rebeccaG

I've been meaning to write this report for months now, it'll be fairly simple. My husband and I (6 months pregnant) took 10 days in Paris with our 4-year-old daughter, to be known as “G”.

We flew from JFK to CDG - flight was a little delayed but 4yo held up well. After the meal was served we changed her into pajamas and she fell asleep fairly quickly. I was more uncomfortable as the plane was unusually warm and it was difficult to get comfortable. We woke G up about 30 minutes before landing - gave her some juice and staggered off the plane.

Despite me having a basic knowledge of French, we had a hard time at the airport finding a cab. I think it was a combination of fatigue and poor signage. It didn't help that for some reason, the taxi stand was closed. When it finally opened up we made it into the city fairly quickly. We rented an apartment in the Marais from VRBO. The rep was meeting us at the apartment. One wrinkle was he spoke no English. I wasn't expecting this but we managed to get by w/phrase book and nodding. He left and we settled into the apartment. It was a great place...lots of room, a computer, big kitchen. I would absolutely go with apartments when traveling w/kids. My daughter really loved coming back and relaxing. As did I…the first night we stocked up kitchen w/basics (cereal, bread, milk, juice, snacks). I think we ate about 3meals at “home”.

We set out and checked out the area and had some lunch. As much as I love a good meal, on this trip is was more about location and timing. Overall we found the bistros to be the best bet. Our daughter is a good eater in general and I found the majority of places to be very kid friendly. A lot was forgiven (arriving for dinner at 6:30pm) when they saw G. She ate lamb, omelets, lots of frites, roast chicken. Breakfast was her favorite though, baguette or croissant, hot chocolate and juice.


We planned our days fairly loosely - 1 or 2 major things (museums, areas) we wanted to see and worked around that. We used a few books to help – Open Road Paris w/Kids, Rick Steves & Fodors). Traveling w/a young child and me being 6mos pregnant slowed our pace down and that’s a good thing. My husband took a few side excursions on his own while G and I went to bed early or just sat in a park.

rebeccaG

We took the tourist bus the first day to get our bearings. Both my husband and daughter fell asleep. And we ended up pretty far from our apt. We did find the taxis difficult to manage for some reason. We live in NYC and my husband didn’t like that he couldn’t just hail a cab but had to go to a stand. We had this problem a lot this trip. I preferred the buses and he preferred the subway. Needless to say we walked a lot. We did buy a metro pass and used it daily.

Highlights were the parks – G loved these. Most seemed to have a carousel and that was absolutely charming. The weather was amazing, no rain for 10 days in November. We spent a lot of time on a bench sipping coffee watching our girl on the carousel.
We took 2 boat rides. It was cold but a wonderful way to see the city. When I traveled alone I never took one, fun to do it with G. Hit the Louvre, nice but a little overwhelming. It took us a long time to find our way out of there. We recovered w/ some time in the Tuilleries (and another carousel). Musee d’Orsay was better. A manageable size for us. G did great in all the museums. She had a pad and crayons and would just sit on a bench and amuse herself. The Picasso Museum was nice too, had a big garden and café in the back.

We took one day trip to Chantilly. Short train ride and we had to walk to the chateau. But it was a lovely walk and we picked up a picnic lunch at the train station and ate on the way.

We did a lot of walking, shopping and eating. We hit our crepe saturation point at about day 6. We brought a light umbrellas stroller (Volo). Tried one day w/o it but it was hard to get around w/a tired little girl. Better to have it.

We did have some trouble w/the heat and hot water the last night of our trip. We couldn’t get either on..as our rep didn’t speak English, it was impossible to fix over the phone. He came the next day (as we were waiting for our cab) and showed us the switch. It was a rough ending as we were facing a long day of travel w/o having a shower or bath. I’d always ask about the language before committing to a rental.

I was 6mos pregnant and felt great the whole time. It was hard to avoid some of the cheeses and wine (but I did have a glass here and there, per my French Dr. who said I couldn’t go to Paris and not have wine). I took lots of breaks to put my feet up. Traveling w/a child slowed our pace down and that was a nice change.

I'm a huge fan of traveling w/your kids. It's a whole new way to see things. Our next trip is a caribbean trip w/o the kids (for my own sanity) but next summer we're going to either Italy for a month or Greece for 2 months.

Loveling

Thank you so very much for your report. Im going with my one year old in dec.

I wonder: do you remeber any names of restaurants you visited, and is there some in particular that is more child-friendly?

rebeccaG

Looking back I wish I had planned meals a little bit better. But it was really hard to to know exactly where we would be when we were ready for dinner. And after figuring out the whole day, it was just hit or miss. There are some great books on Paris restaurants, I had one and forgot to bring it. I'd keep one on hand and see where you are. In general, the bistros really were the best choice. My daughter was 4, so she could eat most everything we did. At 1 I imagine you need to bring some baby food. I'd pick a place based on what you would like, but you'll probably have to eat earlyish.

Loveling

Thank you so much!! I loved your report, by the way, forgot to tell you

ga9497

Can you share the place you rented

rebeccaG

I'm sorry I didn't reply earlier! We used VRBO to rent our place in the Marais -
http://www.vrbo.com/36071

We were very happy with the apt..had a lovely terrace but it was a little cold while we were there.