Highlights of our Family Christmas in Paris 2013

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

Here I sit under the English Channel on the Eurostar thinking of the wonderful five days we have spent in Paris. Wonderful is the appropriate word for it too, everywhere we turned we would oohhh and ahhhh like children watching fireworks. Paris is the perfect introduction to Europe for adults and children alike. No matter how much or how little you plan to do, simply being in Paris is an experience.

The weather was perfect, between 7 and 10 degrees during the day, and lots of sunshine and terrific places to visit during  the few times it rained. Rather than provide a day by day trip report I will share with you the highlights of our family trip to Paris. 

What to do on a family trip to Paris at Christmas

Find a Fantastic Apartment

Staying in a hotel with kids is so limiting especially when traveling on a budget. On the other hand an apartment provides a place not only to sleep but also to cook a meal or two and let the kids have some quiet time. You can't put a price on the benefit of having enough room to spread their things out and play while you put your tired feet up and take a break from your busy day. More often than not we got home later than we intended to but at least the kids had a chance to get up earlier than us in the morning to play and there was always a "show" for us to watch while after diner.

 

We found a perfect loft apartment, delightfully dingy and atmospheric, in fact Victor Hugo lived in this building in 1821. If he was a tall man I do hope he had a different apartment as Rob managed to bump his head on the exposed beams and door frames at least three times a day as these were about shoulder height for him. The three flights of ancient stairs with 80kg of luggage were not the best of fun but in return we had an unbeatable location just steps from Blvd Saint-Germain, a short walk from the Luxembourg Gardens, Notre Dame or Place de la Concorde and easy access to public transport for everywhere else.

Apartment in Rue Du Dragon

Christmas Lights

The Christmas lights and displays were out of this world. The Avenue des Champs Elysées was the highlight so to speak, with 200 trees decked out in lights. One special day we visited a close friend and her family who live in Paris who we haven't seen for many years and the drive home from her place in the evening was around the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs Elysées. The bumper to bumper traffic, far from being a cause for frustration, was brilliant as we were able to see the lights stretching the length of the street all the way down to the huge ferris wheel in Place de la Carousel.

On Christmas Day our strategy was to ignore the lack of sleep and get into Paris time straight away so we did a lot in one day including a visit to the department stores alone Blvd Haussmann, including Galeries Lafayette and Au Printemps. It was about half past five and very dark when we joined the throngs of people enjoying the elaborate window displays along the street but the kids managed to wriggle their way down to the front for a better view.

Christmas Markets

Throughout Paris the streets are dotted with Christmas Market and ice skating rinks. Sadly Emma is under doctor’s orders not to skate as she has only had the plaster off her broken arm for a couple of weeks but watching the skaters was still fun . While there was quite a lot of mass produced rubbish there was also some lovely hand crafted leather, felt and wooden items as well as warm hats and scarves, vin chaud, hot nuts, farm direct sausages and cheeses as well as lollies to tempt the kids.

The stalls are designed to look like alpine huts and at the edges of a few of these market areas we saw people milling around games of chance on the footpaths.

Carousels

An absolute hit with the kids were the free carousel rides provided by the City of Paris. In squares across Paris including St Sulpice, Montmartre, Pl De La Concorde and the Trocadero, these vintage roundabouts or merry go rounds delight the young and the young at heart.

 

There was never a queue and kids enjoyed having many turns on the lovely painted horses or spinning carriages together with children from around the world.

La Grande Roue

 

The enormous ferris wheel in Place De La Concorde, standing 60 metres high, was a perfect end to a day of sightseeing. We visited in the early evening, around 5pm in the pitch dark, and while the queue was long it moved quite fast, and our ride was correspondingly quite short. But it was memorable in any case. The kids were very excited and this contrasted nicely with the young couple we shared the ride with, as the young man was terrified and we had to keep the kids exuberance in check, at least until he peeled his hands from his eyes. 

Cirque d'Hiver Bouglione

As we were spending Christmas so far from home this posed a real problem for our relatives when choosing gifts for the kids this year. My dad and step-mum wanted to give the kids something to unwrap and be excited about so they bought tickets to "Phenomenal" a circus performed at the worlds oldest circus, Cirque d'Hiver and they were able to put the tickets in a Christmas card which the kids opened while we were with them so they got to see the excitement to brought.

The show was incredible, with tigers (who were obviously adored by their keeper), horses and ponies, acrobats, clowns and trapeze artists with a live orchestra providing all the terrific music for the performances. The circus went for a couple of hours but we all loved it and could go back again tomorrow we enjoyed it so much.

Not a word of English was spoken, nor was it necessary as children yelling "he's behind you" to the clowns is just as hilarious in French, English or any other language. The crowd appeared to be French people in the main, we didn't hear any other languages spoken, and the usher was very excited when she heard us speak English, in fact she must have thought we were American as she asked us for a tip. As we do not tip in Australia I had no idea how much to give her so passed the buck, "please speak to my husband he has the money", not carrying a purse in Paris certainly came in handy.

 

The enthusiasm of the crowd was infectious and this high level of excitement was maintained throughout the show.

Not only were the performances amazing but so too was the venue, which looked like a circus tent or a mini coliseum, but was actually a beautiful building used as a venue for circuses since opened by Napoleon III in 1861.

 

Musee du Louvre

The potential for disaster when visiting the Louvre with young children is something that should not be taken lightly but we discovered it was also an experience not to be missed. I am really glad I have been before otherwise I would be disappointed with our visit but it ended up being a great afternoon after all.

This visit started well, having hired a stroller to save Rob having to carry Julian all across Paris, we were able to skip the very long line, being immediately ushered to the front to use a lift entrance for those with mobility issues. What a bonus as we would have given up rather than queuing for an hour.

 Mayhem in the Louvre

After such an auspicious start things went rapidly downhill after we decided to join the throngs of people on a mission to visit the Mona Lisa. It was appalling to see, there were literally thousands of people pushing and shoving and ignoring the incredible works of art around them to get a photo of Mona or more accurately a picture of themselves with the famous lady. While we did manage a good look Emma had the right idea and photographed one of the signs instead and now has a much better picture than can be taken of the original through the glass.

The big mistake was that Julian was now completely overwhelmed by the experience and wanted to go home. It took some time to calm him but a quick detour into the Egyptian rooms turned things around, it appeared he just wanted his mummy and they had a few on hand.

Self portrait when Julian decide it was all to much

 

The highlight of the visit was the Napoleon III apartments, which were elegant and opulent and our little princess thought they were perfect and lived up to all her fairy tale expectations. She has decided she wants to be royal when she grows up, or even the maid in a palace, but after pointing out the size of the chandeliers to be polished she may be having second thoughts.

 

Wonderful Churches

Our plan for Christmas day included a service at Notre Dame de Paris however the queue put us off as did Julian's loud claims that he didn't want to go, so in the interest of not disturbing the other church goers we opted to listened to the bells from our vantage point in the square instead.

I am always amazed at how well the kids behave visiting churches. They love to light a candle and speak quietly and reverently, obviously appreciating the ambience of the place, quite the opposite of our experience in the Louvre.  

We did visit inside the church at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés which was stunning and almost empty while on another day we visited Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre which of course is very beautiful but packed to the rafters with tourists which mars the experience somewhat.

 

 

We were not allowed to photograph inside Sacré-Cœur but they did allow you to purchase postcards at the gift shop inside the church. While I can understand that this is a house of worship I was somewhat annoyed at this ban as the gift shop was noisy and crowded and much more disturbing than someone taking few photos.

Playground at Jardin du Luxembourg

Travelling with kids is such an amazing experience. I am learning that this form of slow travel allows you to properly appreciate a few things rather than rush through too many. Our plan is to ensure that everyday includes something they would consider "kids time" and we have found that kids time is equally as fun and often more relaxing than the traditional tourist itinerary.

 

We hit gold when choosing to spend the afternoon in the Luxembourg Gardens, home to one of the best playgrounds I have ever visited. There is an entry fee of $2.50 for children and $1.25 for adults, which we were happy to pay, not just for the fabulous play equipment, but also the piece of mind provided by the fencing around the playground and the fact that only adults with children can pay to enter.

 

Emma absolutely loved the flying fox and didn't mind waiting in long queues to ride it again and again. Julian had a harder time with recovering from the flight than the rest of us. On Boxing Day, the day of this trip to the park, he was suffering pretty badly with nausea but amazingly enough from the moment we arrived until closing time he had a new lease on life and he wanted to try absolutely everything so we headed off together while Rob watched Emma and helped the kids with the sometimes tricky chains on the flying fox.

When the attendant announced that it was closing time all of the kids went running for the gate, so obviously it was mostly regulars who knew the routine. Our kids were sad to leave, they questioned why they were closing up at a quarter to four but as it got dark quickly on the walk home they realised that the days are very short on this side of the world and you have to make the most of your time.

 

  Food Glorious Food 

 

The food in Paris ranged from pretty awful kids menus to delicious feasts it will be hard to beat during our travels. Food is one of the great pleasures in life and if your looking for great food Paris is the place to come, you just need to ignore the kids menu, unless you are fond of feeding the kids chips with every meal. Its easy to find a great salad or omelette that they will love and we felt good about them having, seeing that cake and chocolate where featuring high on their menu each day.

 

 

We mostly ate breakfast at home but splurged one morning on petit déjeuner at cafe Angelina near the Tuileries Garden and this famous tearoom lived up to expectations with delicious pastries and organic sour dough bread rolls.

 



 

 

Angelina is famous for its hot chocolate and Emma did not need this excuse to order it and she found that it lived up to expectations. Served with lashings of whipped cream she could not have gotten through this very rich delight without Rob's help. We ordered two set petit déjeuner's to share between the four of us and I shared a lovely pot of  lime and peppermint tea with Julian and we also had two glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice. We all had more than enough and what looked like an expensive breakfast ended up being quite affordable ordered this way.

After our trip to Angelina's we spent the day with our good friend we have not seen for many years. When Kasia lived with us for a couple of months her cooking was much appreciated not only by us but also our friends. When Kasia invited us to have a Polish Christmas lunch with her and her husband and daughter a few days after Christmas we were very excited to see her again and also to sample her delicious cooking.

 

 

 

Kasia loaded her table with delicacies such as home made Polish sausage, pate, pickled fish and vegetables to pick on which was followed by dumplings I believe she called "pigs ears" which were similar to tortellini and served in a delicious beetroot broth. This was followed by stuffed cabbage rolls, the thought of which is making my mouth water. We finished with a selection of homemade cakes worthy of any patisserie including cheese cake, poppy seed cake, chocolate gateaux and even a chilli cake.

 

After all this delicious food we needed a walk to the park before we came back and finished off the leftovers for dinner. Kasia and Peter are considering many options for the future but as both of them are such incredible cooks I suggest that they do not let these talents go to waste.

While it will take some time to find a meal to compare with this one we did enjoy the food in Paris during the rest of our trip. We had one special lunch at a restaurant near Monmartre, a place called Au Clair De La Lune, where Rob sampled snails and duck while I stuck with a more conservative Soup de poisson (a delicious fish soup) and salmon and the kids loved the glaces for dessert (icecreams and sorbets) and my nougat glace with raspberry coulis was really tasty.

We could not of course visit Paris without sampling the crepes and we found a lovely place near the Louvre that served interesting crepes, such as my buckwheat crepe with apple, goats cheese and rosemary and Rob's jambon, cheese and herbs. Emma of course ordered a chocolate and banana crepe and we were very glad that she needed help to finish it off.

Skip the metro and take a bus

While we took a couple of rides on the Metro, and enjoyed some great jazz courtesy of the roving buskers, we preferred the buses as we could see where we were going. As we did not plan to visit every site we could in five days this let us at least see the places we did not get to visit.

Goodbye to Paris for now

Paris was a wonder and a joy for us and this visit holds memories we will keep forever and we eagerly look forward to our return visit in the summer. There is still so much left for us to see and do and the top of our list will be a trip up the Tour Eiffel . The kids had both heard of the Eiffel Tower and were very excited every time they saw it. In the glorious weather the queues were long and when I went online to book the days forecast for sunshine were booked out and so we decided to leave the assent for our visit in July and will book in advance.

The real highlight was catching up with our friend and her husband and the kids keep telling me that meeting her daughter was the best part of our trip and we hope to see them again soon.

While Paris is special year round I feel that at Christmas time it is magical and I put a return Christmas visit high on our bucket list for one day down the track.

"Come fly with me, lets fly, lets fly away" - Frank Sinatra

I had not credited how difficult the goodbyes would be and it was a week filled with goodbyes.

We left Perth in total panic. The bags wouldn’t close so we needed to add an extra suitcase at the last minute and pretty much packed everything we owned into vacuum bags, which added a lot of extra space that we seemed then to fill with more and more stuff. Sadly our lovely Christmas Eve breakfast with the family ended up a mad dash as we had failed to expect the unexpected.

 

After our last tearful farewell at the airport we were on our way.

The nineteen hours of flights and four hours spent in airports went by in a blur of entertaining the children, eating dreadful food and catnaps. We were keen to adjust to the change in time zones quickly so encouraged the kids to stay awake on the flight from Perth to KL and I suggest that this is a good strategy. As Julian is too young for TV we sat separately from Emma and Rob, and played together until Julian could stay awake no longer and he woke up to find himself being carried off the plane.

From our experience the other tips I can offer about flying with kids to Europe from Australia would be pick a quiet flight, Christmas Eve was perfect as there were a few empty seats and then you should make friends with the flight attendants. My sister in law suggested this brilliant strategy to avoid the mad dash for spare seats once the “fasten your seatbelt” sign is turned off and am so grateful that she did.

It worked a charm on our second flight, from KL to Paris. Somehow we were only given three seats together so we asked if we could be moved if other seats were available. Better than this, before take-off the lovely hostie ushered us a row of four seats that were empty and when I suggested that perhaps Rob and Emma could sit there for take-off and Julian and I could stay in our three seats she was happy to oblige and suggested we stretch out to ensure other people do not try to take out extra seats. There were some very unhappy people once we had taken off wandering around looking for an empty spot and they had all been taken.

Once we endured our dreadful turkey dinner at midnight, and I mean truly dreadful, Julian lay down across his two seats and slept soundly for eight hours and Emma stretched out across her three seats and slept for six. Meanwhile Rob and I sat up in our single seats and got little rest. I managed to watch two very good foreign films in between trying to sleep, which I could manage until the next person flushed the toilet.

By morning the kids were bright and cheerful and we were zombies but we were in Paris and this soon swept away the torment of the flight. Catching a taxi across a deserted Paris in the early dawn light, the sun was beginning to rise at 8am, was something out of apocalyptic movie. There were no cars and no people but famous sights appearing around us in the half light, La Madeleine, the Opera Garnier, the Place de la Concorde, Notre Dame in the distance and of course le Tour Eiffel, an instant and fast favourite with the kids.

And finally after a little more than twenty four hours since we had left Rob’s mum’s home for the airport we had arrived in our little attic apartment near St Germain in Paris. Time to rest, but of course not, it was Christmas morning and Paris was calling to us.

Paris at Christmas time was a dream come true and I will share it with you soon.

Preparing to cast off and reflecting on our safe harbour

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

With eight sleeps to go until we leave I am becoming increasingly nervous, mostly questioning that everything will be ready in time for us to leave. It seems completely unreal that we are about to "throw off the bowlines" and sail away from our safe harbour.

As a family we have been discussing the idea that we are not going in search of better places but rather we are going to explore a small part of the world in search of new experiences. So I asked Rob and the kids to consider what they most enjoy and will really miss about living in Perth, as this will help to remind us about how terrific our home really is. And so here is our top 10, in no particular order:

The ten things we will miss most about living in Perth

Springtime in the Swan Valley. 

1. The pleasure of bumping into people everyday who know you well, are as pleased to see you as you are to see them and having a chat together. The kids said their friends would be the number 1 thing they would miss the most.

2. Cooking for our friends and enjoying long afternoon get togethers with good food and great company. This is something we have really neglected in past few years but we had a housewarming, Christmas and farewell party, all wrapped into one, last weekend and had a fabulous afternoon with forty eight special people.

3. Our beautiful school, set in bushland, where I will miss the sense of community as well as the delicious food and sitting with a cuppa and a good friend watching the bandicoots in the garden while the kids are in class. Julian will miss his Kindy friends and, he insists on me telling you, he will also miss the ball swing, castle and slide in the Kindy playground. Emma says that she will miss her friend Hunter in particular, her teacher Susan, craft lessons but definitely not German.

4. Springtime in Perth is the best time of year, it's not so dreadfully hot as it gets in summer, and there is always somewhere beautiful to go like the Spring festival in Kings Park. Over the past few days temperatures have reached 40 degrees and I wont miss that at all.

5.Spending time down by the Swan River, paddling our feet, watching Swans and Dolphins as well as the water skiers and other people messing about in boats on the river. I definitely prefer the river over the beach.

6. Spending time on boats, whether it crabbing or pulling the kids along on an inflatable behind our little boat, that hasn't touched the water in years , or spending the day moored off Garden Island on a boat belonging to our great mates, cooking a BBQ on the back while the kids mess around in the water.

7. There are so many terrific festivals to visit throughout the year but as Fremantle locals who wouldn't live anywhere else in Perth we agree that the George St Festival, the Fremantle Street Arts Festival and Fairbridge World Music Festival are the best of the best.

8. We all love days out in the Swan Valley, visiting the Chocolate Factory, a brewery for lunch, a trip on the train in Whiteman Park or maybe a visit to Caversham Wildlife Park. While the Swan Valley may not have as much to offer as "down south" it is certainly much closer than Margaret River.

9. Rob would like to add fishing and playing golf but as he has not had he opportunity to do either in many a year it is probably better to say that these are things he looks forward to doing while we are away and will also make a point of making time for when we get back.

10. Our own backyard. It amazes me that I have chosen a part of our home as one of the things I will miss, as I am so sick of the seemingly endless work this place represents. But a lovely neighbour has been encouraging me to look around and think about what is special about this place so that our homecoming will be as exciting as the adventure itself. And so I have chosen our backyard, which is filled with beautiful birds, who have adopted us as their family, filled with trees that provide a shady haven on a hot day and fruit, nuts and vegies to delight the kids. It truly is beautiful and I will miss it.

Baby magpie in our pecan tree.

 

So what about you, what do you love most about Perth or where ever you live?  I can't wait to hear all of your comments about your favourite things, because I'm am sure we have missed quite a few and I'll love to look back while we are away and be reminded of home.

“Of all the thirty-six alternatives, running away is best” ......Chinese Proverbs

Did you ever have one of those days where you felt like running away, just packing a few things and going?

Well, without a doubt I have.

In 2010 Rob and I found a lovely old 1926 house advertised as "needs a lot of loving" and we had no idea just how much loving she needed. Nor how much of the next three and a half years of our lives would be tied up in getting her back into shape.

We are really proud of ourselves that we have taken this,

 and turned her into this.

Without seeing the changes that have taken place behind that door, unless you were with us for the whole process, the blood (mostly Rob's), sweat and a lot of tears, these pictures don't do justice to just what an effort it has been.

But what was all this effort in aid of?

Apart from bringing a lovely old family home back to life it is also our plan to run her as a bed and breakfast in the future. But we just need a break first and some distance so we can come back refreshed and really appreciate how beautiful she is and open our door to the public

It's been a slow process, especially while Rob was working full time, but since July, when he left his family business to take a new direction, it's been full steam ahead. Having a deadline to work to has also definitely spurred us along to get everything done in time.

And why the deadline?

It's definitely time to run away, to take life at a slower pace, to live simply, to fully live each day, to see the seasons change on the other side of the world, to experience things beyond our own door step, to meet new people and see new places, to make now count and worry about tomorrow when it arrives.

With Rob's decision to leave the business we had the perfect opportunity to take a career break, take time out to really be with the kids while they are of an age to still want to spend time with their parents but also without too much impact on their schooling. The past few years have not been so much fun for them, with most of our weekends taken up with the house.

And so we are heading off and the clock is ticking the hours away until we are whisked off to the other side of the world to start our grand adventure. The plan is Christmas in Paris then six months in Britain and two months travelling Europe before three or so months in Croatia. We have no return ticket so the world is our oyster, or we might just decide "there's no place like home".

So little time left and so much to do.

We have been planning the trip, on and off since March 2012 to bring it all together and I would say it has amounted to a full time job for me. Rob's idea was to buy the tickets and see what happens, but I have planning in my blood and I wouldn't have been able to rest until I learnt everything there is to know about cheap airfares, train tickets, enrolling in schools in the UK, home schooling and the biggest questions of all, where to go and how to get there? Hmmm this definitely doesn't match my goal of living in the moment but old habits are hard to break.

And so we invite you to take this journey with us across the world. We four may be heading off alone but we would love our family and friends to come along for the ride.