For many years we had been hosts to travellers from various countries through a help exchange website. I signed up as a helper on the same site and began the search for hosts happy to accommodate helpers with children. The first family I discovered was a homeschooling family in France with five children ranging from four to ten years old. Perfect. The 'help' would be to help the children with their English for a few hours each day. Emails were exchanged and our visit of seven days was arranged. We would spend three days in Paris and then head to the little countryside town of Aubusson. We were really looking forward to discovering 'real life' with a French homeschooling family.
As well as researching routes and making bookings we also had a big of pre-trip shopping to do. I shopped around for a backpack, eventually settling on one which turned out to be the cheapest and had the most features. It had a day pack that could be detached from the back of the pack and attached to the front.
I also bought some packing cells, useful for separating things within the pack. In our case we had one each for our clothes, and a third for dirty washing.
We both needed good footwear. I bought us both a pair of sturdy, comfortable shoes that were a hybrid trainer/sandal, and machine washable.
I sewed Miss S six new dresses, in a selection of patterned fabrics, that she could wear on rotation, hoping that the prints would help to disguise some of the inevitable dirt collected en route.
A new camera was essential to record our trip. I also picked up a cheap, but decent quality, second digital camera, so we could both have one to use to record our own journeys.
We also bought an e-reader, to hold books for us to read along the way.
Apart from reading, other things would be needed for keeping us occupied during long train journeys.
I packed some playing cards, uno, six dice, some counters, a thin travel journal for each of us, felt pens, a small watercolour paint box, puzzle books, a small pair of scissors and a glue stick.
Miss S also packed her torch, binoculars and two teddy bears!
The IPad was to be invaluable, with games, art apps, camera, and internet capability, making it easy to keep in touch with everyone via Facebook, email and Skype. Gone are the days of travelling equating to not having any contact with loved ones until your return.
I decided to write a blog to document our journey, both as a way to relive my memories later, and to share the adventure with family and friends.
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