Well, we made it back last night without a hitch, it was pretty incredible, considering how screwed up our trip out had been. I'll probably do a roundup of notes and things that worked and didn't for traveling--flying with kids still feels like a learning process and a major accomplishment--but meanwhile, here's a quick series of seemingly random photos from the trip:
[top] Alas, the Galerie d'Art Aix-en-Provence wasn't open when we went into town, so we missed "Quelques figures de maternités," an exhibition of fetishes, fertility statues, goddess mothers, paintings, and pots that celebrate "le cycle consacré à la femme." Maybe I'll pick up the catalogue next summer.
Pom'Potes. The last time we saw this packaging was in the frozen juice slushies section of a Tokyo convenience store. Turns out it works spectacularly well for French vending machine applesauce, too. Packaged food manufacturing conglomerates take note: I am available to discuss these important insights with you on your next applesauce design-related dadblogger junket, whether in Europe OR Japan. I'm flexible.
Macaroni Long: Technically, they're really perciatelli or bucatini. But as my Italo-phile brother-in-law points out, the French call every tube-shaped pasta "macaroni." I dubbed them anguilletti, because they look like a plateful of eels when they're cooked. Judging by the way the kids snarfed them down, though, they should probably be called Red Licorice Rope-a-roni.
2010 should be the year I push the NYC Men's Room Changing Table Database/Map out of the nest as an open, crowdsourced project. I just don't hit the city with a diaper-wearer like I used to [and when I do, I usually don't worry too much where I change her]. Still, old datagathering habits die hard. And so the McDonald's in Pertuis [pop. 18,000], gets a big, fat NON. They get points back for the gender-non-specific, correct-perspective icon, though.
Barbe a Papa: At first I thought it was yet another example of French carnies' blatant copyright infringement, but it turns out Annette Tison and Talus Taylor took the name Barbapapa from the French term for cotton candy.
The pic I wanted but didn't get: the bouncy ride-on toys stuck in the carpet at Gate 16, directly behind the security checkpoint at Marseille Marignane, which now officially has the saddest airport playground equipment in the world.
I am surprised Yep hasn't preempted you with some kind of "rate the changing tables" feature. Or even an app that uses GPS to locate the closest restaurant with a changing table in your parental gender. Now THAT would be popular.
I mean YELP of course.
Hey- I hope by changing table map you mean App. Would be better than the Costanza restroom guide. Oh and sorry to hear about yer travel pains. I once missed my luggage for four days due to a transfer in Zurich on Swissair- which they had a whole four hours to perform. I arrived in Rome, and had to transfer to Alitalia there to go south- it was Swissair's fault all the way. If it hadn't been for Alitalia actually tracking it down I woulda never seen it again. Yeh, that's right, uber-efficient Swissair disowned the problem even though they had sent it to the carousel in Zurich and not transferred it to their own plane. This whole thing shoulda been a walk in the park compared to what you were trying to do!
The PomPotes until very recently could be purchased at Trader Joe's as "Apple Crushers". Curiously, I noticed this evening that they say "Product of France" on the package. The last three trips to TJ's have been met with an empty space where these used to be on the shelf - which sucks because my kids LOVES those things and we have but 3 precious containers left.
Those pouches are everywhere in UK supermarkets - baby purees from eg Ella's Kitchen and Plum Baby, kids' yoghurts and smoothies from Muller etc, jam, fruit purees for cooking, 'sports' drinks like Lucozade, even non-food products like suncream and shower gel - all kinds of stuff.
The foil ones don't recycle well but are lighter and hence cheaper to transport than glass, and the plastic ones use less plastic the equivalent size bottle...
PomPotes! Yes! We just returned from our week in Paris during Christmas and the kids loved the PomPotes. We decided to pick up a few boxes at Auchan, which by the way, is the.greatest.supermarket.ever.
In a strange bit of "smushed fruit in a pack with a nozzle" confluence I just picked up the Materne (makers of PomPotes) brand of "apple's on the go" at Babies R' Us today. They also had the UK brand "Ella's Kitchen" and a few other different brands. This must be the kid food delivery method of the future. All I know is that I finally have a supplier. We were down to two "Apple Carrot" crushers and things were looking dire.