France
We didn't get off on the right foot in France from the start. Leaving Switzerland we stayed one night at at a winery in Chablis, France. https://www.chablis-geoffroy.com/en/access-contact/. Jay had a few work phone calls scheduled that afternoon so we needed a stop that we would be able to get to in time for that. The clutch was giving Jay a bit of a hard time getting there (he says it was mushy? I have never driven a standard so I have no idea what that means no could I be of any help) but we made it there no problem. The winery has 7 spots set up for RV's in one of their lots with free water and electricity. There is also a bathroom with a shower on the property. Since Jay had phone calls and if you know him he is a very loud talker on the phone we opted to park on the opposite side of the lot as to not disturb the other people and it gave the girls more room to play outside. We walked down and took a quick peek at the collection of cork screws the owner of the winery had collected over the years, sampled a couple of their wines and bought a bottle to take with us. Jay worked for a few hours while the girls and I read, watched their iPads and just relaxed. Once he was finished for a bit we took a walk to a near by restaurant (possibly the only one in the area). I was half expecting Bell to appear from one of the windows and sing to us if it wasn't for all of the dogs in each courtyard that seemed like they wanted to attack us. Thankfully there were gates on all of them and only one dog was able to jump up above the gate but not out! We were literally jumping from the left to right side of the street away from their barks! I guess many people don't walk through this area! Once through the maze of dogs we made it to the restaurant. The big sign out front read pizzeria except on this night they had no pizza. Right after we were seated Jay got a pretty bad bloody nose. There was only one other couple in the place and zero musics playing so 4 foreigners who speak no French one with a bloody nose we were quite the scene 😆. Given the situation and not much of a menu selection we decided to leave. The girls and Jay had a random meal made of what we had in the camper and I remembered an ice cream we had picked up a couple days prior so I had that 😂. We called it a night for the girls as we were planning on getting up early to head to Paris, Jay had one more phone call (shocking he kept his voice quiet enough to not wake the girls!) before we headed to bed. We woke fairly early the next morning and set off to Paris. It wasn't long before we knew the clutch wasn't working properly. It was extremely hard for Jay to get it into gear. He made one or two attempt to get it moving before it went completely. Someone must have been watching over us because it happened at an exact spot where there was a small pull off. The girls were super nervous and Jay surprisingly super calm we pulled over as much as we could off a smaller two lane secondary road. We called Indie campers to let them know who advised us to download the what's app as that's how they communicated. Every interaction from there on out with them was frustrating. They would write back basically once an hour with a very vague response giving us little to no information. At one point they told us they were coming to get us which was a joke because they hadn't even asked where we were. As the hours ticked by, 5, 6, 7 of them we understandably were growing a little impatient, especially because they would give us no response of what the upcoming process would be just that they would be there in an hour or two which had already passed. The only saving grace was that we at least were in a camper so we had food, drinks and a bathroom. At some point after the 7th hour a tow truck arrived. He made a quick assessment and even though we spoke different languages he could understand what was wrong with it. He loaded the rig on his truck and in we all went to the tow yard. We sat there for a while before a taxi came that had been hired to pick us up. We tried to tell him that we didn't want to go to the Indie Camper office in Paris as A it would be close and B we had no intentions of spending our last two nights in another camper. We understood though even through his French that that was where he was contracted to take us so off we went. I was able to translate that I was sorry if we were cranky it had been 8 hours of dealing with this. He gave me a shocked face as he understood. He really wanted to be able to communicate with us, he kept talking to us in French and we kept smiling reminding him we speak no French. He tried to speak into google translate but he spoke to fast it wouldn't read it. About an hour later we arrived at the office and alas it was closed. The driver was shocked, we weren't! He was also surprised we had no phone number we could call. He called someone on the papers he had been given and their respons was "how did you get this number I'll call you back." Shocking they never did. He had literally no idea what to do with us as his insurance wouldn't cover an uncalled for stop. He was as annoyed with the situation as we were at this point and asked if we wanted to go to the hotel, "yes yes we do but we can't pay you in Euros we said as we have none." We obviously weren't expecting to break down and we still had Swiss Franks or US dollars and he couldn't take a card. He kept driving a little bit and we translated and asked him if he wanted us to get out. No no no was his response thank God he wasn't about to just drop us off in the middle of nowhere but we would have understood if we wanted/needed to as our hotel wasn't close. We both understood that the RV company should have been paying for this transport but it would obviously be easier for us to pay him and claim it through our insurance which thankfully we had opted for full coverage! We got to the hotel and Jay ran in and they had an atm. We translated and asked if he would pick us up in 2 days to bring us to our next hotel but good for him he was going on vacation! We can't thank this driver enough for his patience and understanding of it all, his kindness will be payed forward! We had promised the girls that when we made it to the hotel they could swim. They had been beyond patient and well behaved all day! Not one complaint! So we swam for a bit had a very late dinner and set off to bed. We quickly realized that in all of the rush to pack the RV we had left Abigail's most cherished stuffed animal and her lovey that she had since she was a baby behind. She cried herself to sleep as Jay and I's hearts sank! Jay being Jay he woke up bright and early and rented a car and made the hour plus long drive back to the RV to pick them up. The girls and I went to breakfast, swam and showered to get ready to head into Paris when he returned. In all the chaos of the prior day and morning we missed getting day of reservations for anything in Paris so after a train ride there we walked around, saw the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower before choosing a little restaurant for dinner. In the mean time it had started to rain so our hopes of sticking around for a few more hours to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle at night was not going to happen. Char was the most disappointed! We told her we could at least go back and swim and that we were heading to Disneyland the following day! We checked out of one hotel and into one on property the following morning. The best part of Disneyland here is everything is walkable. From the hotel you can walk to the Disney Village as well as both of the parks. We checked in quick, dropped our lougage and headed straight to Disneyland Park! I'm not sure why I was expecting it to be a lot smaller then it was but we had the best day! After a bit of rain in the morning the sun came out and it was perfect weather! They have some of the same rides as Florida and some different. A big difference is they have upside down rollercoasters which Abigail tackled many times! Big Thunder Mountain we've all decided is WAY better in Paris! The following morning we headed to Walt Disney Studios. This park is definitely smaller but we all Loved the different rides that they had here! Crushes Coaster (which I'm shocked Char enjoyed) and parachute drop are a must! At one point Jay unknowingly duped us into going on another upside down coaster that he thought was a 3d movie until we got to the entrance and there was a height requirement so he stayed back with char while Abs and I got in line. After the 10th time of her asking what the ride was that I obviously had no idea we looked it up. Twists, turns, loops Jay had abviouslt not read the entire description and we were not in for a movie. It was a super fast coaster that Jay and Char had a good laugh about sending us on! (Abigail went on to ride this many many times with and without us) we ended our night back at the other park to catch their fireworks/castle show. We had planned on having a relaxing day at the pool before we left for London but the girls had other plans and visions of a few more last rides before hurried back to the hotel to grab our luggage and head to the train station. We arrived early to the train and the one before us had been delayed so they transferred us onto that one. Once boarded (a process in itself!) two of our seats had people in them who also had those seats. So the girls sat while Jay and I stood until I squeezed in with the girls and Jay went looking for someone to help us. He stood for a while before the two women in the seats got upgraded to first class (because they had two people and we had 4). So here we are onboard Eurostar making our way to London. I can't say I'm in a rush to ever make it back to France but I'm glad we saw it!