Bro & Sis visit France with a Surprise

jaelynkeene
May 21, 2022
6 min read

A lot of firsts were accomplished on my brother and sister’s trip to France. This was the first international flight for my sister, Megs. My brother’s second international flight and first time in France. They planned this trip to actually come before Christmas but, because of the increasing numbers of COVID they decided to push it to March. Which honestly made me so happy because they came at a perfect time of year. Also, there were less restrictions at this time which helped the ease of their adventures.

The weather was starting to get warmer which meant we could be outside and not freeze without a ton of layers on. They came at an important time of year, the end of regular season, which ended up being a lot tougher than we had imagined for our team and the club. Seeing them brought me so much peace and made me remember what truly matters.

First off, the reason I have yet to mention the other traveler is because he succeeded in surprising me by coming. Pops was in Paris again. This in itself made me so happy. I had a feeling that he was coming but nothing concrete, until I checked his location and he was in Paris. He still didn’t know that I had checked this but I still did not fully believe it to be true until I saw him here in Nantes a few days later. Technology can be wrong, right? 😉

They flew into Paris on the 2nd and spent the next few days seeing the city before training to Nantes. They stayed at an Airbnb in the centre area . From what I heard, they really enjoyed Paris and I could tell on the 4th when they arrived in Nantes, they were tired from all the adventures in Paris. Which included walking throughout the city to see the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and the outside of the Louvre.

I met them at the train station and that’s when I knew for sure that Pops was here because he walked out with them. I was like “What are you doing here…just couldn’t stay away, huh?” Of course, I was thrilled to see him, Megs and Sean. My team already had morning decrassage – pregame training and film due to the fact that we played that night. We came back to my place after running to the store quickly to grab a few snacks for them. They got here around 3:30 PM so there wasn’t much time for me to show them around Nantes before our game that night at 6:30 PM. We decided it was best to just hang out and chat before the game in my room and then I would show them Nantes tomorrow.

I had to leave for the gym pretty quickly after they arrived and I trusted Pops to be able to show them where the gym was. It is only an 8-minute walk from my place so it is relatively close. I did send the location to Sean and Megs also just in case, haha. We played Vandoeuvre Nancy. We ended up winning 3-1. This happened to be the last win of season for us. That is not what we thought at all. But I was so happy we played well and won in front of my family. This might sound a little selfish but the end of season was getting so stressful so it was nice to be able to be happy and fully enjoy the time they had here since it was so short.

After the game we had VIP which is an event held right behind our gym after all home games for our sponsors and all the people who help the club. This is also very nice event to attend after a win, not so much after a loss. We enjoyed some food there and then went back to my place and had to figure out sleeping arrangements – which was an actual headache lol.

I did not think about it before the game because I assumed that we would be able to book a room in the hotel/suite place that I live. We were not able to book a room because it was past 10 PM. This is not a thing in the US… am I right? Most hotels that have vacancy, let you can walk in at anytime and get a room. Not in this case. I also called all the other hotels close to my place on the island and they all said it was either too late or they were full. So, you are wondering what happened, no one had to sleep on the floor that night. One of my teammates let me use her pull out couch for my Dad and I to sleep on and she stayed in one of my teammates apartments. This was literally the last available option and I felt so horrible for “kicking her out”, but she insisted that it was fine. We did not go to bed early that night. We were up chatting about the game and life after we figured out the sleeping situation. So major problem averted thanks to my girl Tessa.

We woke up the next morning around 9 because they all needed to complete the COVID at home tests before we headed out for the day. These were at home test but proctored by a company. That took about 2 hours because each test takes about 45 minutes or more to complete. Once everyone was ready, I took them to a boulangerie down the street and we got some nice snackies before heading out for the day. We then walked along the river, it was sunny which helped us stay warm but it is always a bit windy because of the water.

I took them to the Elephant on the Isle de Nantes. This is one of the main attractions in Nantes well on the island at least. It is a machine Elephant, that walks, spits water and makes real life noises. They found it really fascinating which I was happy about. Sadly, we did not see it walk or do the previously talked about actions because they were only “walking” the elephant for 2 hours that day and not in the time frame we were there. But it was still worth it to show them! We then headed into the city Centre, we walked over the bridge to catch the tram that took us into the Centre – for free (luckily) because on the weekends it is free to ride. I then took them to the Castle in the middle of the city and we walked through it and showed them the sights you can see from the top. After that we walked more in the Centre to get a late lunch which ended up being at this nice Italian place. We had to find a place that was open because it was getting close to the weird food serving hours in France. Sim was actually coming to town so he came and joined us but did not eat because he came too late. We just chatted for a little bit and then he drove us back to my place. Oh, almost forgot…the drive to my place should have only taken about 9 minutes but there was a protest happening. They are able to protest here freely and walk on the streets and block traffic, it’s really fun to be apart of, NOT. But we made it back to my place, 25 minutes later.

We talked for a little bit while they gathered their bags and goodies before we went to the train station to buy them a ticket back to Paris. We tried to buy tickets on the app but it was glitching so we ended up buying them at the station with only 15 minutes to spare… yet another stressful situation. Walked them up to the train departure area and said goodbye quickly which didn't allow for many emotions. To be honest, I don’t think any of us cried as they left but I was sad once I got back to my house. It felt so empty but luckily Sim was here to fill the gap. Even though they were only here one day it definitely changed the vibes in my home. 😊

I am so grateful they were able to come visit France and this cool city that I am living in. I missed them the second they left but that just makes seeing my family this summer even better.

Here are a few pictures and videos from our day in Nantes!!