Amsterdam-France - day 11

27 September 2014

We were on a road trip in France, so it was no surprise that Viv wanted to drive through Le Mans. Home to the famous 24-hour road race, Le Mans also has a pretty cool museum right next to the race track called the Musée_des_24_Heures_du_Mans or the Le Mans Motor Museum for those who like their words to be easily pronounceable.

We stopped along a McDonald's for breakfast on the way. While Viv and I had a hearty breakfast, Xena refused to eat anything other than the fries. Grrr... I was keeping my fingers crossed that there would be some proper food for her later along the way. After an uneventful drive, we reached Le Mans.

Daddy and baby

Mommy and baby

The following photos will basically show cars, and because I know very little about them, I'm afraid there are no captions. Viv was, of course, throughly engrossed, reading the detailed information about each car, while Xena and I were admiring things like how very old or how very colourful some of the cars were. From time to time, she'd say, "Mama, this car is FANTASTIC!", which was extremely amusing because she'd never used the word 'fantastic' before. 

Tiny models of race cars

The attention to detail was amazing, especially the 'people' during the race.

Xena practises her counting skills on the cars. And suddenly says, "There's no toilet here?"

Viv and Xena strike a goofy pose at the museum's exit.

The museum had a cafe, which had some good food and toys for kids to play with. Needless to say, Xena loved the place!

They also had sticker books and colouring books that kept Xena busy. 

Their couscous was particularly good, and to my delight, we managed to feed Xena quite a bit of it with some vegetables. 

After lunch, we went to watch the karters on the track. 

Xena pointing out a 'very fast car' to me

We got a video of the crazy karters on the track. 

Next, Viv wanted to try the simulation race thingie. I really don't know what exactly it was called. 

 Xena kept trying to run away to the different race stations so I had to keep an eye on her as well as keep recording Viv's race. It was a little crazy.  

But I managed to capture his work all right. 

Soon, we were back on the road, with a chirpy Xena still talking about "the fantastic cars"!

We checked into our hotel, but asked for a change of room because we could smell cigarette smoke. Xena napped while Viv bought some snacks for us to munch on. I googled for a good place for us to have dinner and finally decided on Le Lisboa, a Portuguese restaurant with great reviews. 

It was a nice place, and they were nice enough to customise a vegetarian dish for Viv. Xena shared some of it. 

I ordered a fish dish, but I couldn't finish it because it was too much. Besides, the fish had bones and I'm not used to it anymore. 

They also had something called red beer, which Viv liked so much he had two! (We had walked to the place so he didn't have to worry about drinking.) After dinner, we took a nice long stroll back to our hotel. All three of us zonked out as soon as we hit the bed.

Click here for Amsterdam-France - day 12.