Day 4 - London / Paris #!&^@)#@^%#!

Just a quick heads up, there will be cuss words in this post. Like shit. SHIT!! And maybe the F word, but I don't know yet.

Let's dive right into it... I forgot the passports. But it's not like I forgot them at a hotel or anything, I forgot them at our AirBnB, which I made sure was completely and safely locked for our host after we left. I hid our passports so well, I made sure even I couldn't get to them or apparently remember them. So here we were, passing time at a patisserie before our train to Paris when it hit that we didn't have the passports with us. We were having a lovely time, Lyra made a friend, my flat white was delicious, and we were just free as birds. Panic. shit. Shit. SHIT. F*******CK. SHIT!! Lots of other cuss words... We called our host, who was surprisingly calm but nowhere near the vicinity and she recommended we hit the buttons until someone answered the door and let us in. Well, that would only get us into the building, not into her apartment. That would require a little hand possibly making it's way down the mail slot. So Lucy and I ran to the apartment that was 8 minutes away (Oh, and we only had about an hour to get to the train station at this point, and we were 40 minutes away) and rang buttons and one of her neighbors answered and let us in. Once we got into the building, we quickly knew no hand was going down that slot. That same neighbor that let us into the building came to our rescue again with a coat hanger. At that point I stuck my cell phone in the mail slot, turned on the front facing camera, and as Lucy held the phone and then Patience held it in the slot, I spent the next few minutes praying/cussing/praying/cussing some more/hoping/ and finally fishing those damm keys out with the wire hanger through the mail slot. At one point Lucy asked me if it was ok if she cussed, and I said if there was ever a time that it was appropriate, it was now. The one member of the family that keeps reminding us that we shouldn't cuss let out a hearty, deep and well felt "SHIT" and then a heavy sigh. BUT WE GOT THE KEYS OUT. I was shaking, relieved and oh so happy that the stupid plan actually worked. Got the passports, and then ran like crazy to make the bus and metro. We got to the station with 13 minutes to spare... but *womp* *womp* boarding had closed for the train to Paris. Thankfully, another train was heading out in one hour, and we were re-booked without any fees. After all the craziness of the day... we finally made it to Paris. We hustled, ran, fell, scraped our knees, cried and almost missed a second train, but we made it. We're here, and one look at the Eiffel Tower glittering tonight made it all right.

I'll let Patience fill in the rest of the day...we're learning lots of lessons on what it means to be a traveler, expectations, traveling with kids and how to help six people get their fill.

Notes from today:

I will never forget passports again

I will NEVER forget passports again

Six hours in Paris, and we have fallen in love with it.

The bread. The wine. The people!!

We had a great time at a pub and had a really fun time with the bartender. First night in Paris was pretty great.

Some much needed drinks after this day! Bonne soiree!