Oh hi. Yes, we did go to Paris several weeks ago and I am only just now getting around to posting about it. We had a terrific trip and I am still basking in the glow of what really couldn’t have been a more perfect vacation.
If you are looking for gorgeous photos of Paris sites, please refer to Elisabeth’s blog; she was in Paris right before we arrived, and in fact overlapped with us for one day, during which I got to meet her and her family in person!!!! (As with every blogger I’ve had the luck to meet in person or via zoom, she is both exactly like she is on her blog and also somehow more delightful and more beautiful offline.)
If you’re looking for some hot tips about what was good and what wasn’t good about our visit, you are in the right place. Below, I’ve lined up my landslides and letdowns.
Woot! Woot!s
My husband. Oh my goodness, my husband is a ROCKSTAR. He planned the entire trip, securing our plane, train, and Metro tickets; finding a hotel; researching when and how to obtain entry to the sites we wanted to see; planning day trips and booking travel to and from each city; creating an itinerary that hit all our must-sees without overloading us; securing tickets at the ideal times on the ideal days for each site; figuring out what to do about cell phone service while we were in Europe; and then getting us to each place in the most efficient and pleasant way possible each day. It was so much work and I did none of it. All I had to do during the planning stages was occasionally weigh in on things, suggest potential activities, and offer moral support. All I had to do during the trip itself was show up. It was fabulous. I don’t think I could ever have come up with such a well-planned vacation on my own. Oh also: his French is leaps and bounds ahead of mine, and at one restaurant, the server asked us where we were from. (I find this a difficult question to answer, by the way. I feel like we wear our Americanness like a glaring red-white-and-blue baseball jersey. I always want to respond with the name of our state, but my husband always simply says, “We’re from the United States.” That does seem to do the trick.) When he told this server we were from the States, she shook her head in disbelief and said, “But your French is so good! Your pronunciation is excellent.” Way to go, husband!
Carla. You guys, Carla was a superstar traveler. From the instant we left the house to the moment we returned to the States, she was excited, curious, eager, and game for anything. She loved all the museums we visited. She enthusiastically listened to a (quite long and somewhat boring) audio tour of Chateau de Fontainebleau. She put in 7 to 10 miles of walking, from about 7:00 am to 10:00 pm (on average), for eight consecutive days. She ate (some of the) food. She went into every church and cathedral I wanted to peek inside. We had occasional mother/daughter conflicts, but beyond that, she did not whine or complain at all and in fact seemed delighted by and interested in everything we saw. (With the possible exception of the churches. She was into them when we were inside, but when we expressed interest in yet another church, she voted against going in.) I want to go on all the trips with her. (She has suggested Australia as our next big vacation; my husband and I are less enthusiastic, simply because of the lengthy plane ride.)
AirFrance. We flew AirFrance to and from Paris, and it was a fabulous airline. My husband found a ridiculously good deal on premium economy seats, and I was all set for American-style premium economy, as in, economy seating with slightly more leg room. But no! AirFrance premium economy is just a step below Business Class! We got to hang out in the AirFrance lounge before our flight. We got priority access to the security line and priority boarding. We got pillows and blankets and cute little dopp kits each way, we got Champagne just after each takeoff. We had nice roomy seats that lay back. It was one of the best flying experiences I’ve ever had.
Our Louvre Tour Guide. We decided that we wanted a tour guide for the Louvre, because a) it’s so big and overwhelming, and b) we wanted to skip the line. My husband found a tour company online (don’t ask me how; he did a ton of research) who offered a three hour “Louvre highlights” tour with a maximum of six people. Our guide was so sweet and knowledgeable. He showed us a great mix of the heavy hitters (the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory, the Venus de Milo, and others) and less popular but still impressive paintings and sculptures. Then Carla wanted to explore more of the Egyptian wing, which we’d glimpsed at the beginning of the tour, and we found a few other things my husband and I were interested in seeing, and then we were done. We got to skip the long lines to get into the museum, we got to see a nice mix of artwork, and we didn’t get overwhelmed or lost. I would totally do a guided tour again.
Strasbourg. One of our day trips was to Strasbourg, and oh, what a charming city! We had uncharacteristically sunny warm weather, and had a wonderful time seeing the cathedral and exploring the city via a Rick Steves guided walk. We stopped for an outdoor lunch alongside a canal where I had the most delicious spaetzle with mushrooms paired with a crisp and summery local Riesling.
The Eiffel Tower. My husband and I were happy to take Carla to the Eiffel Tower, because it was her top priority for the trip. But he and I wouldn’t have gone without her. I wasn’t exactly dreading it, but I wasn’t looking forward to it either. (By the way, if you want to skip the big line without paying ridiculously overpriced fees for a “skip the line guide,” you have to get tickets exactly 60 days in advance, at midnight Paris time. I am very grateful to my husband for figuring this out and staying up to get the tickets!) Carla wanted to go all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and I’m not a huge fan of heights, and I already did the Eiffel Tower a million years ago with my high school French class. But oh was it ever worth it! I should have known by now that an experience completely transforms when I see it through Carla’s eyes. She was excited and quite nervous about the height and yet so determined to make it work. We had perfect weather, we had glorious views, and Carla loved it. The Eiffel Tower wowed again when we saw it from the top of the Arc de Triomphe at night. At dusk, the whole tower lights up, but then it also sparkles every hour on the hour for about five minutes. My husband took a video of the instant the sparkle started and he caught Carla’s face when she saw it and it was priceless. One of those moments I think I will remember forever. I hope she remembers it too.
Art!: I have had the immense privilege of visiting the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay, the Pompidou Centre, and many other art museums in Paris and around the world. This trip, we went to the Louvre and the Musee d’Orsay and I kind of expected the experience to feel a little “same old, same old.” But it wasn’t. I found the museums so moving. Some of the art we saw was three thousand years old! Can you imagine? That people so separate from us in time and manner and lifestyle felt the same drive to create? That other people saw these creations and deemed them valuable enough to save, over millennia? That still other people erected buildings for the sole purpose of housing these works? That millions of people flock to monuments to art to see these ancient and modern creations to this day? It feels so precious and human, this desire to create, to translate experience and emotion into marble or paint so that someone else might know it too.
Our Hotel. We picked our hotel purely because it had a separate but connected room for Carla. The rooms were massive for Paris, giving us plenty of privacy. We each had a mini fridge that the staff refilled with complementary waters and sodas and juice each day. The beds were comfy, the rooms were pretty quiet. The showers had very decent water pressure, and very minimal temperature issues. The staff were friendly and helpful and the hotel and surrounding neighborhood felt safe. We were within easy walking distance of several Metro stops. The main floor of the hotel doubled as a breakfast restaurant, and we were able to use the tables and microwave in the restaurant space on the evenings we didn’t make it out to dinner. It wasn’t fancy and it wasn’t right in the middle of all the Paris action, but it was comfortable and spacious and suited our needs perfectly.
Paris Fashion. While I was arrayed in stereotypical American Middle Aged Mom Wear, I got to admire all the extremely fashionable Parisiennes strolling around the city. The in-style, insofar as I can tell, is something along the lines of wide-legged jeans paired with an ankle-skimming black trench coat. The coats have belts, but are rarely worn belted. I did not see a specific single type of footwear – there was everything from heels to boots to sneakers. I do think the sneakers were mainly white; I didn’t see a lot of bright colors. Hairstyles, as in the US, seem to veer toward the long and lightly wavy. Everyone was impossibly chic, which I suppose is de rigueur for Paris. I would have gladly sat at an outdoor café all day long, watching all the beautiful people live their lives.
Rick Steves. I would be remiss not to give a shoutout to good ol’ Ricky, who provided many restaurant recommendations, pinpointed bathroom opportunities, suggested multiple points of interest, and created interesting, detailed walks for us to follow.
Womp Womps
Bruxelles. None of us had ever been to Belgium before, and Brussels is within my range of acceptability for day trips (two hours), so we decided to go. I had no preconceptions, and I’m kind of glad because I fear it would have been a disappointment. On the pros side, our train trip was easy, we had good weather, and the city is beautiful. On the cons side, I have never been to a busier, more crowded place in all my life. There is an adorable main square in the old town and it was crammed with people. CRAMMED. Everywhere was jammed with tourists. Even though our surroundings were lovely, I felt overstimulated and panicky and overwhelmed. I felt like I couldn’t let go of Carla for an instant, or she would be swept away by a tide of tourists. Even when we left the old town to explore some of the area up-hill, there were still crowds and crowds of people. The touristy sites weren’t particularly noteworthy, either. I mean, the Grand Place was impressive, but the Manneken Pis was tiny and dressed in a firefighter costume, the Royal Quarter was under construction, Jeanneke Pis was tucked into the end of a narrow alley full of drunk college students, the Atomium was too far away for us to visit during our quick visit, and the local food was both stressful and disappointing. I’m glad I’ve been there, but I can’t say I enjoyed it very much at all. The best part was probably the random cat we met, hanging out and accepting pets outside a restaurant. I know it was a highlight for Carla. Not just of Brussels, but of the entire trip.
My Skin. The combination of traveling, eating a bunch of restaurant meals, and spending all day walking and sweating was not kind to my face. I had horrible breakouts pretty much every day.
eSIM. My husband and I decided that it made the most sense for him to pay the daily rate ($12, I think?) to maintain his regular phone service while we were in Europe. He had to be available in case of urgent work issues, plus he had all the details of the trip on his phone and he is hands down the better photographer. But we also decided that I would get an eSIM while we were away. It’s hard to remember why, now, because it turned out to be so useless. I think partly because we wanted to have a French phone number for Carla to keep on her person in case she got separated from us. In any event, it sucked. I had horrible service almost the entire time. It kept cutting in and out and even when it worked, websites took forever to load, if they ever did. We did use it twice, to make dinner reservations. (I called a French restaurant and made the reservation myself, in French!) But other than that, it was a waste of money.
WiFi. Our hotel supposedly had WiFi, but it was both patchy and horrible. By this I mean that it was nearly inoperable the entire time I was there – I could not connect to the internet pretty much at all. On the rare occasion when my phone would show a few bars of connectivity, and I would connect to a blog or my email or a news story, it would quickly cut out. Some i-messages worked, but not all; WhatsApp worked occasionally. I could not send photos via text. Between the eSIM and the WiFi, I was usually able to jot out a quick email to my parents about our day, but that was all. I lost my Wordle streak. Oh well. I didn’t really miss my phone, except I would have liked to keep up with everyone’s blogs better. I still feel very behind!
When I weigh the highs against the lows, the highs win by a landslide. It was a wonderful vacation and I feel so grateful that we were able to make it happen, and that everything went so smoothly. (Once again, a major shout out to my husband for ensuring that our experience was so effortless and fun!)
You may notice that I haven’t talked much about the food. Don’t worry (or, perhaps, do?): I am planning a whole post about the food wins and losses of the trip.
This is amazing! I love it. I read this in my bed when I woke up, and then spent the entire time while I brushed my teeth and put in my contacts pondering what it would be like to take an amazing trip where I hadn’t done ANY of the planning. Haha. That sounds…. incredible!!! Hats off to your husband! I think that I might struggle to relinquish control, though, lol. I mean, maybe if I knew my husband were actually an amazing trip planner, I would be okay. But I feel like, since my husband has NOT planned any of our trips thus far, and I also feel like he would be much more likely to just say, “well, let’s just show up and see what we do. I’m sure we’ll figure it out.” (HA.), I would constantly be questioning his itinerary. hehehe. Maybe if we went somewhere where I didn’t really know anything about anything and had zero fears of “missing out” on anything, it would be glorious. I am so impressed with Carla’s enthusiasm! How old is she again? I feel like my younger was just sort of at the not-quite-right phase of puberty explosion for our recent London trip. Like, when we were in Rome in 2022, so I guess 3 years ago now, he was 12 and delightful there. This recent trip he just was pretty moody and much less interested in certain things and had Attitude sometimes (specifically at the beginning of the trip- I think maybe jet lag also factored in?). But since we’ve been home, he’s been back to being really good-natured again! It seemed like the 1-2 months right before our trip he had some peaks of teenagery stuff starting (noticed a lot of moodiness etc starting from around the holidays) ….so maybe it was just ill-timed with something specific going on in his brain?! He definitely has been going through growth spurt and all of that right now. I don’t know! Teens. Sigh. Overall the boys did really well though and liked the trip a lot, but I also wouldn’t say they skipped cheerfully through every museum, either. LOL.
this sounds perfect!
Wow, what an amazing trip you had! We fly premium now because I just cannot with economy anymore. Hashtag princess. It’s the best! Also the best? My husband always does the trip planning. He loves it, I might even go so far as to say it’s his hobby. I simply bask in the travel and do my DuoLingo (I’m the language person in our pairing). I also enjoy Rick Steves and his audio tours. Everything looks delightful and I’m so glad Carla was such a game traveller. She’s going to remember this trip forever! Your photos are great! Bummer about Brussels though. I had no idea it would be busier than Paris!
I’m glad you had such a good trip. I felt the exact same thing you said about ancient people and art when I saw the photo of the sphinx (and before I read what you said).
Looking forward to reading more about your travels.
What a great vacation summary! I love hearing the things that went wrong along with the things that went well; if anything I enjoy the things that went wrong MORE, I think because they make the trip personal/distinctive.
Suzanne I nearly squealed when I saw this post come up in my feed. For obvious reasons I am anxious to relive my recent experiences in Paris (I seriously blushed at how sweetly you described me!).
What a fantastic trip!!! Isn’t it amazing to see these famous things through our kids eyes? It makes for a completely different experience. And taking a guided tour of the Louvre is officially on my list for the next time.
Being on the top of the Arc d. T when the Eiffel Tower turned on is one of my best memories from our trip as well. In general, I think the twinkling every hour is MAGIC. MAGIC. I also captured our daughter the second it turned on and her eyes were just full of delight.
We didn’t do any lengthy day trips – Disney and Auvers are both less than an hour away – and I have a short list of “must sees” for my next trip. We did debate going to Brussels but my husband has been a few times and was…not impressed.
That is amazing that you just had to “show up” and I bet he doesn’t stress about the plans like you or I would. My hubby seems so very go with the flow and “everything will work out” when we’re on a trip while I’m occasionally hyperventilating into a paper bag in the corner when something goes awry (I’m joking, but not by much).
I plan all our experiences, he books all the tickets and navigates public transit when we’re there. It’s a good mix of responsibilities.
I literally want to book tickets this second for our next trip. But I’m wondering if anything will ever top this trip to Paris?!
This sounds like a wonderful trip! I love your thoughts on the museums and the artists who created the work, etc. SO glad Carla was into it and loved it so much! That makes a huge difference.
The wifi thing does sound very frustrating- on the other hand, you were cut off from news from the US! Or, you were only able to get it from the french point of view, which must have been interesting. I’m impressed by you and your husband’s ability to speak passable french- I’m sure they appreciated that. Most Americans probably stumble through a few french phrases, poorly and embarrassingly (I know I did when I was there.)
I’m interested to hear what Carla found to eat!
What a wonderful trip and what great memories to make as a family! I’m so excited to hear about your food hits and misses and to find out what Carla’s faves were.
This looks like a perfect vacation, both where you went and that you didn’t have to plan it. I’m glad Carla was curious and took to travel like she did. I like your photos. Thanks for sharing them here.
Well, I loved every bit of this post and this trip. I look forward to the food post as well.
I love your recap! It’s timely because Kate is wanted to go to France next spring, since she has taken every French class offered in her high school. I haven’t been there since 1994 so I’m overwhelmed at the planning prospect!
Can’t wait for the food post! 🙂
I’m so glad you had a wonderful trip! And thank you so much for the postcard! It brightened my day to receive it! It would be so nice to just show up for a trip and have everything planned! That would NEVER happen in my marriage but that’s ok. We all have our strengths. You guys packed a lot into your time away and I am glad nearly everything was wonderful! Your list of woes is very very short which is great. I’m glad Carla was such a trooper! She’s got amazing stamina!
I loved reading your recap, but it’s possible I’m looking forward to reading the food post even more!
I enjoyed reading this post so much! How wonderful that your hubby is such a planner and all you had to do was show up and enjoy! The way you saw the Louvre sounds perfect to me, because it is so huge and overwhelming. Your Eiffel Tower experience sounds amazing too. It all sounds amazing. I’m looking forward to reading about all the food!
What I am loving about these Paris posts from you and Elisabeth is that now I don’t feel like I have to go – I feel like I’ve already seen it and done it!
Sounds like a wonderful trip! Would you mind sharing the name of the hotel in Paris?
I am ALWAYS here for talk of Paris! I LOVE IT so so much. Unlike Engie, these pictures just make me want to go back. I’ve been 3 times, and every time I go, my desire to go back increases. It’s crazy.
I’ve used Rick Steve’s guide books, but never any of his audio tours, but I keep hearing great things.
I would love to know the name of the hotel with the connecting room…that sounds like a great option for us if/when we get to go back.
I’ve never gone to the top of either the Arc nor Eiffel. I’ll bet the view is spectacular.
I’m curious about your trip to Brussels. When I was in Paris in 2022, we went to Montmarte twice, and it was crowded the first time, during the week, but bonkers crowded on the weekend.
Carla’s face at the Eiffel Tower…so wonderful. We went to a live performance of A Christmas Carol when my daughter was about 9 or 10, and we were late so it was already started when we entered the theater. My daughter’s face when she saw the stage, the lights, everything, was magical and I hope to never forget that.
Sounds like the perfect family vacation! Thanks for sharing it with us.
This post makes me fall in love with Paris all over again and want to go back. I too loved the food, the people watching, the museums and the ambiance. WiFi has sucked for me in other countries too; we must be spoiled by the speed and reliability of ours? It was particularly spotty in Senegal which I expected. 🙂 I’ve heard negatives about Bruxelles before which is disappointing. I’ve always wanted to visit, having had several wonderful Belgian exchange students. How did your husband learn such excellent French? Even mine is a bit rusty!
I love that the trip was so great and I love how you described everything, especially the museums. I used to be kind of stupid about tours for museums, like “I just want to walk around and look”, and when we were in Florence we had this amazing Italian woman as a tour guide and I will never not have a guide again, it adds so much. I also got a real lesson in thinking that it might not be such a big deal to see things up close that I had only seen online. The gallery with MIchelangelo’s David had a super long lineup and we were tired and hot and almost skipped it, and then somehow found a weird side door to go in and I had not reckoned with the sheer SCALE of the David. I was really glad I hadn’t missed it (even if we possibly did something slightly illegal?)
Amazing that Carla was such a rock star! My husband is a million times better at trip planning than I am, but my French is way better. 🙂
Oui oui! I am here for this recap, and I am already drooling over what I am imagining for the food post.
The least surprising thing in your recap is that Carla loved it and found something to eat. I had no doubts! I always fretted over whether the boys would like trips that I planned, and they always did.
I haven’t read the whole thing yet, only part of the paragraph about The Husband, but had to pause just to say YES! Planning a trip is such drudgery. My husband will whine, “Why can’t we take a nice trip to _____?!” I say, you plan it, I will go. But he never does. I plan all the trips.
Suzanne, I’m so happy that this trip was more Landslide than losses!
Your husband is awesome; he deserves a plaque or at least a few gold stars for planning this awesome trip. It’s not easy to do that, and do it well! Surely you enjoyed it more that you didn’t have the stress of figuring it all out ahead of time.
What a lovely experience you’ve given Carla; she will remember this trip for all time!
I love that you met up with Elisabeth—how fun it that?
Just like Nicole should write book reviews, you should totally write travel reviews. This was perfection. Am I ever going to Paris? Probably not. Was I hanging on every word? Absolutely. This was so much fun to read, Suzanne—I feel like I got to go to Paris for free today.
I also read someone else’s blog about Paris and they said the fashion vibe was “trench coats and New Balance sneakers,” so that’s pretty much the same takeaway. 😄
I cannot wait for your food review!!
I thought you went to Paris, and I wondered the other day if I’d missed a post – before I could check, this post appeared. I’m so glad you had such a great trip. It sounds amazing. Coach planned most of our trip too, and I’m really grateful. I did all the leg work on what our kids needed when we were going to be away, food (mostly food), laundry, groceries, lists, etc. This post reminded me of a few things I want to share about our trip. We so loved our guided tour of the Vatican museum. I wish we’d gotten a real live person to guide us through all the other touristy sites. Your flight sounds awesome. We used some Rick Steves podcasts too. Very helpful.
What a great recap! Ever since we went to Paris last spring I can’t take it out of my mind. That is why we are coming back, with a France trip before that, this coming summer. We went at the very end of march and I do remember camel coats, jeans and white sneakers everywhere. Even moms with strollers and mall kids were stylish (unheard of for me). I wonder if the rest of France as stylish as Paris… Probably not.
Yay! I am so glad you had such a lovely visit to Paris – like the womps were very minimal it seems! I still can’t believe your Paris trip aligned with Elisabeth’s! What are the odds?! So cool you guys got to meet up.
I am hoping to make it to Paris next year, depending on financials. When I was talking to a friend about a trip to Paris, she recommended the very same Louvre tour! That’s definitely how I would want to take it all in.
How amazing to see Paris through the wide eyes of Carla. What a cool experience!
What joy to be able to share new places with Carla! I can only imagine the look on her face when the Tour d’Eiffel started sparkling. <3
I would love to go back to Paris, but not until I check a few more places off my list. I’m leaning towards Ireland maybe next spring (after a work trip to Montreal in November).
Can’t wait for the food post!