Our first stop was an easy one

My husband’s parent's summer house on a lake two hours North of Montreal, Canada. That meant we still felt at home.

We were so excited to go visit the grandparents. We haven't seen them for exactly one year. This was a very special start to our trip (we also needed and easy start!). We needed certain comfort after a long trip (24 hours door to door, from Tarifa, Spain, connecting in London, flying to Montreal and driving 2 hours North up to St Faustin), and we needed time for the children to adapt to the new time zone.

Our trip had finally started. I was so excited and also had mixed feelings. At that time we had nothing planned. We had left London with no more plans than going to Canada and then heading West. We had so much work to do. I wasn’t sure how easy or hard it was going to be to move around the world with 3 little children and a nanny, carrying 5 suitcases, 2 pushchairs, 2 car seats, 1 travel cot bed, and 4 backpacks. I was a bit emotional as well. We arrived in Canada the first week of September, the same week that all the children in London were starting school and I was realising that we were really making this sabbatical happen.

“Mummy… when is the jetpack gone?” “That thing that you have when you travel that makes you very, very tired”

Staring at the lake from the house

On our third day after arriving, Clemente asked me “Mummy… when is the jetpack gone?” “That thing that you have when you travel that makes you very, very tired”. I almost melted. Poor boy. Better get used to it, I thought.

My in-law’s house is a dream, not only because is a beautiful, super comfortable cottage in front of a majestic lake, where children can swim, fish and drive canoes, but mostly because it is filled with grandparents love. Our children are not lucky enough to see them whenever they want, Edouard’s parents live in USA and my parents live in Argentina, both places way too far from London. This means they get spoiled and loved by them only a few times a year. My children know it and they squeeze these visits to the maximum (actually we all do).

Here we charged our batteries after a very busy summer in Tarifa, with too many tapas, too much wine and way too many cañas. We slept until late, we went running in the woods almost every day, we exercised, we walked around, we swam, we went to a spa in Mont Tremblant, we had barbecues, we had a few more wines on the deck watching the most beautiful sunsets and for the first time, we stopped for a moment to plan our trip a little bit. We took a map and planned our next moves for the coming weeks.

Eduard and my beloved in laws

Gardening with grandma

Who could ever read a book better than a grandpa?

One day, we drove half an hour up to Mont Tremblant, a famous ski resort. I was surprised by the amount of cool activities to do with children being out of the ski season (we were there at the end of the summer). We had such a fantastic day.

We took a chairlift up the mountain to a luge course which wound its way down the mountain. SOOOOO much fun! High speed and breath-taking views.

We ate the unmissable queues de Castor, or beaver tails, a Canadian combination of a pancake and a donut with different toppings such as chocolate and banana. The kids were in heaven. We also went to the indoor pools, a complex with 4 different pools with different temperatures.

And the most important of all, and the reason this day will always be so special to me, is because that was the day Bautista started walking. We had been waiting for this moment for so looooong. He had turned 17 months 3 days before, and was still refusing to walk. He would either crawl or yell to be carried, until he would be picked up by someone (normally me of course). This day he just started walking as if he had been doing it all along.

On a separate day, Edouard and I were treated to a wonderful day at the Scandinave Spa by my in laws. Actually it was a birthday gift for Edouard but I managed to go along for the ride . The Spa has multiple pools of different very hot temperatures and freezing showers. Hot, cold, relax, hot cold relax. We even jumped into the freezing river then into a very hot pool. Wonderful.

One of our last day trips while being there was one in Montreal, we went there to met up with Edouard’s brother and sister in law (and introduced them the little one, which they haven't met yet). We had been there before a couple of times, so we didn't do all the touristic stuff, but it is always a lovely city to visit. We walked all around the old part of the city with its cobble stone streets, beautiful architecture, nice local shops and great restaurants. Clemente and I even rode on a zip line across the bay. Canada is a place close to my heart and I hope we will be coming back here soon.