Next City - Paris!

Lest you think I am the only one is my family who is a “planner,” meet my sister, Allison.

She handled the first three stops in Europe: Paris, the Swiss Alps and Milan.

We were traveling as a group of 9 people (5 of them kids!). There would be three countries, and it would involve airplanes, metros, Ubers, trains, cable cars, gondolas, funiculars and a lot of walking. We went on food tours, cooking classes, museums, hiking and a million other little details that take a lot of time and attention to work out. 

Allison, the boss!

She spent 8 months working on this trip, and IT. WAS. AMAZING!!! 

If you have questions about any of it, then she’s your gal! 

But she would be the first to say that planning an international trip like this is something like her flying fox ride in the Swiss Alps.

Our first day in Paris was part traveling, part new city excitement, and part red-eye flight fatigue. 

But, the kids’ first impressions were priceless! Most of the cities my kids have visited were in Asia, so for their first European city to be Paris … was really something. 

I have been to Paris before, and though I’m not big on cities, I do really like Paris! Yes, there are loads of tourists, but they are all the happy sort, just reveling in the beauty, and streets, and food, and architecture, and happy to share that feeling with strangers. 

We stayed in really interesting Airbnb in the Latin Quarter. It was basically like living in an ancient wine cellar.

From the Latin Quarter, it was easy to get to most of the sites by walking. Some were long walks, but it’s so pretty in this area and the weather was so gorgeous that no one really cared if we were strolling for 15 minutes or an hour. Well, the kids cared a bit, but they were with their cousins and sharing that experience together was enough to forget their sore feet. 

In all of our time this summer. in Europe we would travel with family. Different family for different parts of Europe. This part was with the Neumann Family. Allison, Matt and their kids, Caleb and Sydney. It was their first time in Paris and from what I could tell, they loved it. 

We started out with the big sites: 

Notre Dame - which was closed the last time we were here. It really is astonishingly beautiful! 

Then, we walked along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower.

We also went to Montmartre and rounded things off with the lovely walk to Sacre Coeur.

It's a great start to our Europe tour!