Plan de Paris (or how to go to France with the kids)
Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 08:40:42 PM PDT
Cross posted at Mother of All Trips
Hey all at MT - the blog's live! I'm going to try and write a post most days I'm in Paris.
I wish I could write something intelligent and poignant thanking you for all your help, but it's 11:30 and I've got to crawl up into bed. So I'll just say thanks. Hope you all like it. And remember - if anyone wants to write for it, let me know. Oh, and you'll find the preface of my book there too.
It's Wednesday, and we leave for Paris on Friday night. We're catching the red-eye from Newark at 9 p.m. Unbelievably enough, we are actually flying Air India, which had the cheapest fares by almost half (even if Philadelphia is the more convenient airport.)
I spent the better part of the last week with my nose deep in books and websites putting together a plan that I'm sure would be the envy of the Pentagon.
Here's an excerpt showing my outline for our first full day there:
Sunday, June 29
Provision at the Place Monge market (and various other places – see food list for best baguettes, etc.)
Stroll over to and around the Jardin de Luxembourg
play area that you pay for (recommended in book)
pony rides
merry-go-round
puppet theatre (performances on Sundays – Marionettes du Luxembourg, 4 euros)
outdoor café where you can get a nice beverage
Before we go home, might want to check out tickets for the Bateau Mouche to make sure there isn’t a line
Early dinner (more like late afternoon – 4ish) at home
Bateau Mouche ride in the evening – boats leave from Notre Dame every 17 minutes (although not at 7 p.m. for some reason). It’s a one-hour cruise, so if we want ice cream (and we do) we should try to get on a boat around 6. Tickets: 11 euros adults, 6 euros kids
Ice cream at Berthillon afterwards –29 rue St. Louis, Ile St Louis. Best ice cream in Paris (they are open until 8 – we should get there before then).
Although I left a few days open, I've done this for just about every day we will be in Paris. For you see, one thing I've learned about traveling with kids is that it's really a good idea always to have a plan. Which isn't to say that you should expect to stick to it. In fact, you most certainly shouldn't. But you want a good idea of what you are going to do when and in France especially you most certainly want to check and see if things are open on the days you intend to go and see them (unless you want to look into the face of a teary and exhausted 6-year-old and explain somehow that his fantasy of going to the top of the Eiffel Tower at night is not going to happen).
Of course, I know that there will invariably be some unplanned moments when we will all feel churlish (I'm guessing right now that one of them will be about 3 a.m. the second night we are there when the younger one - Little Chick as he often insists being called these days - gets out of bed and refuses to get back in it). But happily, I also know that we will have unplanned moments of utter and complete joy.
And yes, I know that a plan in French is actually a map, but I think it works perfectly. My plan is our road map - the guide that will help us navigate the unknown. Hopefully it will also give us courage to try some side roads.
