If you know us, you know we squeeze in travel whenever possible. So our flight home from LAX was not the end of our summer travel. After a week spent cleaning out the house to prepare for the remodel, we hoped in the car and headed south for a three-week trip.

We went back and forth about taking the camper (but only Steffen can drive and we have to drive slower), taking the tent (but since our stuff is spread throughout 3 cities here, we weren’t sure where everything was) and landed on renting a little cabin at the two campsites we were heading to. And we are so glad we did! It made the trip so much less complicated. Because life is complicated enough right now!

We spent the first week just outside Paris at Camping Jablines, which we highly recommend. It is about a 15 minute bus ride from Disneyland Paris, right on a lake with lots of fun activities and very clean and well equipped. We ended up only really having four days there, with three of them spent at Disneyland, so we didn’t spend much time at the campground but would love to go back one day.

Disneyland was fabulous! They required masks everywhere and that really helped us feel safe. I will say though it took me a day or two to realise exactly what it was, but you do miss seeing everyone’s smiles and laughs. It made the experience a bit subdued but still really fun. They also had plexiglass dividing up the lines and limited the mixing of households on rides, required either a negative test or proof of immunization (but only for 18+) for entry, had no parades or shows and kept the characters at a safe distance, so it felt safe and yet was still fun. The girls and I spent two days at the Disneyland Park, and then the third day Steffen joined us and we went to the Walt Disney Studios Park. It was great!

Day One (a bit rainy which I think helped keep the crowds away which was wonderful!)

Day Two

Day Three

Then we headed even further south to Homps in France where we met up with my Steffen’s dad and his girlfriend for a weeklong houseboat trip along the Canal du Midi. It is a gorgeous area with everything quintessentially French: vineyards, stone houses with wooden shutters, men in striped shirts, acres of sunflowers, delicious bakeries and lots of sunshine. It was slow going because there were so many locks, but we weren’t in a hurry. The only major downfall was that the water was way too dirty to swim in. But the girls were able to keep themselves busy playing games, reading and sunbathing.

We spent one day exploring Carcassonne, a very cool medieval town with gorgeous views. We took a tour to learn more about the history and the girls got to rides ponies at the end, so we all ended the day happy.

About halfway through our week on the boat, my phone died, which was actually really nice in many ways. But that means I only have one photo from our third week which we spent at Camping Senia Riu in northern Spain with some good friends. It was a surprise for the girls, and they were so excited!! We also barely saw them all week which is a great sign….

And now, I am officially done blogging about our long trip. I hope you enjoyed it! We will keep the blog open to share about shorter trips, so stay subscribed if you want to see future updates. Thanks for coming along!