Passing Through Paris, Our French Family Vacation

"Paris is always a good idea"

-Audrey Hepburn

Day 1 - Exploring The 2nd Arrondissement 

The neighborhood we booked our Airbnb in was the 2nd arrondissement - and we found that it worked extremely well for sightseeing and relaxing. Because the neighborhood was quieter than being right next to the Eiffel Tower, but also a quick 12 minute walk to The Louvre, it was the perfect area for our kids to be able to go to sleep easily without any noise, but also not too far to walk to the sights.

Our first day in town we spent exploring near our place.

The Square Louvois was right down the street from us, and our kids spent a few minutes playing on a teeter-totter in the park. The fountain in the center of the square is near the entrance of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and it was created in 1830 by Louis Visconti as an homage to the four largest rivers in France. 

We left the park and headed to the Palais-Royal and the Jardin du Palais Royal. The gardens are beautiful to walk through, worth taking some time to do it.

The Palais-Royal was built in the 1630s by Cardinal Richelieu for his art collection. When he died, King Louis XIV took over the ownership of the property, and then it passed along to the Dukes of Orleans, and then Marie Antoinette before it's destruction in the Franco-Prussian war. Much of it has been restored or is in the process- we saw some scaffolding and projects happening while we were there.

We had a late lunch at a cafe near the palace, and then decided to head in for evening and put the kids to bed early. Because we had an overnight flight, we managed to get a few hours of sleep on the plane, but we all needed a solid night's sleep to have a successful next day.

We ordered food in that first evening, ate and put our kids to bed by 6;30pm. They slept for over 15 hours that first night- Mikael and I couldn't believe it. If you travel with kids, plan to have an early first night! It worked wonders for us, and after that everyone was adjusted without any jet lag issues.

Day 2 - The Louvre, Notre-Dame Cathedral & Île de la Cité

In terms of walking and sightseeing, this day ended up being our most impressive- we probably did 6-7 miles. Somehow, our kids made it! There was ice cream bribery involved, so there is that.

After our amazing night's sleep, we headed out to The Louvre. I bought tickets in advance, and they do say to be there 30 minutes prior to the time stated on your tickets to line up and get in. Our kids hated that part. It was warm, but not awful.

We waited in line and got in right around 11:30am- and spent 2-3 hours there. It was about all our kids could handle, and I don't know about you, but after awhile my brain was tired and all the images began to blur together.

It is definitely a place I would love to visit again in the future and spend an entire day at. My oldest, after seeing the Eiffel Tower turned to me and said, "Can we come back mommy? This is such a cool city." Maybe we'll do a mother-daughter trip one day and mosey through The Louvre again.

The Mona Lisa is small, and the space is crowded- but you have to see it if you're there. We whizzed through that room pretty quickly.

The paintings are unbelievable. So much of the artwork I studied my Freshman year of college in Art History, and it's something else to see it in person.

But the rooms I was most enthralled with were the Egyptian artifacts, The Hebrew history and biblical items, and much of the history of the Grecian/Persian/Babylonian empire eras. Those rooms I would love to spend more time in and absorb the culture and treasures.

We left The Louvre and headed to a nearby restaurant, Café des Arts for a late lunch. It was at the cafe that Skylar realized France has a delightful bread called croissants. She fell in love and ate them the entire time we were there.

After The Louvre we walked across the Seine to Île de la Cité where we saw the Notre Dame. Parts of it are still under construction after the fire in 2019. 

We explored side streets around the island and that became one of our favorite parts of the day. We passed by two women at a coffee shop and one woman was telling her friend that she's from a state called Minnesota, and was trying to describe it to her. It was a unique moment when we were passing and ended up sharing about our home state with a complete stranger!

But we also found a police station on one of those side streets, and Erik was in heaven watching cop cars and motorcyclists come and go.

After seeing the Notre Dame and exploring the Île de la Cité, we headed back toward where we were staying. We had dinner at a cafe on our way back, got the kids ice cream as an incentive to keep going (it does work)!

All in all, a really impressive day considering our kids were tired and we had walked many miles. They all crashed when we got home and we made our plans for another day of sightseeing.

Day 3 - Palace of Versailles & Palais Garnier

I was so jazzed for this part of our trip. We got up at a normal time, had some breakfast and coffee, and then we took an Uber to Versailles.

Our ride there was fun, passing by old French villages and cities. We pulled up to the palace and I gasped out loud. Usually the kids are overwhelmed by the sights, this one blew me away though. It's so incredible it took my breath away.

Just being dropped off in the street and walking up to the front took nearly 7 minutes, now that's a grand entrance.

We presented our tickets at the gate (get them ahead of time!) and started our self-guided tour. There isn't a lot to say without being redundant - it's incredible, it's majestic, it's massive and ornate and mind-blowing. It can be easy to see how the people living there or ruling from Versailles would be ignorant of the plight of their people if they never left or didn't care to see beyond their walls. We got lost in the opulence of the place, many ooh's and ahh's from the girls.

The gardens alone contain 2,000 acres of manicured lawns, different styles of trees, flowers, fountains and ponds.

After spending nearly 2 hours inside, we got the definite, "I'm not interested in walking these gardens," look from Erik. So we strolled through them a little bit and took some pictures, then headed off in the direction of the town of Versailles to find something to eat.

We stopped at an adorable ice cream shop (more bribery) and walked up and down a few streets to get a feel for the town.

Then we grabbed an Uber and headed back toward Paris. After rinsing off and resting for an hour, we headed out to get an "early" dinner. Most of the restaurants fill up around 8pm at night, so our regular 6pm dinner schedule suited us well! We never lacked in getting a table because we were in and out before the rush.

There was a restaurant we saw around the corner from where we were staying with incredible flowers all over the building - that's where we ate pizza and pasta and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

We ended our evening by walking a few blocks to the Palais Garnier, getting some dessert nearby, and we took it to the steps of the Palais. Someone was playing music to about 60 people sitting on the steps, so we joined them. He serenated everyone with a few classics. When he started calling on audience members to sing with him we figured that was our cue to head out and get to bed before we became an embarrassment in the Parisian streets. Our lack of the French language is enough of an embarrassment for this trip- no need to pile on!

Day 4 - The Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe & A Seine River Cruise

There's a side street that showcases the Eiffel Tower and I've seen it in pictures on Pinterest... and we found it. If you want the same kind of photo, head to Le Castel Café near the Eiffel Tower, the pictures from the street are majestic.

We left mid-morning and to be honest, I thought we missed our window to get good photos without a lot of tourists there. We pulled up and the street was nearly empty. So we grabbed some quick pics and I'm telling you, not even 5 minutes later and there was probably 60 people that showed up to get their shot. I would suggest getting there before 9:30 if you want those insta-worthy pictures! We cut it close, next time we'll rise early for this one.

We crossed the street to Le Castel Café for some fresh croissants and coffee and headed to Jardin de la Tour Eiffel. In the park we found some shade to enjoy our croissants and coffee with a view.

Then we took off toward the Arc de Triomphe. The side streets along the way provided us with more picture opportunities, fabulous sights and beautiful scenery. The twins started to tire out on the way, so they got to enjoy piggy-back rides.

There was a beautiful cathedral we stumbled into along the way. We sat down in the church for a few minutes and I prayed over the city, the people, and those who are seeking Jesus' presence that they would experience Him.

Our afternoon was lowkey after a morning of sightseeing and a few miles of walking. We rested up, the kids took a quick nap, before we went down to the Seine for our river boat cruise. Our cruise started at 6:30 and went until 8:00pm. Everyone gathered at the foot of the Orsay Museum to load onto the boat.

The cruise was a really fun way to cap off our stay in Paris before we headed to Nice. The 3-course dinner was fantastic, the musical talent and ambiance really wonderful. The only downside to the cruise (I'm not sure if this is true of every boat?) is how warm it was inside. I'm sure there was some level of air conditioning happening, but not it wasn't very effective. That was true of many indoor cafe's and restaurants, museums and cathedrals we visited. The indoors is generally warmer, and far less air conditioned than most people would prefer it. I brought a jacket on the cruise thinking it might get chilly, it didn't!

What I did love was the personalized kids menu for the dinner cruise. That was a hit, especially the chocolate Eiffel Tower dessert at the end.

We capped off our last night by walking back through the Tuileries Gardens near The Louvre. The kids enjoyed the Bassin Octogonal for awhile, and tried to get the ducks to come over. There are massive Koi fish in the Bassin that entertained too. Mikael and I soaked in the final moments of our trip before we got ready to take the train to Nice.

We walked the expansive gardens which were created by Catherine de' Medici in 1564. She commissioned a landscape architect to create them for the Tuileries Palace.

After a beautiful late night stroll (the sun wasn't setting until well after 10pm when we were there!) we walked back to our Airbnb to finish packing.

Final Notes About Paris

Some final highlights and notes in the event you're headed to Paris some time soon!

• We were in Paris the second week of June and the weather was perfect. Absolute perfection. I've heard a lot of people complain about the summer being hot in Europe...I don't know, it wasn't as warm as where we live in the US so honestly, it felt great to us. Maybe it was the timing (June was fabulous!), maybe it's because Virginia is so hot and humid in the summer that this felt amazing... or perhaps God orchestrated perfect weather for us. Either way, being there in June was a great decision for us!
• Staying in an Airbnb vs. a hotel gave us a lot more space to spread out and feel comfortable. I highly recommend it!
• Uber is super easy to use in Paris. We didn't bother with the metro or train system for getting around, just walked or used Uber when we needed to.
• The sun was up early and down late every day. By the end of our trip, it was still light out after 11pm!
• If you keep an American "family" dinner time (like 6pm), we never needed a reservation unless it was a higher end restaurant. Because our dinner time was so much earlier, the restaurants were bare and never crowded. Just a tip!
• The river cruise was a big highlight. I recommend it.

All in all, this was an amazing trip, and we loved every second. I was surprised by how well our kids did too, even with walking a lot. Having a lot to see helps!

Don't be afraid to take your kids on big trips. It might be a little more stressful, but the fullness you feel when watching your kids' eyes light up at seeing something new, priceless. I will cherish these memories forever.

As always...

Happy traveling,

Jessica