Travel to Paris with Kids {Paris in 24 Hours}

I'm excited to share the final part of our Europe trip today.  If you missed it, you can find the details of our time in London linked...Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE. 

Day 6: Eurostar to Paris, The Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe

We spent a whirlwind 24 hours in Paris to round out our trip and I wasn't sure if we would be able to see and do everything that we wanted in such a short amount of time, but we packed it in! Obviously, if we had more time we would have been able to do so much more, but being so close in London we felt like we just had to at least hit the highlights in Paris. 

We took the first available train to Paris on the Eurostar. The kids were fascinated to learn that we would actually be traveling under the ocean and I think my son pictured being able to see fish out his window. In reality, most of the trip is dark through a tunnel, but when you come out the other side seeing the French countryside was beautiful. 

When they called for boarding on the train, it was sort of a free for all.  No organized boarding by groups or anything like we are used to. I've never been so happy for everyone's backpack and small carryon that they could manage themselves. 

When we arrived the first thing someone needed to do was use the restroom. Which you have to PAY for in the train station. That was new to me! So we walked across the street to a little cafe where you also had to be a paying customer. I bought a croissant and the woman was not thrilled that I wanted to pay with a credit card. Our time wasn't starting off great. We decided to get a taxi to our hotel to drop our bags and then got a quick nearby lunch. By this point in the trip everyone was tired from our long days, hungry from the early morning travel and a little frustrated that they couldn't even read the menu to order because it was all in French.  It was their first real dose of being in another country and not being able to speak the language. We had downloaded the Google Translate app on their phones and there is a feature that you can hold over a menu and it translates it into your language right before your eyes. That was very helpful! After refueling everyone was in a better mood and ready to start exploring. 

First up was The Louvre. I'd booked tickets ahead of time and after our museum experience the day before I wasn't sure how this would go, BUT we all enjoyed it. We followed the signs to see The Mona Lisa and found ourselves in a crowded room with everyone else who had the same idea. The kids were excited to take selfies with it and were surprised by how small and unassuming it was. 

We spent another hour or so walking around the museum and then got turned around trying to find our way out!  It was kind of like a maze, but we eventually made out outdoors to the famous Louvre Pyramid for photos. 

I could have spent all day walking around The Louvre Palace and surrounding gardens. It was so enchanting and you forgot that you were in the middle of a big city. 

Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower and we could see it from where we were. We walked along the river to make our way close to the tower. It was a LONG walk, but lots of fun photo ops! 

I had originally wanted us to go up into the tower, but they were doing maintenance the day we were there. We actually we really just enjoyed spending time on the lawn, taking photos, and experiencing something up close and personal that you've only seen photos of your entire life. 

Another thing on the kids' to-do list for Paris was visiting a French Cafe so we found a nearby one to stop in. It was the perfect mid-afternoon snack break. They got macaroons and pastries! 

After that we walked over to see the Arc de Triomphe and walked down the famous Avenue des Champs-Elysees. 

It was storefront after storefront of high-end, luxury fashion brands and people lined up out the doors just to get in and shop! 

After a nice dinner with a lot of pointing at menu items because we speak very little French and our waitress spoke very little English we walked back over to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up at night! It has sparkling lights for 5 minutes on the hour and we timed it just right. It was magical to see and the perfect way to end our night! 

We rode the train back to our hotel and all crashed for a few hours before waking up to head back home. 

It was an incredible trip. So many amazing memories and experiences for our family and we can't wait to pick our next adventure! 

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Travel To London With Kids {Part 2}

I'm back today and sharing the second part of our trip to London.  You can see Part 1 HERE.  I'm actually having so much fun going through my photos and memories because we had the best time on this trip. The kids were at perfect ages to enjoy it. Each day we would leave the hotel in the morning and return after a very full day of walking, sightseeing and exploring the city.  Any younger and we would have had lots of complaints, but the kids were such troopers.  

Day 3: Window Shopping at Harrods, Afternoon Tea

As I mentioned yesterday, I really tried to pick things that all of the kids would enjoy, but I knew shopping at Harrods would probably not be at the top of my son's list.  However, he was a good sport about it and my girls were in heaven...especially my oldest!  

Seeing all of the of the designer brands up close and personal had her wishing for a million dollars! We didn't find much in there that she could afford, but it was still so much fun to look. 

We went to the bottom floor to their food hall and loved checking out all of the goodies!  You could get everything from meat to cook for dinner, fresh pasta, pre-made sandwiches or made-to-order smoothies. Then there is an entire room dedicated to sweets! Everyone got a small snack and some sweets to hold us over until the next thing on our schedule which was afternoon tea!

Afternoon tea was at the very top of my list for things to do in London. I probably researched this the most because there are just SO many different options. What I learned after talking to friends who had gone and from my own research is that it can be VERY expensive..especially for a family of five. Many places I looked into offered afternoon tea for $65-$85 per person.  Also, for most of these nicer places it was going to be a coat and tie sort of event. Because we were limiting our luggage to a carry on for each of us AND because I knew my crew wouldn't want to be that dressed up for tea we opted for a more reasonable afternoon tea experience. 

I made reservations at The Wolseley and it was wonderful! It was the perfect mix of not too fussy, while still feeling like a special occasion. 

We all picked a different type of tea, taste tested all of the sandwiches and sweets, and put our pinkies up to try to fit in! 

We spent the rest of that day just strolling the streets of London, shopping at some more reasonably priced stores, exploring the different neighborhoods and soaking it all in! 

Day 4: Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Lion King

On our fourth day we started off with a visit to the Tower of London. There is SO much history here and the guides who take you around to share everything were really entertaining, but my kids lost interest pretty quickly because it was such a large group so we explored on our own. 

There were so many different buildings and interactive exhibits to see. 

The thing I was most excited about at the Tower of London was seeing the Crown Jewels! 

There was a line, but it moved pretty quickly and it was entertaining for the kids to wait because they watched the guards marching out front! They were intimidating! 

Sadly, photographs aren't allowed inside where the Crown Jewels are housed, but it was amazing to see them up close and personal. 

On the grounds of the Tower of London we had a perfect view of Tower Bridge (which we learned is often mistaken as London Bridge). 

Since we were so close we decided to walk across Tower Bridge and get some more photos!  It's so beautiful and the intricate details are impressive. 

Next we made our way to the West End theater district. We did some souvenir shopping, grabbed a quick dinner and got ready to see The Lion King.  

Before I started researching about our trip I had no idea that London had a theater district, similar to Broadway in New York. Every big show was there and the hardest part was just picking which one we were going to see.  I ultimately decided that The Lion King would be a crowd pleaser since the kids all knew the music. It was a great production! 

Day 5: Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Shopping & Exploring 

For our last day in London we visited a few of the museums.  The entry was free, but I just had to reserve tickets ahead of time.  We stayed at the Double Tree in Hyde Park, so we were able to walk from our hotel to all the museums.  The Natural History Museum was up first and there we got to see Dippy the Dinosaur. 

We sort of breezed through the museum and it was too early for lunch so we popped into the Science Museum right next door and wouldn't you know we breezed through that, too.  I learned on this trip that my kids are not interested in museums.  If I had to do it again we probably would have planned a short day trip to see one of the other surrounding castles or landmarks.

You know what my kids did love though? The promise of bubble tea if we could get through the museums! Ha! 

We ate our last traditional London meal of fish 'n chips in a local pub.

Did a little more shopping and then called it an early night because the next day we were going to have to be up super early for the train to PARIS!!! 

I'll share about our whirlwind 24 hours in Paris later this week so be sure to check back for that!

A few things to note about our time in London and observations that we made:

Because we stayed in Hyde Park a lot of what we did the beginning of the trip was more "downtown" London so we had to ride the train or take taxis. Uber was also easily available, but taxis were everywhere so we tended to do that over Uber. When we could we walked and walked and walked. Comfortable shoes are a must! 

The kids really picked up on how different the culture is in a big European city like London especially when it came to the walking.  It was no big deal for us (and everyone else there) to walk long distances to get somewhere when at home we hop in the car to go anywhere.  My girls were commenting on how everyone is so healthy and in shape in London and made the connection to how much they move their bodies compared to Americans. 

Two things I found lacking in the city were pubic restrooms and public trash cans. It was hard to find bathrooms in parks or even in stores to use. Trashcans on the streets were far and few between which was sort of odd to me, but just an observation. 

I feel like my kids were at the perfect ages to do a trip like this for a variety of reasons. In my head I had pictured that we would do a morning activity, come back to the hotel after lunch and then have some time to regroup before the evening or dinner, but once we left after breakfast we were gone for the day. It just didn't make sense to be zig-zagging across the city. It made for VERY long days, but the kids were absolute troopers. 

It was also nice that we could decide to stop in a pub, grab a drink and just take a load off for a little while.  The kids were happy to sit, scroll on their phones and just veg out for a little bit while we sat and talked. They were just easy!    

The Queen had died just a few weeks before we were set to travel to London and we weren't sure how that would affect our plans. Thankfully by the time we got there most everything was back up and running.  The only thing we had to cancel for our trip was the tour of Buckingham Palace which remained closed to the public for the rest of the year. 

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