108 degree heat is no joke. And when I mean no joke, I really mean it.

We departed the beautiful city of Paris, an urban metropolis, yesterday mid-day to venture to the Parisian countryside, just 45 minutes outside the city for a new experience . . . An eco lodge, the Villages Nature and Disneyland Paris. Little did I know back in January that we would be traveling to said eco lodge on the hottest day of France’s recent history, i.e. the past 70 years.

An eco lodge believes in green and ecologically friendly operating practices, which for our writing and reading pleasure on this here blog means NO AIR CONDITIONING!!! Yep, you read it right! No A/C. 108 degrees. I’m all for being environmentally friendly with a sustainable farm, on a lake, surrounded by a lush, green forest, BUT DAMN, non-stop sweat, no relief heat is brutal. It’s not a dry heat like Palm Springs either where you spend 12 hours in the pool and pop in and out of the house for an A/C respite or two (am I right Beebs). Nope, here in Paris at Villages Nature . . . you wear it. The hellacious heat that is.

The hilarious part about all of this is that we were seriously considering just staying in our nice A/C apartment for another night and literally just watching movies all day. However, the kids had been primed for months about the gigantic waterpark aka Aqualagoon that’s here (more photos later) and the small detail that our Disney tickets were here and not at our apartment in Paris. Details details.

So instead of sweating the small stuff (haha, I kid, I kid) we had our driver stop at Carrefour, France’s version of Target, for us to pick up a few fans to take to our new apartment. There was one caveat from the driver related to the detour . . . If I didn’t make it a “fast trip” he was going to basically charge us a euro a minute, up to 60 additional euros for an hour of his time. Remember it’s 108 and he’s basically dropped me off at the equivalent of the Great Mall to find the store and ask where fans are from employees who don’t speak English, while I speak almost no French. It was classic Supermarket Dash if you can remember that show.

If you’re on the edge of your seat, know that I grabbed the last two fans on the shelf (at a premium) and ran out of the mall with time to spare. Add two big oscillating box fans to 8 pieces of luggage with two main pack mules and you get The Traveling Anderson. It was an adventurous day, one we’ll not forget anytime soon and damn was it hot. Once we arrived here, we enjoyed playing in the Aqualagoon for 4 1/2 hours and managed to get to sleep with the help of two, much cheaper fans we picked up here at the resort.

Soooooo we’ll basically be making a return trip to Carrefour on the way out of here next week and most likely, we’ll have another adventure to report on!

Off to Disneyland Paris today, where Mickey and friends and temps in the 90s will definitely lift our spirits!