Paris with Kids: Celebrate and Fix

The kids playing at EuroDisney. We were just hanging around, waiting for Matt and Brian to be done with Space Mountain and yet they had so much fun doing nothing.

Looking adoringly at one another on our lunch cruise on the Seine.  It still gets me that despite the age gap between them, they have such a special bond.

Looking so grown up now!  Lil has always been an old soul but you can really see it in this photo.

Chasing bubbles!  Boy does he love bubbles.  I think we spent half the trip blowing bubbles and the other half talking about bubbles.

Jason at his spot by the window, watching trains pull into the St. Lazare station.  They came about every 2 minutes and he still got excited every single time.

Lil at Charles de Gaulle airport on our way home.  She was so happy to have been to Europe and genuinely appreciative of the effort I put into it all and the cost involved, which I thought was so sweet.  Despite the crazy vacations her friends were going on (Fiji!?) she seemed to understand how special it was to do this together as a family at her age.

Above are my favorite pics from our Parisian getaway.  Funnily enough, they could all have been taken anywhere; I love them for how happy and peaceful the kids look rather than a specific tie to Paris.

I guess that kind of ties into the point of this post- is it really worth it to take 1 young and 1 young-ish kid to Paris?  I had a few friends tell me I was nuts to attempt it, and even more nuts to pass up my parents offer to watch Jason for the week.  They were sort of right.

On review, Jason was a total handful and made the vacation much less relaxing than it would have otherwise been.  At the same time, he adds so much joy to the mix that I can't really say that I regret bringing him.  

Still, on the whole, I think he was too young for this one and we would have been better waiting a few more years.  I don't think we'll do another European vacation for a while and there's a big part of me that wishes we'd just done a week in Hawaii instead.
 
Still, we did have a lot of fun and it was really cool to see Lily's horizons broaden before our eyes.  On our walk through the Left Bank we passed several universities and she wondered aloud if she might come to college in Paris some day.  She really enjoyed learning about French history and also seemed to understand the value of experiencing a different culture and getting out of your comfort zone by trying to speak another language.

I know some friends are contemplating a similar European vacation with kids so I thought I'd break out what we did well and what we'd take a do-over on.  Back in my corporate days, we call this a "celebrate and fix" session.  ;)

Celebrate:

1. Airbnb. Prior to this, my only experience with renting a house was a disasterous Costa Rican adventure where the house bore no resemblance to the photos posted online.  Luckily the apartment and our host were great.  Having 3 bedrooms, a full kitchen, and washer & dryer was so key since we were traveling with the kids and my brother.  Oh, and our host had a crib, which was so convenient!  The apartment was also spotless, which was so nice since Jason is still touching the floor and getting into everything.
2. Packing Light.  Since we had a washer and dryer, we were able to pack really light (2 suitcases for all 4 of us), which made getting to and from the airports a breeze.  We bought diapers and baby food in Paris which saved a ton of suitcase room.
3. Meals at Home. We saved a ton of money and temper tantrums by having breakfast and almost every dinner at the apartment.  We made lunch, when Jason was relatively chill and able to sit, our big meal of the day, which felt really indulgent and most of our dinners were light things picked up from the market across the street.
4. Private Tour of Versailles.  When we got to the chateau, the line alone made me grateful we splurged on a private tour.  It was by far the most expensive thing we did but the door-to-door logistics were so easy. Jason was really difficult that day and I was sick, so having everything taken care of was great.  Lily also really talked with our tour guide and learned so much since it wasn't a lecture format like a group tour.
5. Taking it Easy.  Due to Jason and my pregnancy, I substantially edited our itinerary.  This meant that after a week in Paris there was still a lot that we didn't see.  But it also meant that I didn't feel completely burned out and the kids had lots of down time at the apartment.  This was especially nice because my brother hadn't seen them in a year.  Jason was pretty clingy to me when we were out and about but in the apartment, he gave Uncle Brian lots of attention and love.  Also, Brian had ample time to teach Lily how to play Mariokart.
6. Flying Business Class.  Yes, it was way more expensive than Coach, but it was sooooo worth it.  Lily was a dream and was able to sleep plenty.  Jason was a nightmare but at least he had more room to wriggle around and yell in our faces!  This also came in handy when we were delayed 3 hours on our return flight.  What could have been tantrum city was actually quite pleasant because we had use of the premier lounge.
7. Amazon Fire Stick.  This one was all Brian.  I didn't really think about it ahead of time but without it we wouldn't have been able to watch movies every night.  Also, Jason could still get his Sesame Street fix every morning, which helped keep him in check.
8. Stroller Situation.  After much debate, we decided to bring only our Uppababy Vista chassis and the Uppababy Mesa car seat.  This made carting Jason around really easy.  We were able to take Uber everywhere since we had the car seat and then we could just fold the chassis into the trunk and go.  It was also nice to have the full size chassis because we could use the basket underneath for our jackets and the diaper bag, which wouldn't have fit in the travel stroller.

Fix:

1. Airbnb.  Even though it was great from a functional standpoint, I found that I just didn't feel like I was on vacation because I wasn't in a hotel.  Hotel service screams vacation, whereas in the apartment we still had all the same responsibilities we have at home re: laundry, dishes, cleaning up after ourselves, etc.  Running the dishwasher isn't a huge deal but it definitely snapped me out of vacation mode but quick.  I think I'm just a hotel person at heart.
   
2. Not Bringing the Travel High Chair.  I debated this in the days before the trip and ultimately made the wrong call not to bring it.  I figured it would be OK to have Jason in my lap for meals at home since surely restaurants would have high chairs.  Nope, they did not.  Not sure if it's a Europe thing or just a Paris thing but the only place that had a high chair was EuroDisney.  This meant that every meal I had Jason on my lap, grabbing stuff off the table, knocking over water glasses, trying to feed me and getting food all over me, mashing food into my hair, etc.  He was suffering from some major mamismo and wouldn't sit with Matt or Brian.  A few times it was so bad that Matt or Brian had to take him out of the restaurant just so I could eat my meal.  He also didn't really eat well at home because he could not stay still in my lap.  I should have brought the booster seat that clips onto a regular chair after all.
3. Timing of the Trip.  I picked April because I thought it would be less crowded and less expensive than summer time.  Both of these things were true.  It was also true that we got pretty nasty weather for the first 4 days of the trip.  I knew this time of year was tricky and we were rolling the dice on whether we'd get rain and cold or sunshine and warmth.  We ended up getting mostly the former and walking around was pretty miserable.  I would recommend waiting and going in May or the summer.  All that said, it's possible I'm just spoiled by living in LA.  As my Dad said afterward, we're in the unique position where almost everywhere we could go is going to have worse weather than where we live.  More than one server in Paris noted the same thing when we would tell them we're from LA!
4. Not Buying Jason his Own Airplane Seat.  Because Jason is under 2 and money doesn't grow on trees, we didn't get him his own seat.  I naively figured this would be fine.  He's kind of a cuddle bunny anyway; won't he love being snuggled up with me for 11 1/2 hours?  No, he did not love it.  On the way to Paris he could not fall asleep on me or in the bassinet provided by Air France.   He. Just. Screamed.  The only time he fell asleep was sprawled out on his tummy in my seat, which left me without a seat.  The second I squeezed next to him, he woke up and started screaming again.  I think he would have gone to sleep with almost no problem if he'd had his own seat.  So even though it would have added thousands of dollars to the cost of our vacation, I wish we'd just bought him his own seat.
5. Underestimating Jet Lag.  There's not much to be done about this one but I really didn't appreciate how jet-lagged Jason would be.  For almost the entire trip he woke up screaming in the middle of the night.  He was so confused and wanted to eat at the wrong times and sleep at the wrong times.  It was hellish for Matt, Lily, and I.  I'm not sure why I didn't see this coming?  I guess it's because I read a few blogs where the families travel quite a bit and they never mention jet lag as a thing.  So weird...