Zsuzsika

Hello,
My boyfriend and I will be spending a few days at a family in Paris. He's Australian & I'm from Transylvania, Ro. We don't know a lot about the family except that they have a 8-9 year-old boy and that the wife's American. We would like to travel light and avoid anything that would break and anything alcoholic. I was thinking maybe books with pictures from each, but not sure how interesting that is. Also it might be hard to find one in English around here. Does anyone have any ideas about what would be an appropriate gift? Preferably a "for the whole family" kind.
Thank you very much for the help!!

Christina

That's a nice idea, I personally wouldn't worry about giving gifts to the entire family, I think generally gifts for hosts are supposed to be exactly that, for the hosts. I know when my German relatives visited my parents, they gave them some German themed gifts that were sort of housewares, they didn't bring anything for all of the family or us kids and no one ever thought there was anything wrong with that. They gave my mother this cloth calendar thing that was German language which she could hang on the kitchen wall, stuff like that.

The problem is you don't seem to have any connection to these people are you aren't really from a particular area. I'm not clear where you are even coming from. If you are living in Romania, I would think just some kind of Romanian arts/crafts thing would be nice (some textile or decorative thing). I don't know why you'd take them a book if it has no particular purpose or relationship to anything. I mean were you thinking of a book of pictures from Romania? Well, that might be okay.

Zsuzsika

Thank you!! That's really helpful about the family.

Yes, I was thinking a book about Romania, or just Transylvania that has a lot of pictures. I was also thinking about Romanian arts/crafts but that's not something I'd put in my own home, so I'm not sure I want to give it to someone else either. A piece of textile might be okay though...
Thanks for your help, please share if you have other thoughts/ideas!

Zsuzsika

Forgot to mention, we'll be "crossing" both AU and RO before Paris so we can pick up the gifts as we go.

kerouac

If nothing seems appropriate (and your budget allows it), just offer to invite them to a restaurant meal of their choice. Any normal people will have understood your financial limits and will not propose anything out of reach.

LoveItaly

Hello Zsuzsika, just a thought for the young son. Since you will be in Australia you might think about buying him a boomerrang. A business friend brought back one to our daughter when he returned from a trip to Australia, she was ten years old, and she loved the boomerrang (I hope I have spelled it properly).

As far as the adults, if you have time before getting to your Paris hosts residence a beautiful bouquet of flowers would be enjoyed I would think. Or a lovely box of chocolates. At least in Italy I have always found flowers and chocolates seem to be very appreciated.

Zsuzsika

Thank you! Not sure about inviting them to dinner, they might not accept because they know we're short on cash. Better to take a gift in case they wouldn't take anything else. Something small, just to show that we appreciate the help. The boomerang is an excellent idea, surely any kid would like that.
All other ideas welcome

cathies

I like LoveItaly's idea of really nice quality flowers and chocolates. I'm not a great fan of kitch 'country of origin' gifts. The only thing I can think of that isn't too expensive and would be easy to pack is some drink coasters with Australian scenes on them. You could probably pick some up at the gift stores in Sydney or any other capital city.