EuroTrip 2016 - Nice, France

During our successful Annecy trip we continued to keep an ear to the situation in Nice. We checked in with friends again and every single item we read online had the same message: go to Nice.

- Let us all continue to travel, to experience our own strange, precious and transitory moments
- Nice needs bikinis on the beach - not social media 'solidarity'

With that settled, we mentally braced for the 5.5 hour drive. Again, success! This time once we arrived at our apartment we were pleasantly surprised! We rented through a company called Kid & Coe. It's like AirBnb but the homes are specifically designed for families with kids. There are far fewer properties than AirBnb and they all seem more expensive but boy are they cute! The place we rented was huge with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and toys galore! What won me over was the toddler bed. Evan loved it!!! Well, the first 3 hours he slept in it. Then he climbed out and said he wanted to sleep with daddy, which was the trend for the rest of the trip. (We ended up with a ladies guest suite and a mens suite) Not pictured were the 3 different toy riding car / plane options which were a huge crowd pleaser.

Spoiler Alert: We LOVED Nice. It was picture-perfect beautiful, plus incredibly kid-friendly. There were parks everywhere we turned and everyone welcomed us & our crazy crew with open arms. If we were nervous about speaking zero French with two babies at adorable al fresco cafes, our fears were calmed at every place we popped into where they even encouraged big man's tableside silliness - see video. (Plus, everywhere we went they offered him ice cream or candy! Just like his grandparents. He did not like it when we kept saying "no merci")

We spent our days just exploring the city:

Trip up to the top of Castle Hill. There's only the remains of the castle, but the hill offers the perfect views of the city side, including Vieux Nice (old town) and the port side. The hill itself defines the origins of Nice itself, and the history is rich, continuing through WWII. I highly recommend reading this quick summary . It's fascinating. (also bookmark the whole blog if you ever plan to visit Nice).

Exploring Vieux Nice, the old city and popping into the absolutely adorable shops and trying out all the hot spots (especially the Fenocchio gelato. I chose Lavender plus Flowers & Almonds. Yummy!)

 

 

 

Beach day. The beach of Nice itself is made up of rocks vs. sand, so our hosts recommended we head to Villefranche for a sandier and more comfortable option. Unfortunately, I wasn't feel too great on our beach day so EZ & Matt headed out on their own. After getting lost on their way there (and on the return) I'm assured they had a great time and continue to make friends everywhere they stopped.

Swinging by the playgrounds in the city center, every chance we got. They really went all out, with the underwater theme. :) Not pictured: huge sprinkler / water fountain area

Life lessons with Mr. Tortoise

Love this

We also spent a day in Monaco, but I'll save that for another post.

Finally, a stroll along the Promenade. We quickly walked along the promenade the first couple days as well, but we really wanted to visit the memorial of the victims of the Bastille Day attack. We decided to make this the last evening of our visit. Originally, the notes, flowers, flags, presents, memorials were placed on the promenade itself. Once the government decided they were going to reopen the promenade, the locals and tourist volunteers formed a human chain to move all the items to two different spots, one along the water and one within the gazebo of the park. Both were incredibly beautiful and heart-breaking memorials. The worst part were all the toys and stuffed animals for the lost children.

I struggle with how to finish this post. Our vacation was wonderful but our final night was sobering. We travel to experience new places and people. To gain a great understanding of the world around us. Our goal is to foster empathy in our children. They won't remember this holiday, but we will. We will also help them remember the people. Remember how very lucky we are to have these experiences, but more importantly to have each other surrounded by our friends & family. Thankful for every day.

EuroTrip 2016 - Annecy, France

Now, what you've all been waiting for! Well, mainly what my mom has been asking for, and since I know she speaks for all 3 of you reading this, you can thank her directly. ;)

I've always wanted to visit the Cote d'Azure of France and we figured with Matt's European vacation schedule and me still on maternity leave, now would be the perfect time! Oh wait, we now have 2 kids... We're either completely insane or adventurous (??) for taking a 3 month old & 2 year old on a two week road trip.

We planned out the complete trip, our destinations, our stays, our activities, we were set to go. Then I was nursing little lady in the middle of the night 5 days before we were supposed to leave and saw a post "Pray for Nice" which unfortunately, in today's terms, is not a good omen. I think we all know what happened and I can't even begin to put into words how horrible we felt for the people who lost their lives and the families affected. It's beyond tragic and heartbreaking.

Unfortunately, this also left us with a decision to make. Do we continue with our original plans? Adjust? Cancel? While there were certainly the concerns of safety, for Matt & I it was more a question of respect. We didn't want to go to a city with a carefree vacation attitude so quickly after an attack and disrespect a mourning period for the city. Matt has quite a few co-workers with friends or family in Nice and we asked their opinions, who all unanimously said we should continue our plans. Our first stop wasn't Nice, so we decided we would continue to leave on Sunday and check in again 2 days before our Nice plans and change if need be.

We were headed to our first stop at Lake Annecy. Let's be clear, this was only the 2nd time all 4 of us had been a car together, and only the 3rd time little Lady had been in a car ever. I think Matt & I held our breaths for the entire 3 hours we were in the car. She did amazing! So did big man, but that wasn't a surprise because he LOVES cars.

We arrived at our AirBnb in a town a little bit outside of Annecy. We booked AirBnb / apartment stays throughout because of the room and the ability to close the door with the varying bedtimes we have in place. Unfortunately, this one was a bit of a miss. It was plenty of space, but a little icky. We spent lots of time outside the apartment, which meant lots of time down at the lake! (There was a huge bucket of legos so EZ thought the apartment was amazing)

We didn't know much about Annecy other than it was en route to Nice from Basel, but what a pleasant surprise and great, low key location to begin to get in vacay mood. Beautiful days. Sunny lakside relaxation. We didn't plan anything, even though Annecy is supposedly a outdoor sports mecca area, but our goal was just to unwind. See handful of 1 billion lake pics below.

Napping beachside

Lake panorama

Adorable Annecy town

Our best little helper

Mommy's 1st (but not last) Rose of the trip

love. this. kid.

New day. New beach.

This 2 kids thing is easy peasy. (This is also the same time that I read 5 pages of the 3 books I brought. It is also the only time I read any pages of the 3 books I brought)

Baby Birth in Basel - Postpartum Care

Ok, if you read the post about my personal Labor & Delivery experience in Basel. This is pretty much the complete opposite. The Postpartum care here, is AMAZING.

From the spacious maternity ward to the weeks out home visit, the support was unbelievable. When they wheeled us on up to our maternity room I was shocked at how enormous it was. Not to mention Matt had his own bed! Quite a step above from the semi couch he slept on in NJ. (The hospital facilities in NJ were quite nice however these were unreal.) We had a balcony overlooking a lovely private park & gardens. Our room had our beds connected together, a sitting area and a dining area. Way bigger than most hotel rooms I've stayed in. 

Plus, the food. Oh the food! I thoroughly enjoyed having all my meals catered from a full menu of about 12 different options including glorious salads and 3 course steak dinners, all accompanied by a choice dessert. The extra special surprise was the coffee/latte/cappuccino plus dessert cart that came around in the afternoon. 

Ok I digress, beyond the food..., the best part was the care. I was a little worried at first about the level of English and ability to communicate everything but everyone was wonderful. One thing in the US that made recovery difficult was the seemingly constant checking of stats, blood pressure, my temp, baby temp, baby tests, etc. They came in all hours of the night so even if we were trying to rest you were woken up for tests. I didn't rest. But here it was much more casual (could be also because it was my 2nd baby?) but if we were resting they just peeked in and would come back later. They never woke us up. Additionally, for our little man in NJ they had us wake him up every 3-4 hours to feed him. Here she slept slept slept and I fed her when she was awake. I felt that they treated us here more like humans and people and less like a checklist / statistics. Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of both but from a patient perspective (who is already exhausted) I much preferred the Swiss approach. 

My favorite part of the hospital stay was when they asked me "when do you want to check out?" Me: "what do you mean?... I have a choice?" Midwife: "of course, if you feel you need to stay longer you are welcome to take as long as you need to feel recovered". WHAT?!?!

Here's just a list of some additional postpartum perks:

- a midwife comes to your home the day after you get home just to check in on you & baby 

- that midwife also comes to your home for up to 10 visits during the first 6 weeks, all covered by insurance

- our first pediatrician checkup was also at our home. (Not including her coming to the hospital). So nice not to have to A) take our precious newborn into a Dr's office with sick kids (although our own daycare loving toddler isn't exactly sanitized) and B) get dressed & out the door for a specific appt time

- there's a public mommy care center in downtown that's open every day for you to pop in any time if you need / want advice or someone to talk to. This actually applies to parents of kids at any age but we just didn't know about it until Lia.  They also called us the first 2 weeks to check in & make sure all is going well. 

- if you breastfeed for 10weeks, the government reimburses you 200CHF

...I feel like there's more I'm forgetting, but being so far from family (and super super super grateful for both parent sets coming to visit us!) it's nice to know there is a network of help just a phone call away.

Then it's all about cuddles & snuggles with my Miss & Mister. 

feeling good after some solid chunks of sleep

playing in the hospital park

they've been using these same beds for 50+ years (I assume the bedding was newer?)

you can sort of see the size of the room here (probably 1/3 of the room. this is our king bed as to the left), plus additional dining area)

Thx MaZ for loving on this guy!

and this lady!

and to KarKar & Pop Pop for also being a part of our "village"