam ball.  

Who will be more focused and move the ball with THEIR MIND?

Will tried the super steep slides.  It is interesting because Alex tends to be the kid who takes more risks.  Except when it comes to heights.  Will tried these two slides, but there was another that didn't have any curves that he opted out of.  Alex spent his time doing a race where you push a button, then run really fast while it measures your speed with radar.

Really tall slides

Alex also tried the Reaction Time game, but was slightly short for the higher buttons.

I dragged the boys away from all of the excitement of The Arena so that we could see more of the park.  We went into The Robot Dance Party viewing area.  You may recall that when we were in Denmark at Lego Land, the kids, especially Will, loved riding on the giant robot arms.  However, these giant robot arms were not programmable, so they weren't as interested in riding on them.  We watched the exciting DJing of Martin Solveig as the robots moved around during the music.

It's Martin Solveig!

Robot Arm Dancing

After watching robots dance, we headed back into the cold outside.  The boys got to do some of the rides in the play area.  Oddly, most of them were not monitored by park staff.  You stand in line, then go find a seat on this tower, making sure to responsibly buckle your seatbelt, then you pull yourself off the ground, using the rope, as the silver post slowly rotates around.  Fortunately, if you let go, you don't crash back to earth, but only slowly descend back to the ground.  The kids enjoyed this.  Alex even tried it by himself.

 The next ride was the best.  Like the pulling yourself up a post ride described above, it also did not have any attendants.  It was a sitting zip line.  But it was kind of tricky for the person sitting in the swing to actually push the start button.  This is the video of Alex activating the ride for Will.

One of the rides had a touch of DaVinci, looking like something out of one of his sketchbooks.  In order to get your part of the ride off the ground, you had to pedal as it spun around.  

Some of the rides realated to water were closed.  But, the one where you ride a giant tricycle on a pond was open.  As you can see, there are clear regulations related to your security when you are riding on the water bikes.  Like most things, we sort of got the gist of what it was saying in French, but really didn't completely understand.  Fortunately, this was enough for us to ride the ride without incident.  :)  We figured out how tall we needed to be.  Alex was not tall enough to ride on his own, so I ended up pedaling him around.  We also divined that he needed to wear a life jacket while on the bikes.  Good to Go!  What?  There are 10 other guidelines? Meh.

I think this one means you should try to not fall into the pond...

Alex was way wiggly on the bike.  He was sitting behind me.  So I wasn't able to take a picture of him, but I was able to carefully pull out my phone and take this crooked picture of Will.  Alex managed to stay still enough during the picture taking and I did not drop my phone into the water.  Yea!

Biking Will

The boys had suspected that there was something I was not telling them about the park.  They thought that there might be an arcade somewhere, but they couldn't figure it out from the map in French.  We wandered back past the large horn...

Alex, once again expressing himself

...and found the arcade.  The boys were super excited as we can't find the local Toulousian Dave & Busters and they spent some time playing the games.

Look, actual air hockey

Where else can we play Mario Cart?

They took time to create custom racing faces for Mario Cart.

Their last bit of arcade fun was playing all of the pinball machines.  I think their favorite was the Star Wars one.  At one point, Alex's ball got stuck and there weren't other balls coming out.  So, I did what anyone would do... I bumped it with my hip.  But it may have been a little too hard as the machine showed !Tilt!  That's not all.  Being a Star Wars pinball machine, it also gave me a lecture with Yoda saying, "Anger leads to hate, hate... to suffering."

Pinball

Throughout the day, we did go to many of the IMAX and "4d" showings.  Of course, we weren't able to take pictures inside.  Here are the ones that we saw:

Ice Age: No Time for Nuts - This was about the squirrel animal in Ice Age who has found some sort of time traveling nut.  He travels in time while water and balls are thrown at us.  

Dynamic - This one was rougher than some roller coasters that I've been on.  It was some sort of virus destroying mission, I think.  Our seats were very bouncy and wacked us back and forth.  Alex and Will enjoyed it.

Dynamic Vienne - This was very strange.  It was about a guy who was getting married, but he ended up on this adventure in the woods with a weird talking tree who kept sneezing on us.  There was a part where we were in a race car on a track that then went off-track and through tiny streets in a French village.  I had to close my eyes.  It was TOO real.

Preview Waiting Show before Dynamic Vienne - This was a screen that had water poured in front of it, a tank with 60,000 litres, they said.  It had lights and lasers displayed with it.  It was super cool.  They did some neat patterns and some stories about people.  

The Extraordinary Voyage - Kind of like the "Soarin'" ride at California Adventure. 

Cosmic Shocks - In French, it described how the moon may have been formed with an asteroid hitting the earth.  It also described many other craters and impacts on the earth and in space.

The Exploratorium - This one played a movie that featured Jacques Cousteau's son.  Which was weird.  When I was growing up, all movies that were about ocean life were made by Jacques Cousteau.  And now I was in the middle of France, watching a movie about the ocean, with his son in it.  

The Invisible World - I think this was Will's favorite.  It showed things that were too fast, too slow, or too small to experience without the magic of video recording.  Things like bees flying, plants growing, or carbon particles being moved around.

Tiny Giants - This was about small animals, in the forest, in the desert.  They were just going about their daily task of finding food and taking care of their babies.  And they would be attached by owls or scorpions, or their own kind who were trying to eat them or steal their food.  Fortunately for the kids, no tiny cute fuzzy animals were actually eaten.  But it was kind of fascinating to watch a mouse kill a scorpion and bring it back to his family as food.


When our time was up, our day was not over.  We still needed to catch our train home.  We walked back over to the Futuroscope Station bridge, witnessing the super moon over Futuroscope.  

We got snacks, found our super short first train which went from Futuroscope to Poitiers, and successfully made the connection.  

Waiting at the empty Poitiers Station

The platforms were cold, but we managed to make the next connection also at Bordeaux.  Our final arrival was at 1am into Toulouse.  Both kids had fallen asleep by then, Will for longer than Alex, so they were super groggy as we caught an Uber home.  

Interesting trip.  The boys say they had fun.  And maybe they even learned something.