PARIS WITH CHILDREN

Courtney and her family were here last week for the second time since we moved here.  They came after Christmas (great for the holiday but not especially great for activities) which was a little tough since it was cold.  This summer visit enabled us to do some things with the kids we couldn't do in December.

Early in their visit they had planned a tour of Versailles with April of aprilinparistours.  As you may remember, we've done several tours with April and think she's great.  We did the biking tour of Versailles last spring and it was so fun.  The kids chose not to do bikes, and, by the way, David and I kept the boys.  Versailles is way too much for a 7-year-old and an 11-year-old!!

We had a plan (you really need a plan with kids!!) and the first thing on the list was visiting Jardins du Luxembourg to, hopefully, do the sailboats.  We also planned a picnic so on the way to the Jardins we stopped at Marks and Spencer for food.  Because it was "fun day with Mim and Poppa", we eased up on the "not healthy for you" foods and,  actually, we ended up with pretty healthy fare!!!

We used our picnic basket, covered two sides of the park bench and pulled up chairs.  Not too shabby!!  What did we eat??  We had lots of fresh fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries),  chips (of course), chocolate chip cookies (not the best I've had) and David and I each got a prepared salad.  As we were eating, we did the tell-a-story-a-sentence-at-a-time.  You know, one person starts and you go around and each person adds a sentence to the story.  We actually did it several times and it was a fun, relaxing activity.

Before we ate lunch, we sailed boats.  What fun that was!!  In fact, David wants to go back sometime and sail one himself!!!  I guess boys never completely grow up!!!

Learning how to maneuver your boat takes practice

We just didn't want Jonah to fall in!

The captains and their boats

I love bookstores and real books (I realize Kindles and other e-books serve a purpose and I do use one but I prefer to hold a book and turn pages...I feel the same way about magazines maybe  more so.  I have one magazine I receive digitally and I hate it.  Right now it's better than nothing but not much!!) and I love taking the boys to bookstores.  So we strolled over to  The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore across from the Jardins and bought the boys a couple of books.

By this time, all of us were tired so we headed home for movie time and no walking!  But we had a good day while we didn't have parents with us!!!

Later in the week while Courtney and I went on a Fashion Walking Tour (I'll post that later), Nathan and David took the boys.  We all began at Jardins des Tuileries at Place de la Concorde.  Below is a photo journey through their day while we were "Chaneling"!!!!!

What boy (or even girl) doesn't like a trampoline??  The boys did this several different times. It burns energy!!!!!!!

Paris is full of carousels and the boys took advantage of that

Part of a playground area where the boys climbed and played

At the Palais Royal is a fenced post where you can pitch centimes (pennies) and see if you can make it land on top of this post.  It's not easy.  As you can see, Jonah got one centime on and looks like Jacob didn't get any on

The Palais Royal

A healthy lunch wasn't an option as they went to McDonalds!!  But, again, a fun boys day while the girls played (we didn't really care what or if they ate!!!!!!).

While Paris is certainly, in my opinion, not  kid friendly, there are things for children to see and do.  You just have to research it and make sure your children are up for the walking.  Even if you use buses or metros, there is still oftentimes a great deal of walking.  But for older children who are beginning to learn about French history or art, it can be a great experience.  Last visit Jacob wanted to see the Mona Lisa (arrggghhh-she's at the Louvre which is huge).  But we all went and he got to see her.  This time he wanted to go up the Eiffel Tower and they were able to do that as well.  We also did a hop-on hop-off boat which saves walking and is fun (I think).

And sometimes kids just have to suck it up and let Mom and Dad have a wonderful experience in this fabulous city!