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Paris with a pregnant wife and preschooler - Report

Paris with a pregnant wife and preschooler - Report

Old Sep 2, 2006, 6:09 pm
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Paris with a pregnant wife and preschooler - Report

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.
Uniter is offline  
Old Sep 2, 2006, 7:26 pm
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Sounds like you had a wonderful trip! We don't have children yet, but don't really want to give up traveling when we do. I really appreciate your family's positive experience. What a wonderful gift to your wife before your new child arrives and a great experience for your young son too!
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Old Sep 2, 2006, 7:28 pm
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What a fabulous trip!

My best ever day in Paris was on the Ille de Cite (sp?), in a little cafe where everyone has to walk by, drinking very slowly, reading a book, getting a wonderful sunburn.

We hope to take our (3) children soon!
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Old Sep 6, 2006, 7:12 am
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Thanks for the great report, it sure sounds like you'll had a lot of fun.

We just got back from France on Labor Day and we had a blast there too. Even though we did not get to visit places like Latin Quarter or Marais (probably walked there for a bit going into the metro station) My wife's a museum buff, so we did goto lots of them including Museum Orange, Rodin, Orsay, and Louvre. I noticed that you guys did not visit Versaille!
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Old Sep 6, 2006, 7:20 am
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Originally Posted by afang
Thanks for the great report, it sure sounds like you'll had a lot of fun.

We just got back from France on Labor Day and we had a blast there too. Even though we did not get to visit places like Latin Quarter or Marais (probably walked there for a bit going into the metro station) My wife's a museum buff, so we did goto lots of them including Museum Orange, Rodin, Orsay, and Louvre. I noticed that you guys did not visit Versaille!
Yeah, we talked about Versaille, but we only had 3-4 days in Paris and that would have used it one whole day. As it was, we didn't get to see any of the art museums! (Which, really, with a four-year-old, would have been very hard).

Since the weather was perfect, it was nice to just stroll around the city.

Oh, and here's a fun story from our trip... my son kept begging for a large-sized model of the Eiffel Tower ... but it cost about $20, so I kept telling him no. Finally, we're waiting for our Eurostar to London when my wife finds 10 Euros in her pocket (this is par for the course for my wife). I tell her that we're boarding in 5 minutes and she and my son have 4 minutes to go spend that money. Well, as you guessed, he comes walking back with a HUGE smile on his face holding his much-sought Eiffel Tower.
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Old Sep 9, 2006, 8:56 pm
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[QUOTE=Uniter]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.QUOTE]

I think that's the best bit of info I've found on here! My DH and I were very happy to read this. We have a marathon day to Paris planned during our London trip, so our legs will be happy with this news. Enjoyed your report and look fwd to reading the London portion. Thanks!
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Old Sep 9, 2006, 10:31 pm
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Versailles [the palace and gardens] won't really be worth visiting for, oh, another two or three years as it is undergoing a massive renovation and most of the palace and some of the gardens are inaccessible.
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Old Sep 17, 2006, 10:54 am
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[QUOTE=Fly2Games]
Originally Posted by Uniter
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.QUOTE]

I think that's the best bit of info I've found on here! My DH and I were very happy to read this. We have a marathon day to Paris planned during our London trip, so our legs will be happy with this news. Enjoyed your report and look fwd to reading the London portion. Thanks!

YMMV with this one! I was there with my mom, who is 60 and stairs are no longer very doable. The attendant was VERY rude and said that the elevator was for HANDICAPPED people ONLY - to my mom's face! Nice! Not exactly the warmest of welcomes from a tourist's perspective! This was the only bad experience in a week of great ones though! Oh, and she did use the elevator while I ran up the stairs!
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Old Sep 17, 2006, 4:25 pm
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Originally Posted by Altaflyer
YMMV with this one! I was there with my mom, who is 60 and stairs are no longer very doable. The attendant was VERY rude and said that the elevator was for HANDICAPPED people ONLY - to my mom's face! Nice! Not exactly the warmest of welcomes from a tourist's perspective! This was the only bad experience in a week of great ones though! Oh, and she did use the elevator while I ran up the stairs!
That is so odd! No one said a thing to us, just welcomed us aboard the elevator (me, my pregnant wife, and child). Sorry that happened to you!
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Old Sep 17, 2006, 4:51 pm
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Originally Posted by Uniter
That is so odd! No one said a thing to us, just welcomed us aboard the elevator (me, my pregnant wife, and child). Sorry that happened to you!
I suspect your wife being pregnant may have had something to do with your reception Anyways, maybe the attendant was having an off day - it did make me angry at the time since stairs were just NOT an option.
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Old Sep 17, 2006, 5:50 pm
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Originally Posted by Altaflyer
I suspect your wife being pregnant may have had something to do with your reception Anyways, maybe the attendant was having an off day - it did make me angry at the time since stairs were just NOT an option.
My wife reminded me that there were plenty of regular young folks taking the elevator when we did. I should say that we went up after hours ... around 9:30 pm. It may be that they're more stringent during peak times.

Let me also add that I'd HIGHLY recommend going at night! The view of Paris after dark was spectacular .. and watching the Eifel sparkle on the hour was a nice surprise.
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Old Sep 17, 2006, 7:51 pm
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Maybe the issue was me asking when we were buying tickets as opposed to just wandering over to the elevator! Perhaps wandering is the way to go! And yes, we also went after dark as my sister was living there at the time and so knew the "scoop" on most everything!! She even took me to a lookout about 5 min walk from her flat at Place Gambetta where there was a clear view of the Eiffel Tower at night and the said sparkling

I am going back for a couple of days after Christmas to re-live the magic, albeit in an abbreviated format. The accom will be somewhat upgraded from her flat....to the Hyatt Place Vendome Gotta love Gold Passport Points ^
Oh, and to buy some...check that, a lot of cheese Not to worry, already have the research done with our Canadian Agriculture folks and its all good!
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Old Sep 17, 2006, 9:36 pm
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Nice! Someone recommended Marie-Anne Cantin's cheese shop on 12 Rue du Champ de Mars in the seventh arrondissement, where she sells hundreds of kinds of cheeses from all over of France. We never made it there ... and we regret not going!
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