So last July, my good friend tipped me off that flights to Paris were $350 and I had to hop on it. I questioned our judgement after realizing that our kids aren’t city folks and I contemplated not telling them about the trip at all so that I could enjoy a trip with Cisco without any whining or complaining, but we didn’t have the heart- LOL. Literally the day after we purchased the tickets, I ventured into Philly with the girls in the heat and walked from Reading Terminal to Broad and Walnut and it was non-stop whining. We planned on having this trip be their Christmas present, so we didn’t tell them about it for 5 months, which was plenty of time to change our mind and cut our losses!
Well, we told them on Christmas that they’d be joining us and I’m thankful to say that WE SURVIVED! Yes, we are “lucky” they are good travelers, but I’m not gonna discredit our parenting skills either! Before kids, Cisco and I would fill our itinerary. He planned this trip for the most part and when I saw we had 1 thing on the itinerary I almost had a panic attack. There are definitely things I would have done differently, but hey- I didn’t take the time to do it- so I was happy! How did him planning this trip even become a “thing?” The first time we went to Disney, Adelina had just turned 1, Giselle was 3 and I was just exhausted. At that time, Cisco was the one that wanted to go to Disney in the first place (he’s kind of a big fan) A few months before we were scheduled to leave, I had nothing planned (because naturally, I would do it without being told) and told him that if he wanted to do anything on this trip, he’d have to plan it- AND HE DID! And he passed with flying colors! So I handed him over the reigns for the most part- I still gotta make sure his “vision: of our trip is somewhat in line with what I envisioned (replace “vision” with expectations)- LOL! We’re a very good team in that way. He does research based on what’s the best value. I’ll make the decision on what’s worth putting paying a little bit extra for and what’s not.
1 thing I could not stand about Paris was the airport… WTF is up with their departure terminal? I mean, maybe Norwegian has the shittiest gates in the airport? I know it’s a budget airline, but seriously, they had 1 “deli” not even a restaurant- for the area between security and the actual gate (which is Tiny AF). Isn’t security usually before all the restaurants and shops?? Normally I would go through security, get to my gate and any extra time I have I’ll stroll around the airport. Here, you have to leave the area with the gates to access any shops/restaurants- and then go back through security. It was not really well thought out and definitely ranks as one of the worst (if not THE worst) airport experience ever.
Overall, we spent 6 nights in Paris, drove from Paris to Loire Valley and spent 2 nights in Amboise. Some of our trip highlights were:
1) After waiting 1 1/2 hours to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower with our 5:30pm reservation, we made the sunset JUST IN TIME. Like literally, just in time. If we caught the next elevator up, we would have missed it. That alone was pretty amazing and was likely the work of Jesus Himself!
2) Seeing how the girls made the locals smile with their attempts at broken French.
3) It had been pretty cold the first 4 days of our trip, and on our last full day in Paris we got beautiful weather and the perfect spring time Parisian day. We went to Luxemborg Gardens, grabbed some chairs and basked in the sun after we had our picnic lunch. We strolled Ile Saint-Louise,and enjoyed ice cream at the famous Berthillon. We had plans to tour the inside of Notre Dame but skipped them to follow the music playing on the Pont Saint-Louis bridge. The girls screamed “BUBBLES!!!” and there was a man with his large bubble solution and his wand, blowing hundreds of large bubbles in the air. A few feet over was another man playing his guitar- and it is a memory I will always cherish- nixing our plans to see the girls entertain themselves for over an hour chasing bubbles, and seeing the joy in Cisco’s face as he was taking pictures of them with music playing in the background as the sun was just about getting ready to set! After that we headed to the Seine River cruise at sunset and enjoyed our final dinner in Paris in Rue Cler.
4) Disneyland Paris! Did I mention that Cisco is a huge Disney fan? I didn’t want to go, but he insisted. And to earn some pats on the back from the kids, he even told them that I didn’t wanna go to Disney so he could get all the credit- LOL My favorite memory from here was going to “It’s a Small World.” I have memories of my Dad taking me to Disney World and going to “It’s a Small World” there. I had a moment where I was grateful to share a memory with them, that my Dad shared with me- and so I cried! And my girls were filled with empathy when they saw my tears- which made me cry more.
5) My morning runs to explore and take pics of the city and then pick up croissants for the fam back at the hotel. I was usually the first one to wake up so this was my “me” time which I treasured.
6) Dinner at Chez Bruno in Amboise- literally THE BEST dinner I had in my life- and I am so grateful we shared it with the kids. I swear we are in the “golden years” of parenting because they waited in line a lot, walked a TON, and we were able to enjoy some nice dinners together!
7) Our drive to Amboise- driving through the historic towns, yellow fields of rapeseed, and symmetrical tree lined roads.
8) Making friends in Amboise with Mimie from the Amboise market and Philippe who we met at Le Clos d’Amboise- where we had our last dinner in France. Philippe overheard me talking to his neighbor and learned that I was from NY, which inclined him to share that his wine is served at Bouley at Home, in NY. He is a wine connoisseur, and has a vineyard in nearby Cheverny. He offered some of the wine he ordered for himself and his wife- which had floral tones to it- which I never had before. Such a kind gesture to offer wine- and he made sure to give me his card for our future visit!
9) Versailles! What an amazing site as soon as we arrived- I could not have imagined how grand this place is- to get to the front gate is about a quarter mile. Our Uber driver was so much fun- we had a 40 minute drive from Paris so we made quite the effort to talk with each other which we all really enjoyed. We only covered the first level and part of the second level- after a while I was like, “OK I get it, you had a lot of money to spend.” LOL… So we took the shuttle to see other parts of the property since it isn’t possible to do all that walking with the kids- the whole property is about 3 miles. It would have taken us another day or 2 to really explore the entire thing. We rented a boat to enjoy some time on the lake and when we were done, we sat down along the edge of the lake to watch the ducks/fish with the kiddos. An older man sat down beside us, who was with his grandson, and offered us some stale baguette to feed to the fish and ducks.
10) Which reminds me to say- we found the French to be very warm- everyone (except 2 people, that number would be much higher in Philly- lol) we interacted with was friendly, we didn’t find them to be snobby/stuck up at all. I think it helped that we had kids that were saying “bonjour” and “au revoir” and “merci beaucoup” everytime they had the chance. Our Uber driver on the way to Versailles was really happy when we sang the French portion of the song “Take a Break” from Hamilton and the classic “Champs Elysees” (which I never heard of, but apparently Cisco knew it since he took French)
I couldn’t believe how much we enjoyed our time there. As the time to go to Paris was approaching, I was getting a little stressed because I worried that there wasn’t much that the kids would be interested in. But they really enjoyed the sight seeing. I feel like we underestimate how great they are at adjusting because they surprise us everytime at how much they can handle.
And last but not least, today I received 4 texts within a span of 30 minutes about the devastating fires that took place at Notre Dame. When I heard the news and saw the church up in flames on my phone, I took it lightly, thinking it was going to be contained quickly. When I saw the damage unfold, I couldn’t help but cry knowing we were able to marvel at its beauty just a few weeks ago, and its significance to so many people, but especially the French- and happening during Holy Week as well- is heartbreaking.
Here’s a link with some pics from our travels:
Pics of the Van der Buellas
