From Matt:
Celebrating Father’s Day in France was an experience to remember. For those who know me well, I am prone to creating adventures that are challenging but sometimes unrealistic. This year was no different. Since we haven’t had a car all year, we have had to rely on public transportation to visit various parts of Paris. Our little town of Massy is located between Paris and Versailles, so by train it takes us about 30 minutes to arrive in Versailles and another 15 minutes to walk to the gates of the grand château. Another missionary family had offered to loan us their mountain bikes if we ever wanted to take a leisurely stroll and go exploring sometime. So I used my Father’s Day privilege to get a free pass to determine what we were going to do that weekend. On Saturday morning, I wanted to storm the castle.
So on Saturday morning, we packed up a picnic lunch, loaded up the diaper bags and stroller and mounted the three bikes on the way to the bus station. Now for those who haven’t traveled to Paris before, it is probably the most unfriendly place for people with disabilities or families with strollers. Imagine trying to hoof a fully-loaded double stroller up and down flights of stairs, and then finagle it through a ticket turnstile whilst keeping your eyes on the rest of the kids who also are trying to validate their tickets amidst a moving crowd. Now, try to add three heavy mountain bikes to the picture and you can imagine the kind of experience we were dealing with.
The amusement began as we maneuvered all of our stuff to the edge of train platform. Thankfully, we had about 15 minutes to prepare ourselves before the next train. It looked as if we were about to start the Tour de France, we pointed all of the bike tires in the same direction and waited for the train to stop. It pulled up and we knew we had about 30 seconds to board. Watching our family clamber onto the train in a frenzy of activity I am sure would have made even the smuggest Frenchman smile.
When we arrived at the Versailles station, we had to go through the same exercise in reverse to exit the train, and then take several trips to move our pile of personal items and bikes up two flights of stairs towards the sortie exit booths. The walk towards the château is normally not difficult, except that on the way, the back right wheel on our stroller cracked on the cobblestone sidewalk and now Niki was faced with pushing the picnic items and baby stuff the rest of the day with a permanent flat tire. We (or I should say I) was 
determined to not let this deter us from our mission.
Our three year old, Shane, was sitting on the child’s seat behind my bike and I armed him with a squirt gun to occupy his time and help keep the older siblings moving in a forward direction. Once we finally got through the gates of the park grounds, things started to brighten up. We were tired, hungry, thirsty and a little frustrated with all of the hassles we had to overcome in order to get this far.
On the castle grounds, there are open meadows with horses, sheep and plenty of places for picnics. We picked our spot and let the kids run and enjoy the sunshine. We took some great pictures and rested for a while before continuing on our stroll through the enormous park. The second dream idea I had for my perfect Father’s Day adventure was to rent a row boat and travel up and down the man-made canals behind the beautiful gardens that connect the Palace to Marie Antoinette’s château. We were able to spend an hour on the water and take turns using the oars. We didn’t paddle too far, but the kids had a good time and we arrived back home in one piece. Even though my ideal picture never came true, the process of dealing with the frustrations and overcoming all of the obstacles gave me a sense of accomplishment. Overall, it was a beautiful day. Somehow, given our nature, I don’t think next year in Senegal will be too different.
