Canada_V

I’m a great planner, avid doer, and terrible “completer-finisher” – typical quasi-documentation of a previous trip would be a box of non-chronological photos and a journal including pages of minutely detailed attempts at travel journalism covering the first 3 days… followed by a note dated a week later of “Bus 67 – 10:35am – transfer in Edinburgh”… followed by 100 blank sheets. I have been looking forward to being able to write this trip report because a) it means I have actually gone on my trip and b) because I am hoping that the Fodor’s community will provide me with some peer pressure to actually turn my notes into a coherent and complete TRIP REPORT! So I’m hoping this trip report will be a long one… so bear with me (or bail out now before it is too late!)

<b>Setting the scene</b>
We are… me, my husband (I’ll use the DH designation!), and our two boys "A" (age 11) and "B" (age 8). I grew up with travel – my parents are from the UK and avid travelers, so as children my brother and I would travel to England - plus usually a sniff more of Europe - every year or two. I love planning trips (even though most of them I have yet to take!) and if I won the lottery, would do nothing but travel. DH is more of a homebody – raised in a definitely non-travelling family… DH and I have gone on a couple of European trips together before having kids – we did the 6 months backpacking through Europe after university (which I had been planning since I was probably 13, and he followed me on in a cloud of 20-something ardour!), honeymooned in Wales, and took a driving holiday in the Scottish Highlands. But since kids, our disposable income has gone primarily towards hockey (and other kid related expenses) and the ‘luxury’ of having DH be with the kids as a stay-at-home-Dad. Our family vacations have involved very little ‘travel’ – usually renting a cottage on a lake for a week of swimming and hanging out, but I definitely wanted the chance to ‘plant the seed’ of European travel in the kids.

When my granddad passed away 3 years ago he left us little bit of money to with the specific instruction of spending it on something specific (i.e. not on car payments or the mortgage or skates the boys would outgrow!). My grandparents were also avid travelers, so using the money to take the kids to Europe seemed like an appropriate legacy.

The boys are both in French Immersion (an educational option in Canada where all their schooling since kindergarten has been in French) so France seemed like the right choice!

<b>The overall itinerary</b>
I got to plunge into ‘travel planning mode’ helped out in great part by the generous and knowledgeable folks here at Fodor’s, and worked the itinerary though several iterations, ending up with the following plan:

- 8 nights in a Paris apartment on Isle Saint Louis (including a day trip to visit Vimy Ridge)
- Train south for a week (with a car) in the Languedoc area in a rented house
- Train back to Paris for 2 nights in a different apartment

<i>(I am just going to do Paris in this trip report, and then link off to a separate one when I do the Languedoc part...)</i>

Departed on Thu June 4th from Toronto and returned home on Mon June 22nd. We were sad to leave France, but happy to be home - which is, I think, the best emotional place to be when returning home from travel.

So there is the backstory… now to start the trip report!!

Canada_V

June 4th/June 5th
<b>The Flight, the Eiffel Tower and the Apartment “This was the longest day of my entire life!” </b>

We flew over on Air France – paying 3K Canadian for the 4 of us. It was the first flight for the boys since the eldest was 3, so they were VERY excited.

The main pro: it was cool to start off the flight “in France” by going Air France. The main con: The flight left at 4:40pm Toronto time, and arrived at 6am Paris time. My strategy had been that everyone should get up super early on the Thursday to help us sleep on the plane, as the flight was so early. In theory… not a bad strategy. In reality… not so much. Neither kid slept… at all… And I know that because kids who don’t sleep fidget too much to let the adults with them sleep Other than that, it was a pretty standard economy flight!

<b>Getting to Paris</b>
The plane actually arrived early, so CDG was very quiet. We were traveling with a total of 2 roller carry-ons, plus a tote bag that sat onto of one of the roller bags, so we didn’t have to wait for luggage, so quickly made our way out. Customs was easy peasy (in fact it felt like I was walking around waving my passport looking for someone to ask me what the purpose of my visit was!). Got our tickets for the RER from the no lineup ticket office – I was all ready to use my French skills (consisting mostly of nouns and verbs connected by gestures rather than grammar!) but the ticket guy spoke perfect and patient English. I also bought Moblis day tickets for me and DH, and ticket Jeunes Weekend for the kids (3.20 E for a day pass for people under 26 –only available on weekends). Son B finally fell asleep on the RER into Paris!

I had read some reports of people being disappointed or underwhelmed with the sites on the outskirts of Paris driving in, but to me it felt like going into a big and exciting city – with an excellent quality of graffiti!

<b>Storing our baggage and our first visit to a pharmacy</b>
We weren’t able to get into our apartment until 3pm so my plan was to store our bags at the Fat Tire Bike Tour office (I had read on their website that they had baggage storage available, and we were planning to take a bike tour the next day) while we visited the Eiffel tower. Because our flight was so early, and the office didn’t open until 9am, we had time to chill in a park/square on Place Dupleix about a minute from the Fat Tire office. While the boys zombied on a bench, I went and bought my first baguette, pain du chocolats and Orangina!

As we made our way out of the park, B (the 8 year old) pinched his finger in the park gate (ow, ow, ow…) Poor little fingernail starting turning a nasty purple colour…

When we got to the Fat Tire office, they had just started coordinating the logistics of their Versaille tour, so it was a busy, happening place (though not particularly French feeling ). When I told them of our plan to leave our luggage there, it was apparent that I had misread their offer of “storing your bags while you are on a tour” as “storing your bags”, so there were was a moment or two of awkwardness , but the staff were super friendly and let us keep our stuff there for until after lunch!

At this point, B was still whimpering bravely in spite of his sleep deprived state, and his finger was not looking any better, so we decided to find a pharmacy to get some aspirin or something to “take the edge off”.
<i>The observation that is the point of this anecdote: </i> while in Canada (and the US) we would have had a choice of a dozen children’s pain reliever manufacturers, 8 different flavours, in pill, caplet, liquid, or easy melt strip format, at the Paris pharmacy, there was one option – a powder that you mixed in whatever liquid. It just made me think… really, that one Parisian option was enough! The placebo or chemical effect of the medicine seemed to have the desired effect so we were ready to move on!

<b>The Eiffel Tower</b>
DH and I had put the Eiffel tower on our “don’t really care, but we should probably see it since we will be there” list of sites, and so had decided to visit that first morning, figuring that we were indifferent so it didn’t matter if we were sleepy. But honest to goodness, it was amazing! It was iconic, and surprisingly graceful, and impactful without being imposing. We loved it, and had not come prepared to love it! It was not even 10am, and while there was a sizable line for the elevators, there were just a couple of people in the line for the stairs. So what better cure for a sleepness night? A 700 stair climb!! Being at the tower gave us the adrenaline to do it though.

Beautiful morning… beautiful day… a great start to our “sight seeing”. Didn't pay the extra for the 3rd level - weathered some pretty mild grumbles from the kids, but didn’t feel we missed anything as a result.

… to be continued

Samsaf

Great report! I'm looking forward to more.

gaelle

Enjoying your report. Can hardly wait to find out what happens next!

Canada_V

Wandered down from the Eiffel Tower – we had taken a picture from the top of what looked like a fishpond near the base of the tower, so wanted to find the reverse angle to take up the tower. B had to find a washroom, so he and I went off to use the facilities. When we got back to DH and A, they told us of how they had had encounters with 4 different ladies in long skirts and headscarves asking them if they spoke English. While I had learned all about this on Fodor’s, I hadn’t given DH the heads up. His instinctive technique for dealing with them was
1) First time the a tentative “yes” to do you speak English, then “no… sorry”, “no” with a head shake until they went away
2) Second time… “Let me guess… your Mother has leukemia” when it became apparent that the script was the same
3) Answering “actually, no, I don’t speak English”
<i>Question/Observation:</i> Why do all the ladies doing this use the exact same story? Someone told us later that last year, there was a different story, but it was still the same across the ‘industry’.
Interestingly, I was never approached by these ladies, though DH was in pretty much any situation or location where they were to be found. I wonder why?

<b> Paris is more confusing in 3d</b>
Time to find something to eat (according to our watches, though our stomachs were still pretty confused!) Decided to metro it to Saint Germain / Islands area and maybe check out the apartment location as well.

The kids LOVED the Metro – in particular the machine that sucked in and spit your tickets back to let you through the doors.

Took the metro to St-Michel/Notre Dame, but then got disoriented…
Although I was very familiar with the maps of Paris from my endless research, and countless virtual tours on Google maps, the inexperienced traveler in me was not at all prepared for how the 2d map world and the unfamiliar 3d real world don’t always make sense seamlessly! Is that a road or an alleyway? Is that the right turn we want to take, or is that little street 10 yards in actually what is showing up as the right turn on the map? I also realized that I am used to ‘navigating’ in a Southern Ontario world that means if you are lost, you can always turn left, then left again, then left again, and you will end up where you started… I also realize how much you subconsciously use landmarks you may not be aware you are using and sun placement in familiar places to figure out where you were.

So that was a lesson for me on that first day… Although I knew a lot of information about Paris, I didn’t have any ‘street smarts’ and our inexperience as travelers meant that we didn’t well refined skills and expectations about dealing with that element of culture shock. Fatigue was hitting in for all of us, and by this time we were all hungry, and it was a pretty disorienting and overwhelming point of the trip (on the first day!)

<b>Eating may be a challenge</b>
I love to eat anything and try new things and flavours. The boys (and DH)… not so much. B (the 8 year old) will generally <u>try</u> anything, and is more likely to like something new… eventually… but rarely love at first bite. DH and 11 year old A… not the most adventurous palates. I knew this would be one of our challenges in Paris, and especially at first, it was… especially with everyone so stoned on fatigue and jet lag.

We were a pretty inefficient pseudo-democracy as we wandered around the St-Michel/Saint Germain area trying to find something quick and cheap to collectively eat. Lots of options for me, but challenges to the collective. Sandwich places were rejected because of cheese content by A and DH (our non-cheese eaters); kebab stands that put fries in the sandwich looked too weird; the little road of ’10 Euro tourist menu’ restaurants where every 4 feet someone from a new restaurant tried to talk us into stopping was ‘more’ then we wanted right then (specifically, making the decision was more then we wanted right then!). We eventually ended up at a crepe stand across from the Cluny museum that also had “hot dogs” on the menu, which worked out as a great compromise. Son A was put in charge of flexing his French muscles by ordering a goat cheese and walnut crepe for me (satisfying my need to get something I couldn’t have got at home!), and hot dogs for everyone else. He first ordered the hot dogs as “chien chaud” which was pretty cute (as apparently hot dog is a universal word!). When son B saw my crepe being made on the cool big circle griddle thing, he switched to a ham and cheese crepe.

The verdict on the hot dogs (which he successfully avoided getting topped with a thick layer of melted cheese) was that they were a bit weird (is this a chicken wiener?), but that the baguette bun was excellent, and it was better than starving. I loved my crepe…! We ate them in a little parkette/playground behind the Cluny museum. The kids played on the climber, getting involved with a little French boy (5 or 6) who started copying / joining in. (I guess 5 year olds the world over think that bigger kids who will let them play with them are pretty cool )

By this point, we chose against further wandering to find the apartment, and metroed back to the Fat Tire office to get our luggage.

<i>(Thanks to those who may still be sticking with reading this long narrative!)</i>

<b> A shout out to Robespierre and his “The shortest distance between Pointe A et Pointe B, c'est” thread. </b>
I probably wouldn’t have embraced the bus system as readily without it! I had printed out a number of key bus maps following Robespierre’s instructions, so my shaken navigating confidence was restored when, after we had collected our bags from the Bike tour office, I was able to pull out the bus 87 map and lead the family in the right direction. And Robespierre, you were right – taking the bus gives you a chance to look around and orient yourself (or at least it did for me… as the rest of the family immediately fell asleep at the back of the bus, and B in particular became the walking dead, pretty much falling asleep on his feet as we started to walk after getting off the bus!

<b>Getting to the apartment, and the second visit to a pharmacist</b>
So we got off the bus at Pont Sully, and I started to get that stomach in my throat feeling of “will the place I booked over the internet be what it seems, or have I made a terrible mistake!”. The apartment was at 40 rue Saint Louis en L’isle ( a couple of doors down and across the road from Berthillion) and we were met right on time at the door by Annie – the Parisienne lady who owns it. She was very charming, and the apartment was exactly what it had seemed on the internet. Big sigh of relief!

It is essentially a big studio with a living area and big king bed in a room with 15 foot ceilings, and a mini kitchen and bathroom of that main room. On one side, there was a staircase/ladder which went up into a loftish area with a low ceiling (maybe 3 ½ feet high?) and two other twin mattresses. The kids were absolutely delighted with their little bedroom area.

I had forgotten to bring a cheque for the security deposit (I had paid for apartment itself in full via PayPal before we came), so DH went off to get money from the bank. It was taking a bit longer then we thought, so Annie and I went down to the street to find him. He had apparently walked past the first bank machine onto a further one, but we soon connected, bid adieu to Annie, and headed back to the apartment to finally catch a much needed nap.

All of a sudden I hear “Mum!! Mum!! Mum!!” and there is B in his socked feet running down the road shouting “HIS HEAD IS BLEEDING!!! A’s HEAD IS BLEEDING!!!”

DH and I run up to the apartment and there is A in tears with his bloodsoaked hands on the back of his head.
What happened???
B spits out the story, apparently in the excitment of exploring their little loft room they were playing some sort of spy/hideout game and when A recoiled from the imaginary gunshot of his captor B, he forgot that the ceiling in the loft was so short and recoiled directly into the corner of the 17th century wooden beam on the ceiling.
OK…. Check for concussion… do you feel dizzy and disoriented? (Actually, I feel dizzy and disoriented from lack of sleep… how do you factor jet lag into a concussion assessment??) OK he seems ok with that… just it hurts, and he's scared from the blood… let’s look at the wound. Like all head cuts… tons of blood, but the cut itself doesn't look TOO bad - about ½ inch long. Looks like it falls into the category of what at home we would go hmmm is it worth spending 4 hours in emergency – they will probably just put a staple on it, and would maybe go, but maybe wouldn’t. So how do you make that same decision in a foreign country? I pull out the only thing in my first aid kit – my tube of Polysporin – and goop up the wound like a boxing cut man to see if that will stop the bleeding, then we will make the decision on what else to do.

How are you feeling? “OK” he says –“ I think I will just sit down. I lay down on the bed when it first happened”. On the bed? Our eyes swivel to the beautiful cream coloured duvet cover… now sporting a dramatic red bloodstain. Arghh!!! OK… onto the internet (apartment included a computer and internet access!). What is the best thing for taking out bloodstains??? Hydrogen Peroxide? OK… I run down to the pharmacy. (My research and my DK Paris book meant that I knew all pharmacies have a big neon green cross in front).

“Bonjour monsieur. Je ne parle beaucoup de francais”.
Patient smile from the pharmacist.
Long pause while I search my brain for words… “Mon… “ (what is the word for son?… I have no idea) “petit garcon” (that should do)… “mal a la tete”. The pharmacist puts his hand to his head like he has a headache. “No.. no.. no” I say “coupe” (does that mean cut or cup?). “Sang” (I’m pretty sure that is blood… same root as sanguine…) “sang sur tout son vetements” Blood all over his clothes – that should paint the picture. “Les petit… “ (what do you think the French for bandaid is?) “…bandaids” spoken with a Pepe le Peu accent. The pharmacist pulls out some normal little bandage. What I was looking for was those steri-strip skinny bandage that we have used in a pinch for those “almost but not quite stitch worthy” cuts often found in our house. So I do an elaborate mime of cutting my arm, then repairing it with a long skinny bandage…. I think that was what the mime looked like. Apparently so as the pharmacist does the ah-hah finger point and comes back with the steri-strips!

OK now, hydrogen peroxide. Again, lets go with the Pepe le Peu accent. And again he comes back with the right stuff.
“Merci monsieur.” (trying to make smalltalk with the helpful pharmacist) “C’est mauvais pour le vacances” bad for the vacation – (in case my outstanding demonstration of the French language has him thinking I am a local… A girl can dream can’t she??)
“Ce n’est pas grave” he says with a sympathetic nod of his head

On returning to the apartment, find that there is no need for the hydrogen peroxide, as cold water and quick action by DH have completely removed any blood from the duvet cover. (Phew!!) Clean the bloody handprint off the wall. Check the wound… doesn’t seem to be bleeding any more. Confirm what any person with half a conscious brain would have already figured out… steri-strips don’t stick very well to a mop of blood-and-Polysporin-soaked hair. Deep breath… ok let’s have that nap we were promised.

Wrap a cushion in DH’s conveniently red coloured fleece jacket, and settle A onto the leather/plether/non-stainable couch, B up in the loft and DH and I on the bed, set the alarm for an hour and crash!

<i>Still a bit more of this day to come (though nothing nearly as dramatic!)…</i>

PatrickLondon

Dear oh dear, what a shock for you all.

You may - at this distance of time - be relieved that your first pharmacist offered a soluble painkiller. I always thought the tradition in France was that to do any good a medicine had to be introduced, shall we say, at the other end, which wouldn't have gone down too well, I imagine. Salt, by the way, for soaking out blood, in my experience.

But carry on, this is gripping stuff.

Canada_V

Thanks PatrickLondon
Well I imagine if the "non-soluble" option was the only one presented, then B would have found it within himself to bear the pain and we would have saved the 2E...
And certainly this first day was our most "dramatic" - thanks for reading, and I hope I don't spoil anything by letting you know we suffered no further injuries or pharmacy visits over the remainder of our trip!

RochesterDad

this is great. looking forward to reading more.
we are taking our 9 year old twin girls to Paris in August nad looking for ideas of what kids will like.

Canada_V

final installment for Day 1 - June 5th

Apparently the alarm went off an hour later…
Normally, I am the one who will wake up at the drop of a pin, but this time it was only DH who heard the chime and woke the rest of us up. Without the alarm, we may still have been there.
I had read mixed recommendations about “to nap or not to nap” and I think for us the 1 hour limit was vital, and not too much.

<b>A bit more anxiety about food</b>
In my pre-trip fantasy plan, we would be traipsing up to a the Enfants Rouge market (open on a Friday) and wandering the stalls, with everyone stumbling upon an exciting something new or fresh to try, and we would bring them back to the apartment for a celebratory first night feast.

The reality – and what ‘next trip’ I will be ready for – is that we were still tired and disoriented, and though we did metro up to the Enfants rouge market, nobody was feeling particularly creative or clear thinking enough to find be inspired (again, keeping in mind that I am was not travelling with an “experiment with food” crowd) especially since there had been a lot of seemingly aimless wandering to get to and through the market. I went into a rotisserie in search for the 8 or 9E chicken I had read about, but the only option seemed to be a per pound chicken that weighed up at 18E, so I chickened out (literary). We did get some fruit, but beat a retreat from the market. I don’t blame the market though, I just blame the timing relatively to our ability to process the stress (good and bad!) of settling in.

Ended up at the Franprix near the St. Paul Metro, and grabbed some drink and snack staples, and the comfort food of spaghetti and pasta sauce, and then the first of our local baguettes at the bakery just downstairs from the apartment on Isle St. Louis. Very glad to be in an apartment – don’t think we could have collectively faced going out for a meal that evening! Early to bed - happy to have made it through this first day relatively in one piece...

Our overall thoughts of the day and Paris (that had started with everyone getting up way earlier then usual in Toronto time the day before)
- Eiffel Tower; exceeded our expectations in impact
- Paris; a <u>real</u> city (no offense intended Toronto ), and we were all excited to be part of it the next day, but that we were too overwhelmed by circumstances to gain a real impression that first day!
- And from A… “This was the longest day of my life!”

<b>Our Paris Apartment</b>

www.vrbo.com/94988 also has the following website www.parisabcd.com on Isle Saint Louis

My most important criteria were
- Central location
- Good night’s sleep (which meant quiet location, and beds – no sofa beds - able to accommodate the two kids with a bed each, 5’11” me and 6’3” DH
- Peace of mind with whoever I was dealing with (hard to quantify, but absolutely key!)

The apartment was perfect for what we needed, and inexpensive (900E for a week). A couple of key things
- Isle St Louis seemed perfect for the first time visitor. Easy walking distance to several metro lines and neighbourhoods; easy walking distance to several key sites, and reasonable walking distance to several more. There was a boulangerie, fromagerie, and boucher, just outside the front door. The kids would go down for the morning baguette/croissants by themselves.
- If (when?) we come back, I probably wouldn’t stay on the island again, because I would be more comfortable ‘risking’ choosing a specific neighbourhood, but if I were coming back for the first time (if that makes sense) I would definitely stay there again.
- The apartment was up 1 short flight of stairs and on a courtyard. Therefore, there wasn’t a view, but I wanted a quiet nights sleep more then a view, so it was perfect.
- I am a fussy sleeper and our bed was big (one of those king beds that are technically two singles pushed together) and wonderfully comfortable. For the kids, once they got over the whole head injury thing they loved having their own ‘private’ area.
- Annie, the owner, was very pleasant quick to respond via e-mail, and easy to work with in terms of things like using Paypal
- There was a computer with internet provided, which was INVALUABLE for checking bus routes, museum hours, weather forecasts, movie times, and e-mail (though we didn’t do too much of that!)
- The shower was great - not just a handheld shower head in a bath
- She provided one of those wheeled shopping bag/cart things, so we were able to get our groceries like a local!

<i>This first day will probably be the longest entry Thanks for your patience! </i>

surfmom

So glad to read this... can't wait for the rest! Did you end up doing the bike tour ?

Leely2

Now that's what I call a first day!

I returned from Paris the end of May and rented an apartment with computer/internet. I agree--it makes things a lot easier and you don't have to deal with the hassle of lugging your laptop, etc. I stayed on the island once in the past with my mom. She likes it because she is directionally challenged and feels she can never get too lost as long as she can find the river. I'm going to bookmark your place for her.

I'm enjoying your report. Absolutely no need to skimp on the details.

lilaki

yay! so glad you're home and can't wait to read the rest of the report!

Canada_V

Thanks for leaving your comments (I have now built up the peer group I need to make sure I finish my trip report!)

I'm so excited to know that my trip report is being read by people whose trip reports I've read and enjoyed!

Surfmom - we ended up on both the day and night bike tours with Fat Tire; number one is coming in the next installment about our first full day in Paris.

Leely2 - I didn't get to flirt with any waiters (though I virtually flirted with yours when I read your report!) though I was hit on mildly by a tipsy frenchman while waiting for a crepe that was outside a bar/restaurant one night (which interestingly seemed to impress my kids

kkukura

I am enjoying reading your report! Thanks for sharing!

Leely2

I'm happy to read that getting picked up on impresses your kids. Who knew?

Looking forward to more.

Royal

Am enjoying your report very much. My husband and I are making our 4th trip to Paris in September and for the first time we are staying in an apt. on the Ile. We stayed at the Hotel Lutece on the Ile on our last visit and really enjoyed the location.

Your first day was a tough one so hope things get much better as your report goes along.

Looking forward to hearing about your Fat Tire Bike Tour.

Fodorite018

I am thoroughly enjoying your report We first took our kids to Paris when they were 5 and 8, so I can relate. DD (18) and I just got back from Paris on Tuesday and can also relate to trying to speak with the pharmacists, lol! I can't wait to hear more about your trip

Canada_V

Day 2 – Saturday June 6th
<b>Settling in and the Fat Tire Bike Tour</b>

Right from the start I had planned that we should do a bike tour on our first full day in Paris. Figured it would be good to get out and about in the fresh air, and that it might be a good idea to let someone else plan the specific logistics of a decent chunk of the day. The tour met at 11am, so that also seemed like a safe target given I didn’t know how long the family would need to sleep in!

In our household, I am the early riser. During our stay in Paris, this worked out perfectly. On this first Saturday, I woke up at around 8:30am – tiptoed around the apartment so as not to disturb the hibernating boys – and made my way outside. Well rested, I got to start absorbing the fact that I was in Paris, and started walking around, just checking things out. It was raining out – not heavily, but enough that about half the people walking in the streets had umbrellas, the other half just walking quickly…

I really enjoyed walking around by myself – I found the Monoprix a bit further down the road from the St Paul Metro and bought shampoo, a “string bag” for groceries etc (that came in very handy!), and two little umbrellas. When I was looking for shampoo, you Canadian’s might appreciate that I found myself automatically turning the bottle over to “read the English side” (all our products in Canada have both English and French information, so we’re used to seeing the French, but my brain expected to also see the English!). I had successfully used my bank card at an ATM with no problem, and had just received a new card with a chip, so I tried to see if I could use my bank card directly in the Monoprix… but no such luck... so paid cash. Grabbed a baguette and pain du chocolat at a bakery near St Paul and went 'home' to drag the reluctant crew out of bed!

<b>An aside about weather</b>
In a European context, Southern Ontario weather is actually pretty darn predictable. Being in Paris reminded me of coming to the same conclusion when travelling in the UK. If on Sunday there is a Toronto weather forecast that shows sunny and warm on Monday and Tuesday, 30% chance of rain on Wednesday, 60% chance of rain on Thursday, then sunny on Friday, odds are you are probably going to get something that resembles that… maybe the rain will come a bit earlier or a bit later, but the overall pattern will probably be something like that – it will be sunny, then a rainy weather front will come through over the course of 1 or 2 days – then it will be sunny again.

When we left Canada on the Thursday, all of the various weather sites I obsessively checked in the couple of weeks leading up to our departure showed sunny and warm for the whole week in Paris – no sign of rain. By the time we had landed, got into the apartment, and I checked the weather again, the week was now showing cool and damp for the whole week And every day that we were there had a bit of cool, a bit of rain, a bit of sun, a bit of heat, then a bit of everything again. And every day the forecast for the rest of the week changed dramatically to a totally different pattern.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not complaining in the least. Although it rained a bit every day we were in Paris (except for the very first day when we arrived, before we had the apartment to go to – it was beautiful all day… perfect timing!) it didn’t interfere significantly with any of our plans or activities. When it did rain, it didn’t last more than 10 minutes or so at a time. The only thing I would say is that we didn’t end up spending much time early in the week in parks or playgrounds (something I had figured we would do). Though if I had to choose, I would pick the just a bit cooler then expected that we had, rather than a bit too hot – especially with all the walking and public transit riding that we did… The only thing we were aware of was that we had only brought one ‘warm’ sweater/jacket equivalent each, and one pair of long pants/jeans, and we ended up having to wear them every day except for the last Friday. So any time we paused to take a “group picture” we tried to remember to peel off that top layer so that it wasn’t obvious we were wearing the same clothes in every photo!!

<b>The Bike Tour</b>
DH was pretty skeptical about the bike tour – not convinced that it would be a good thing to do the first day, wasn’t sure if it would fit the kids etc, but the division of labour for the trip (by mutual choice, preference and agreement!) had been that I did the research and planning, and the rest of them replied to direct questions with snippets of preferences and information which I would work into the plans - and all the information I had found supported that this was a good idea, so he deferred and off we went.

By the time the family got on the road we were cutting it pretty close for making it to the Eiffel Tower for 11am, so we figured we would go straight to the bike tour office (since we had scouted it out the day before, and we knew they had to come back there to get the bikes. Again the office was abuzz with activity – lots of “young person energy” dealing with logistics of coordinating tours starting, issues with bike locks, chatting with us etc etc. They phoned the guy at the tower to let him know he had 4 more people joining the tour. It was drizzling rain, but the tours go rain or shine! As a result though, our tour was nice and small  There were maybe a dozen people in our group – all adults except for one little guy around 2 years old on his dad’s bike seat. Mostly Americans, plus a few from Ireland/England. We bought stylish plastic rain ponchos (ok... maybe stylish is an exaggeration…) for a Euro at the bike office, met our tour guide Rohan – an enthusiastic energetic student from Alabama who had been working there since February and would be going to medical school in July, picked out our bikes (big comfy seated touring bikes for us, and a choice of mountain bikes for the kids), and got ready to go.

The weather in Canada hadn’t allowed us to get out on bikes at home yet this spring, so B in particular was a bit rusty and initially not very confident on his bike – Rohan was very patient with making sure everyone was comfortable and ready to go. There is just one tour guide with the group, but to make sure to keep track of everyone, the guide finds a volunteer to be the last person in the group (in Fat Tire parlance… the “Ass-man”). DH was asked if he would like this honour I think perhaps in part because he is a relatively big guy wearing a red shirt, so pretty visible to begin with. Because DH was hanging with the semi-confident B, he figured he’d be bringing up the rear anyway so it worked out – he got the reflective yellow vest and was saluted by his peers (well… he got the vest). So we set off – and then B remembered that he <u>could</u> ride a bike, and so ditched Dad to his Assman responsibilities, and sped to the front to spend the rest of the tour up with his brother riding shotgun to Rohan.

<i>to be continued… but don’t worry, no stories of injuries to follow!</i>

louistraveler5

I'm really enjoying your trip report! I keep checking back to see if more has been posted!
My DH & I went to Paris for the first time (first time to Europe) in October 2008. We had the Fat Tire Bike tour on our list of things to do but never got to it and we still regret not doing it. We were going to do the night tour. I am hoping to get back to Paris maybe in 2010.
Love your report!

decee

I think if this had been me going through all those tribulations on my first day in Paris I would have been in tears and probably saying we have to go home. My hats off to you for keeping your cool and surviving that first day.
I'm loving your report--it is making me smile! I too await further installments.
(I'm also from Canada and we are off to Paris in September-no kids though).