On the Road Again - Adventures from an Empty Nest

The Passport  (or: How Jacob became a French citizen) Before we left the US, we had to get Jacob a Pet Passport – a document certifying that he is free of any contagious diseases and has had his rabies vaccination.  It is required for travel in Europe, and is good for a year.  Or so we thought. Since receiving his passport, Jacob has flown from the US to Germany and traveled through an additional 16 countries with no issues.  (To be completely honest, no one has even looked at his passport.)  To enter Norway, we had to get him a tapeworm treatment/prevention 24-120 hours before arriving.  A very nice Swedish vet did the honors and entered the verification into his Pet Passport.  England has a similar rule, so we went to a vet in Bastogne , Belgium, who took care of it and gave him a quick wellness check while she was at it.  Easy peasy, right?  Well, no.  After spending the night in a parking lot in Calais, France, we arrived at the Eurotunnel station this morning to b

So much has happened since last I wrote!  We have visited friends in Paris, family in Sweden, been to the vet, and are now headed into Norway, the northern arc of our journey.  We've been camping in places without Internet, and although my phone hotspot gives us rudimentary access to the world, we coudn't upload photos or publish this blog.  So today, I will try to catch everybody up on our travels:  Paris Although Lyon is still my favorite French city, nothing compares to Paris for the feeling of being in the center of the world at the crossroads of history. Our friends Nathalie and Jerome live in central Paris, on Boulevard du Temple, between the Place de la République and the Place de la Bastille. We spent several days there, getting reacquainted with them and their kids, who were in Maria's school in Lyon when we lived there. Because of its iconic location, Boulevard du Temple is the key route for many of the city's public demonstrations - and no one demo