Our trip was planned the minute my wife found out she was pregnant. She wanted to go somewhere in Europe before the baby was born … so I found some C award availability on United for London and Paris in late August 2006. As research for our trip, the book we used was “Take the Kids to Paris and Disneyland” by Cadogan Guides.
We flew IAD-LHR overnight on a UA 777 in C and had a wonderful flight. My son Sam watched Ice Age 2, had dinner, and passed out. My wife was thrilled with the large seat and constant food that was brought to her.
We landed at LHR and had a three hour layover before our BMI flight to CDG. Arriving in CDG, we took at taxi to our hotel (a bargain at 25 euros). We stayed for four nights (award stay) at the Hilton Arc de Triumphe. The hotel was amazing. See here for my post on the hotel:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...4&postcount=84
Paris was interesting this time around – mostly because we had to move so, so slowly with my wife. She did an amazing job, though, considering. We took the Metro a lot and in the end, did just about everything we’d hoped to do. The following is a list of things we did in Paris – all of which were quite suitable for my 4-year-old.
Paris Day 1:
Eiffel Tower – Of COURSE we did the Eiffel tower! The lines were long, so I let them run around (well, my wife sat on a bench and my son ran around, of course) while I waited on line (took about 35 minutes). We then went up to Level 2 and walked around. We waited 30 minutes more to get up to Level 3, which my son loved. Overall, the waiting was tough for them, but everyone agreed was worth it.
Champ de Pars – We walked from the Eiffel Tower through here in the hopes of finding the playground I’d heard about. We found it and took some great shots of him playing with the ET behind him (With the ET to your back, it’s on the left hand side).
Musee Rodin – For lunch, we popped into the gardens around the Musee Rodin. Women with pushcarts (strollers) get in for free, but I had a pay a Euro. Well, worth it! They had a nice café and some hidden sandboxes and lounge chairs in the back of the garden.
Jardin des Tuileries – We took the Metro over to here and saw they had a huge carnival set up, which my son absolutely loved. We also sailed some boats (rented for 2 euros) in the pond, then checked out the Louvre area (but didn’t go in).
Paris Day 2:
Notre Dame – We expected my son to hate this place, but he really found it interesting! Plus, he loved the gargoyles. We stopped off at Le Flore-en-I’Ile, a short work away on Ile St Louis, for a snack – and had amazing hot chocolate! They bring you a pot of steaming, frothy milk and another of melted chocolate. You mix and add sugar as you like. The omelets and crepes were good, too.
Latin Quarter – My wife really liked this area a lot. There’s a ton of great spots to eat on Rue Xavier Privas – watch as owners try and lure you into their restaurants – one even offered a free meal for my pregnant wife. We walked down to Jardin du Luxembourg. It was an amazingly beautiful park. There was an immaculate playground there – but you had to pay 2.50 Euro per person to get in!! Still, my son loved it, so we stayed. We Metroed over to the Jardin des Plantes, but no one wanted to go to the zoo there, so we ended on a nice carousel before calling it a day.
Paris Day 3/4:
Marais – We toured around this interesting area, having lunch at one of the Kosher restaurants on Rue des Rosiers (great falafel). We spend a lot of the afternoon lounging in the Place des Vosges – it had a nice playground and was very calming.
Sacre Cour – We Metroed over to Montmartre and took the funicular up to the church (you can use a Metro ticket to use it, so buy it in advance). My son was okay with it, but didn’t want to stay long. We walked down, hit another carousel and small playground at the bottom, the Metroed home.
Park de Monceau – This small park was right next to the hotel – and seemed to be the place where rich kids went to play. They had a very nice playground for big and little kids along with a few rides and trees to climb.
Dinner – Pomze – We only ate out one fancy meal in Paris (like I said, we were so exhausted at the end of the day that we ended up snacking in the lounge, then going to sleep. But Pomze was amazing. Here’s their Web site -
http://www.pomze.com. It was right near the hotel and had an apple theme to it – everything had apples in it. I even had a flight of hard cider to go with my meal. We were both very happy there, and my son even found something he liked to eat.
Arc de Triumphe – On our last night in Paris we took an afternoon nap and then stayed up late to see the Arc at night. It did not disappoint! Something to know – there’s an unadvertised elevator that takes you up to the top instead of the stairs. The only evidence it is there is the small handicapped sign out front, though anyone is allowed to use it. Naturally, my wife wasn’t walking up any stairs. At night, we learned that the Eiffel Tower sparkles once every hour, on the hour … and at 10 PM, our son was blown away by the spectacle! It was a great way to end the trip.
Our next stop was London, and we'd decided the best way to get there from Paris would be by the Eurostar. I d bought tickets in advance online – decided to go for an upgrade to Leisure Select. These seats are bigger and you get a meal on the trip. A quick cab ride to the station (8 Euros) and we checked in upstairs. Security and customs for two countries took less than 10 minutes and we boarded the train.
The ride itself was great. We had a great meal (some salad, pasta, bread pudding, fresh rolls, and a small bottle of wine) and made it to London in about 3 hours. Check out the London forum if you want to know how that part of the trip went.
Overall, w survived our trip with pregnant wife and preschooler. I thought it would be difficult, but we paced ourselves, moved slowly, took breaks often, and generally tried not to do too much in one day. Feel free to PM me if you need information on any of the places we visited.