One of the big pros in my mind when we were considering moving to Luxembourg was that it was only 3.5 hours from Paris. For some reason it took us nearly a year to make it. France and Paris have always been part of my family. I have been to Paris many times with my parents, my siblings, on study abroad, and even with Nate just a few years ago but never with the kids. After arriving in Lux I think I hesitated to go because I felt like there were so many things to see and didn’t know what to focus on with kids. So when the Oates said they had decided to make a quick weekend trip to Paris and keep it low-key and enjoyable for the kids, we jumped on board.
We met at 7am Saturday morning and caravanned into the sunrise, stopping just once at a rest area with toilets that were just a hold in the ground. After finding our parking spot under Place de la Concorde, we loaded up our strollers, herded our crew through the busy intersection and headed for the first stop on our kid-friendly itinerary: Les Tuileries Gardens and the playground hidden within.
The boys quickly ran to the big play structure and slide, and got out their energy from the 3.5 hours in the car. Nate and Ben headed off in search of some Parisian food while Tasha and I helped Eliza and Ingrid climb onto slides, merry-go-rounds, and various other contraptions. We chose a perfect weekend weather-wise. A great moment of happiness sitting on a green metal Tuileries chair with the sun shining on me, eating a delicious baguette sandwich. The park was a great, simple way to spend time with the kids.
After a couple hours at the playground, we were ready to begin our walk down the Champs-Elysées towards the Arc de Triomphe. We bribed the kids away from the playground with the promise of a ride on the carousel, which they thoroughly enjoyed. A brief stop at the pond (where unfortunately only one sailboat was afloat) and the restrooms and we were on our way.
We quickly realized that walking the Champs Elysées is not nearly as magical when traveling with kids. For them or us. We lost a few to naps (oddly enough, Ryan and not Eliza fell asleep) and fortunately the road didn’t seem as long as the last time Nate and I made that walk 2.5 years ago (we also had just spent 3 hours walking around the Louvre on our last trip). Tasha stayed with the sleeping children in strollers while the rest of us ventured under the roundabout to the Arc de Triomphe. We had shown the boys pictures of the 3 major monuments we were planning to see, so Bennett was excited when he recognized the Arc.
We ventured back down the Champs Elysées towards our cars, stopping to eat ice cream and crèpes along the way. We were probably quite a sight with our entourage of strollers, backpacks, and children running wild while weaving in and out of pedestrian traffic and the restaurants’ outdoor tables.
The kids had been promised Chicken Nuggets and a play place but the McDonald’s on the Champs Elysées was closed for renovations so we quickly searched and found one out near our hotel (near CDG). After a semi-terrifying spin around the Arc de Triomphe roundabout we were on the Motorway to McD’s. Despite the play place being tiny, we still had to pry the kids away from it when we were ready to leave. After several laps around Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport searching for our hotel, then trying to figure out how to get on the right level for its parking lot, we checked in, got the kids ready for bed, and left them with the saintly Oates, who offered to let us have a Paris date night.
Date Night in Paris
Tasha and Ben were probably laughing and thinking “suckers!” as we walked out the door. At least that’s what they would have said if they had known how our evening would go! We were gone for a total of five hours, 3 of which were in the car traveling to and from the city, another 30 mins was trying to get our car out of our parking spot, and 90 enjoyable mins walking around and eating our chipotle dinner. We can’t complain, because well…how often do you get date night in Paris? It didn’t turn out like we thought though. It’s kind of a long story (feel free to skip the next couple of paragraphs) but I want to remember the details so here goes…
When leaving the hotel a little before 8pm we asked the concierge whether it was faster to take the metro into the city or to drive, and he said driving was faster and cheaper, since the metro would cost us €10 each, each way. We headed out and got about halfway there distance wise, only to come to a complete stop on the freeway. Between the traffic on the freeway (due to an accident) and multiple wrong turns due to the GPS not being very clear (and not having an easy way to turn around), unsuccessfully trying to drive to Chipotle to pick up dinner, and searching for parking it took us about 2:15 hours to get to the Eiffel Tower. It was supposed to take 35 minutes. The address we had for a parking garage led us to a dead end street, but in our moment of desperation ready to give up on the night, our luck changed and we found one empty parking spot at the end of the narrow dead end street. Hurray!
By the time we got out of the car Nate was pretty mad so he made us stop and cool off for a minute so we could pretend like we’d just arrived shortly after starting our evening. Then we walked off in search of dinner (10pm is way too late for prego Becky to have dinner!) we decided to give Chipotle another try and made the leisurely stroll 1.5km down the river. We walked along the river and crossed our fingers that the website saying they were open until 11pm was correct, grabbed our burritos, and ate them along the river on a bench near the Eiffel Tower. We enjoyed our peaceful and romantic meal surrounded by hundreds of our closest rodent friends scurrying back and forth between the nearby rose bushes and and garbage cans. We then enjoyed hanging out at the Eiffel Tower and just being in Paris.
We headed back to the car around 11:30pm and our luck changed back. We had parked at the end of a dead end street where cars were parked on each side and there was just enough space between for one lane. Unfortunately, while we were gone, two delivery trucks came and parked in the lane between the parked cars with only inches to spare on either side, leaving us with no way out. Nate laid on the horn for a while (did I mention it was 11:30pm) hoping the drivers would come back, with no luck. I was mentally trying to figure out how we could ride the train to the hotel, then try to get back into the city in the morning to get the car. A group of about 8 people who had their cars blocked in on the other side came and looked at our situation after Nate honked the horn and said they thought we could still get out. I was skeptical. Between trees, posts, and other cars, there was no way to make that angle. But they were persistent. They convinced Nate to try it and about 25 minutes and 45 turns later, with 8 people directing Nate in French every inch of the way and me almost hyperventilating on the side, we were on the sidewalk instead of being stuck on the street. Just then, the police showed up to try to track down the delivery trucks’ owners. Fortunately they looked at where we had just come from and let us go without saying anything. We drove down the sidewalk for 100yards or so and then back onto the street and on our way back to the hotel. After a second crazy trip around L’Arc de Triomphe that day we were on our way straight into another traffic jam on the motorway. An hour later around 1am we rolled into the hotel. We woke up the Oates so they knew we were back and stumbled into bed.
The visit to the Eiffel tower on Sunday was much more enjoyable. We started the day at Notre Dame where we enjoyed walking through the Cathedral during Mass until I had to run out with a screaming Eliza. We then ventured around to the gardens in the back, where the kids played on the 2 pieces of playground equipment and watched the filming of a movie on the bridge. Tasha and I took the girls across the Seine to walk along the quay and look at the little booths set up with random souvenirs, old books, and old posters. Tasha picked out a watercolor painting, convinced the seller to give us a discount on two, and I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to decide which one to pick. I’m really horrible at quick decisions.
Although I love the big tourist attractions in Paris, I also love just walking around the streets and seeing the little details in the doorways, the métro stops, and the architecture. Being there with the kids made it a little more difficult to enjoy the little details, but I still tried to appreciate the little pieces of Paris we saw along the way.
Our last stop before heading back to Luxembourg, and the part the kids were most excited about, was of course the Eiffel Tower. We had seen it a couple times as we drove around town, and they were really excited when we rounded a corner and it came into view. We walked under the Eiffel Tower, then searched for the playground we had heard about. The kids played while Ben and Nate once again went off in search of food while the kids tried to avoid being attacked by a wild child at the playground. After finishing off our pizzas, we found a good spot to make all our picture-taking dreams come true and forced the kids to put on fake smiles (or not) for a while.
We had planned to take a “pregnancy announcement” picture in front of the Eiffel Tower, but we still hadn’t told the kids. Ben already had our camera, so he took a few pictures of us telling Bennett and Ryan. Bennett immediately reached for my stomach and asked if he could feel the baby move.
We attempted to get a picture of all of us jumping. The timing with 3 kids is tricky, but the results were at least entertaining!
We made our way through the crazy Paris streets and back to Luxembourg. It was a quick weekend, but so fun to introduce the kids to Paris and they all did great on the trip. Now I can’t wait to go back!
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