surfmom

Day 5, Sunday – How to Freak Out a Five Year Old on a Tandem Bike

We had scheduled a bike tour for today (Fat Tire Bike Tours) and rather than try to arrive at the exact time, we decided to give ourselves extra time. We stopped at a park along the way to the Eiffel Tower (the meeting place for the bike tour). After a quick walk back to the bike tour offices and picking out bikes, we were ready to go.

We opted to use tandem bikes for the girls, which worked great. The tandems were the equivalent of 3 wheels – attached to the parent’s front wheel and two rear wheels. Unfortunately, I managed to freak out my 5 yr. old in the process. The tough lesson that I learned was that when the adult bike seat is all the way down (lowest seat position), the tandem arm (attaching the child’s bike to the adult bike) doesn’t swing freely and catches on the luggage rack. This means that turning any corner becomes a little adventure and on one sharp corner, I had one of the tandem rear wheels in the air. Oops. Bad mommy. At one of the stops, we raised my seat about an inch – which made it a little more difficult for me to pedal, but infinitely easier for my 5 year old not to freak out.

Overall, there was not much biking on roads, but through parks, sidewalks, and bike trails. We went through the Tuileries, but were required to walk our bikes and stopped for lunch at one of the cafes. On the return, we rode along the Esplanade towards the Invalides on a bike trail. While biking on the trail along the Esplanade, a car pulled up next to us – and took photos of the girls behind us on the tandem bikes. Sunday is a great day to take a bike tour because even though they avoid roads with traffic, there is a little bit of riding on streets, crossing streets, etc. This was Easter Sunday and traffic was even lighter, so there were no issues with traffic. I think people are also more patient on a Sunday and less likely to be annoyed to have to wait for a pack of bikes. I would absolutely do this again on a Sunday.

After dropping off the bikes and saying goodbye to the tour, we decided to walk back to the Invalides. Along the way, we found a park. Surprise. The girls were less than impressed with Napoleon’s Tomb, but were very interested in the side rooms (the stained glass windows are gorgeous in these rooms!). After our short visit, we continued along to the Rodin Museum. We posed with “The Thinker” and imitated many of the sculptures outside. (This was actually the inspiration for a new game called “Statues All Around” – one person makes a pose and the others have to imitate it and hold it for 5 seconds. Take turns and the next person freezes a pose. It is a great way to kill time - especially at the airport where it got us stretching before a long flight home!)

Took the metro home and stopped at the cafes in Palais Royal looking for fries. Rejected. Again. So it was home for dinner. Back to Palais Royal to jump on the black and white things and to bed.

VeeBee

Thanks for the tandem report! WOuld like your suggestions for the bike tour.. we have a small 5 yr old daughter and 7 yr old son who is almost the same size. do you suggest 1 tandem per adult bike? Assume my 9 yr old son can keep up on his own with child bike? I've heard this is a great thing to do your first day as overview for kids of the city? What do you think? Did you consider the trailer option ? (thinking of this for 5 yr old) Also, any thoughts re night tour? Sorry for all questions..but want to make my reservations with FatBike soon..

Canada_V

VeeBee - looks like we both have a very keen interest in this particular thread! Our trip isn't until next June, so I will be looking forward to your trip report including how the Fat Tire bike trip goes!

VeeBee

This thread has actually inspired me to find a way to do a trip report for our upcoming family adventure in June. I never thought about it as something i could/should do for my kids as a record of the trip (just knew i should provide some feedback on this board to help others as i have been helped in my research).. but this really has me thinking.. the only problem is that we are going to be gone for a month with no laptop - so how will i record all the wonderful details? I am so dependant on my PC - that i can hardly hand write at all anymore!! Suggestions?

surfmom

Day 6, Monday – The Eiffel Tower Twinkles!

We took the metro to Tour Montparnasse. What an amazing view of Paris! I hadn’t ever thought that I would like it so much, but after having been there, I’d go again. We then took the metro to the Opera and did a self-guided tour here. Although it stated that the auditorium was closed, there was a tour group inside and two boxes open to view the inside. We enjoyed the large double staircase inside and I liked the Chagall ceiling – not what I expected.

After a stop for lunch at an outside café on rue de Rivoli, we went into the Tuileries and rented sailboats to float (2 euros for 30 minutes). The wind was light, so you had to be patient while they sailed across the pond, but our girls enjoyed this.

We then walked to the Orangerie to see Monet’s Water Lilies. We tried to walk straight through to the water lilies gallery but the guard sent us downstairs first. We weren’t sure why we weren’t allowed to go in that gallery initially – we felt as if we were being ‘forced’ to view the paintings downstairs when we weren’t interested. I loved the paintings and was also impressed with the display of them – I thought it was a beautiful way to display the large canvases with the diffused light from above.

We decided to take a Batobus ride on the Seine, however, it had gotten pretty warm by this point and the glass walls of the Batobus had a greenhouse effect. We had intended to ride a full lap and get off at the Louvre, but since we were hot and tired, we bailed at the Musee d’Orsay stop and walked across the Seine instead. The girls were hungry for ice cream (imagine!), so we went into the Carousel du Louvre and enjoyed the shade and coolness of that.

For dinner, we had reservations at Chez Francis on Pont de l’Alma. Not terribly fancy, but everyone was very nice to us and the food is good (Pasta with fresh mozzarella and a veal chop, and for my 6 yr. old, they made penne with butter which she loved). We opted to sit outside, although when the sun went down it got chilly. I was happy that we had brought sweatshirts even though the outside heaters were on. The girls had fun watching the Eiffel Tower twinkle (started at 9pm) and we headed home after this.

next: A Travel Day. The End. Apartment Thoughts. Thoughts About Traveling with Kids. Museum Passes.

surfmom

VeeBee, Fat Tire Bike Tours – they are great and very nice. We used the tandems behind the adult bikes – they were actually two wheels in the rear, so no balancing issues (unless the adult doesn’t let the tandem arm swing freely). I found it much easier when I rode with my 6 yr. old – she actually pedaled!

I would think the 9 yr. old can be on his own bike – we didn’t move very fast. The 5 and 7 yr. olds I would put on the tandems attached to the adult bikes. Unless your 7 yr. old can ride a 2-wheeler confidently by himself, then maybe see if he could ride a small bike? I’m not sure about the trailer – our kids were never really fans of those and I always think those are used for smaller kids, so we never even considered that option.

They only have 3 tandems, so definitely make reservations. I don’t know what the weather policy is though.

I don’t know if I would do this as a first day option. We found on our first day that we needed times to have ‘downtime’ and you really have to keep up with the tour – you can’t really bail in the middle. That is assuming your first day is coming from the states on a plane? If you don’t have jetlag issues, that might be a fun way to get acquainted with things. We did spend almost all day outside on our first day, but it was more at our pace.

As for the night tour – it actually has more biking than the day tour, so if you are worried about that, I might stick with the day tour. They wear reflective vests at night, but I would still be a bit stressed about the 9 yr. old at night. I would do a day tour first and if that goes well, you can make reservations for the night tour later in the week (it is a different route). I think they accept ‘walk-ins’ and not everyone has to be reservations, but I don’t know how crowded they get in summer.

I definitely loved the ‘less traffic’ aspect of Easter Sunday. The tour goes across Rue Grenelle towards the end and the tour guide warned us to expect honking at us. He said, “that just means they are saying hi!” But he was telling us that to not let it surprise us or stop, but to continue with the group. We encountered no problems or negative responses at all, but I think traffic was really light. So, my point here is that I would look at the day of the week that you might book it as a priority.

So that is my brain dump for the bike tour. I have some photos of the bikes and the group, email me at jsemmer at comcast dot net and I can send them to you or send you the link when they are posted.

noe847

VeeBee, I have always kept a journal of our trips abroad. Most often this is in a little three ring binder (3" x 6&quot, but it does take a while each night to update it.

In recent trips, I've been taking notes (either during the day or at the end of each day), writing down in shorthand fashion what we did/saw, any memorable incidents or quotes from the day. Then when I get back, I make it a priority to sit down at my computer and type up the journal from the trip. I have my maps handy, my notes, receipts, and my photos, and am able to reconstruct it pretty well.

After my fall trip to Romania with my father and my brother (where we had nearly 4000 pictures) I made a book for my father for Christmas. It turned out to be 222 pages and it has a full dust jacket. People can't believe the quality - I've lent it out several times. The site I used is blurb.com, and I can't say enough good things about the books. There are a variety of sizes and prices, although they are all reasonable. I paid just under $60 for my 200+ book, but you can do a small book for under $20.

Another thing we have done on family trips is to bring little tape recorders. My girls have always kept journals of our family trips, and dictating their impressions and stories sometimes works when it is too hard/time consuming for them to write. I've done the typing from the tape once we returned home.

SeaUrchin

surfmom, this is such an enjoyable report! I hope you post a link to some of the photos!

surfmom

Day 7, Tuesday – Travel Day and The End

We took a quick visit to Palais Royal for our last playing on the black and white things and then it was time to head to the airport. After a uneventful trip, we were back home with tired little people.

Apartment thoughts – rue de Richelieu

Liked: location (rue de Richelieu – quick walk to Louvre), very bright and airy, well-equipped, open kitchen to living space was nice, had basic necessities (salt, pepper, mustard, dish soap, etc.), dishwasher (with detergent there), washer/dryer combo unit, bathtub AND shower (kids liked having a tub, adults liked the shower!), bathroom sink area was large, elevator, master bedroom bed was very large (a king maybe?), 2 bedrooms were awesome!

Disliked: only comfortable seating was couch, lack of internet connection (although we were able to piggyback a very slow unsecured connection from someone around), bar stools were hard for kids to climb in and out of, washer/dryer combo unit was loud, jute carpet was uncomfortable on tired barefeet.

Overall: We would definitely rent here again. My positives significantly outweigh the minor negative points about this apartment.

Museum Passes

I know many have debated the cost/benefit factor. We decided to purchase them and weren’t sure about whether we would want 4 days or 6 days. We considered just buying 4 days and if we thought we would want an additional 2 days, we would purchase a 2-day pass. However, the incremental cost between 4 and 6 days was only 15 Euros, so we just decided to do 6 days. We weren’t planning on visiting a ton of museums and weren’t sure they would ‘pay’, however, with kids, we decided there was a price for the ‘front of the line’ factor. It was nice knowing that we could just walk into any museum also. As it turned out, we saved almost 20 Euros per person by purchasing museum passes as well as the front of the line privilege. I would definitely do them again.

Thoughts About Traveling with Kids

- Food. This might be a problem. I have picky eaters who like things a very specific way. We found lunches out were okay, but dinners in were critical to getting anything nutricious in them. Thank goodness for baguettes, pain au chocolat, fries, and ice cream. The apartment was incredibly helpful since we kept yogurt, milk, etc. here. Buying fruit sometime during the day was a great snack and was at least a little healthy! (We typically purchased one banana and one apple and the girls would eat it as we were walking around).

- Museums – Wow! We thought they were fabulous with kids. From the woman at the Louvre seeking us out to send the girls up front to see Mona Lisa, to the man at Musee d’Orsay who sent us to another entrance to avoid the line, to the people at the Arc de Triomphe who sent us on the elevator since we were carrying a stroller. I get a sense that they enjoy seeing children at these places and were very accommodating.

- Parks and carousels – keep your eyes open and you will stumble across parks throughout the city. Don’t be afraid to stop and play and run around.

- Be flexible. If they are losing it, then bail. Head home for downtime. We didn’t even watch tv (only had French channels) and they didn’t miss it.

- Keep a journal - They actually wanted more time to write in their journals, but since we wanted them in bed, we made a list instead so they could remember. Even my 5 yr. old had fun with a journal – I would tell her what to write and she would draw the picture (or we would help). She liked taping the metro ticket stubs, the Eiffel Tower ticket stub, the name of her new doll into her book. The only downside to the museum passes was that we didn’t have individual tickets for each museum to save in their journal.

- Read books about the Louvre, d’Orsay, etc. Having them walk around museums saying, “I recognize that” was incredibly fun! We particularly liked "My Little Louvre", "My Little d'Orsay".

- Hand sanitizer – we carried hand sanitizer around and used that after every bathroom break. Much easier than kids getting splashed from high sinks, no paper towels, etc.

- Flat Stanley – there is a book about Flat Stanley where a little boy gets crushed by his bulletin board and is flat. He mails himself to his friend for a visit. Many kids read this in K or 1st grade. My 1st grader’s class had a class mascot – Fluffy the Bear, which her teacher offered to let us take. Since I was trying to pack light, I took a photo instead and we had a ‘Flat Fluffy’ with us. We took pictures throughout the day with Fluffy and wrote a story with him. This was a fun activity throughout the trip.

- Stroller – We debated taking one. We finally decided to take a lightweight umbrella stroller which I purchased (a bit of contention since we have 2 old umbrella strollers in our garage – but they are pretty nasty). We were very happy with the stroller and used it throughout the trip. It was also nice that it folded easily since we could fold it and put it under our feet at meals. Even though the Notre Dame Towers say ‘no left luggage’, they allowed us to fold it and leave it at the entrance.

AnselmAdorne

surfmom, our days of having a young child with us are long gone (although who knows, there may be grandchildren), but I enjoyed every step of your trip. I admired, too, your parenting wisdom.

Thanks for posting this report. It was one of the best I've read.

Anselm

jody

You are SUPERMOM!! I so enjoyed this whole report!

FauxSteMarie

Thanks for posting a trip report with a different angle.

By the way, I do tell everyone going up to the top of the Eiffel Tower not to bother. The "traffic jam" there is always to get to the top and the view from the second level isn't all that different.

Alas, most people just cannot bear to be without bragging rights to say they went to the top.

By the way, with my own kids, my daughter went to the second level with her girlfriend (who was with us). My son, who decided he was scared of heights that day, stayed with me on level one.

I did go to the top once years ago--in May. I would never attempt it in summer.

annasplit

I can't tell you how incredibly helpful this post was SurfMom! We are taking our 4 boys to Paris this summer (14,13,10,5) as part of a 2 week Europe trip, and I've gone back and forth on the stroller-issue (I'll take one now), museum passes (again, yes) and peanut butter (thank you Jif tubes!). The apartment sounds like a wonderful idea. I'll have to check into it as we will only be there for 4 1/2 days. Thanks a million for posting ~ I loved all of the details!

amarena

I really enjoyed your report, surfmom. Thanks for taking the time to write it.

Canada_V

I also really enjoyed this trip report. I get the sense sometimes that people hesitate to do a trip report from a sort of "who would really care about the nitty gritty of my trip", but I think this is proof both that people are going to be interested, but also that this exercise can be a catalyst for organizing your thoughts for your own record! And especially those who have replied here (or just read!) who are taking their kids to Paris soon - I eagerly await your reports!!!

VeeBee - it was a while ago now, but pre-kids my husband (then to be) and I did the 'backpack through Europe' thing, and at first tried to write detailed and literary journals, but fell off that wagon pretty quickly! What we did do (for different reasons) was keep a log of where we spent our money, and we found that when we got back that was an amazing memory trigger so we were able to flesh out a 'trip report' afterwards. Just basic notes about what we spent on accomodation, any food and what it was,and any activities and we were able to remember the whole day.

kwren

Just a thought on going to the top of the Eiffel Tower with kids. This is something I've done with all 4 of my kids and it is something they always remember when the details of other things have started to fade. While I agree that once is enough (and sometimes more than enough!), I do think that it is something they will appreciate over the years. Certainly, that trip up has appeared in all the "what did you do this summer?" essays, and I've heard discussions with their friends about having done it. I wouldn't have skipped it on their behalf for anything.

NThea

Surfmom - What a terrific report! Thank you for taking the time to record your experience. (And I have to tell you: With your screen name I keep picturing the surfing mom from that one car commercial where a mom pulls up with three daughters to go surfing. Have you seen it? This is my mental image of you!)

We are leaving for Europe in 13 days! (Yahoo!) I'll post my trip report when we return (mid-May). We'll be in Cologne, Haarlem, Brugges, and Paris. For our 4 nights in Paris, we rented an apartment through vacationinparis.com. Ours is an intergenerational family trip: myself and husband, two sons (5 and 7), and my parents. I'm sure that will add an interesting twist to things!

Your children are so lucky! Now get some sleep!!

mrkindallas

I also enjoyed your report. Thanks for posting.

Edye

We were also in Paris with our children at this time, arriving a few days earlier on 3/31 and departing on 4/7. Daughters are 9 and 11. I hesitated to put a trip report out because of the sometimes rude responses people offer, which I didn't want to deter from our amazing vacation "after thoughts", you know how it takes a week or so to return to your normal state of mind.

Anyway, glad your trip was as succesful as ours. I will try to find time to put details out. Our 9 and 11 year old went with us on their bikes to Versailles on Fat Tire and it was one of the most magical days of my life (travel wise, 2nd only to Taj Mahal).

Our favorite museum was L'Orangerie.

For everyone who poo poo'ed me on hiring a car in advance to take us to our apt, you were all so wrong. Driver was there waiting with sign, took control of our luggage from us, didn't walk us far to car, drove us to our apt, helped us get all of our stuff upstairs in tiny elevator runs, and made arrangements to pick us up for our return. Was well worth the money.

NThea

Edye -

Oh please, please don't hestitate to write your trip report. This Fodors board is a lot like my neighborhood association: interesting, diverse personalities sharing one (and often only one) thing in common: their love of travel. Don't let those Crabby Patties (as my sons would say) get you down. I want to hear about your trip!!!