Paris and DLP Kids 1st Trip Overseas COMPLETE

[sweetlovin']

Pre Trip - The cast consists of:

Me - WDW vetran who has traveled overseas many times

Nico - 10yo boy who loves all things Soccer and Disney longing to travel

Julianna - 8yo loves Disney and looking forward to traveling (Shown in her new Cinderella costume)

Samantha - 6yo who seems to be young for her age (loves only Disney)

Lee (aka Diego) - 34yo who loves Disney World and just recently started traveling to Europe

(note the vest looks like Dora the Explorers cousin Diego)


Forgive my grammer/spelling I wrote this very late at night

 

[sweetlovin']

Pre trip Report -

3 months before we left for this trip, I had the idea to brush up on my French. I had taken French long ago and since had taken some Spanish. Not having used French for quite some time, I realized that if I didn’t know the word in one language, I would just switch to the other. For example, “Combien coutent los zapatos, por favor? Tres bien Merci” I know I asked “how much those shoes cost please? Very good thanks,” but no one else in speaking French would know that (no one speaking Spanish either) I had my work cut out for me. I listened to French every chance I got. I even taught my kids how to ask for things politely. Yes, I was well on my way for being able to just scrape by with my limited knowledge.

A few weeks before we took this trip, I had an idea to get the hardwood floors refinished while we were away. I thought this was brilliant!! The company we settled on explained that we couldn’t walk on the floors for 4 days. So, while the dog was in the kennel, the kids and I out of the house for the week, it was all set. Then, I saw a sale on a bedroom set I loved. Now, I have had the same bedroom furniture for over 15 years and it was falling apart and broken. So I bought the new bedroom set and scheduled the delivery for the Saturday I returned. Awesome, new floors and a new bedroom set made coming home exciting!! This was going to work out perfectly!! The week before we left, I realized this wasn’t as brilliant as I thought. Not only did I need to pack for four people, tie up all the loose ends for the trip, I now had to clean out all the closets, move a ton of furniture, get everything off the floors and reorganize the other rooms. What was I thinking??!!

I would wake up at 3am (trying to get used to Paris time) and move furniture. I would stay up until about 11pm moving and organizing. This went on for about 6 days while I was keeping up with laundry, the kids school work, and general day to day affairs. Tuesday before we left, Samantha’s teacher sent home all her homework for the days and weeks she was missing. That night, she stayed up and finished it all. Nico had his own concerns with school. His teachers had scheduled 3 tests for days he was going to be absent. He emailed them all asking if he could please take the tests early because he didn’t want to forget everything while he was in Paris. Two of the three teachers got the tests to him before he left and he was very, very thankful! Julianna was the luckiest of the three. She was excused from the tests she was missing. In return, she promised to take on a school project Flat Stanley, to Paris with us.

The night before we left, the kids were too excited to sleep. They finished all of their school work for spring break, laughed, played, helped move bedroom furniture. I knew I needed them to sleep on the flight to Paris, so I told them they could hang out and stay up for a while longer. It was about 10:30pm when they finally all settled down. With all of the school work done, the puppy dropped off at the kennel, our bags packed, all the furniture moved , and closets all cleaned out, I headed to bed. It was about midnight when I crawled into my mattress on the floor. I planned on waking up at 3am for what was going to be a very long travel day.

 

[Mum to Belle]

Phew, I'm exhausted just reading that!!

It's amazing how motivated we can be when the thought of Disney is callling us!!

I hope you all managed to get some rest on the plane.

 

[Carrie_Cat]

Wow ..That's some preparation and organisation you've done there.Very impressed.

I try and get into the right time zone every time we go to Asia as it really does help when going from West to East

Look forward to reading more

ps - love the Flat Stanley projects, wished we had them when I was a child

 

[sweetlovin']

Thursday March 31st The 18 hour flight

The alarm went off at 3am and I hid in my mattress and yelled at the alarm. It seemed to get louder as if yelling back at me. I finally gave in and talked myself into getting out of bed. Talking to myself as I got dressed for a long day ahead, I realized , I am really headed to Paris with 3 children that have never been out of the country. It took me months and months of researching and planning and it’s finally here. God I hope they have a great time.
“Who wants to go to Paris?” I sung out into each child’s room. Apparently, they all wanted to go as I heard squeals of delight echoed with quick movement and laughter. They were very excited. I fed them breakfast, packed the last of the toiletries and headed out to the airport. Mixed with anticipation and exhaustion, we arrived at the airport two hours early. Check in at the airport was a breeze and we headed to the gate. As we sat, the kids were getting a little restless, so I pulled out the Uno cards and played a game with them. With 15 minutes left to wait, I packed up the cards, only to hear announced that the flight was delayed due to technical problems. “They are investigating the aircraft and we will board the airplane as soon as we know something,” the employee explained. “I hope the news they get is good news before we get on the plane!” I said to myself. The plane was cleared for take off, however, there was severe weather through much of Florida, so we were delayed again. The kids sighed and asked to play another game of Uno. As we were shuffling the cards, I noticed a little boy that was watching us. He sat down and we all played an extremely long game of Uno! Finally, we were allowed to board the very small airplane.

The last 30 minutes of the flight got very bumpy and the plane had turbulence so strong our tummies were flipping as though we were on a coaster going up and down. Samantha blissfully unaware that this was scary to anyone, laughed and giggled loudly as the plane shook and swooped. Her laugh was infectious as all the people next to her would watch her and laugh as well. We landed safely in Miami only to have a 2 hour layover (thanks to the delays in Atlanta.) This gave us just enough time to eat, find a Hagan Dazz stand , grab a quick picture with Flat Stanley, and get ready to board a 9 hour flight. It was now that I realized I didn’t have a camera. I had given Nico my old camera and Diego had bought a new camera for this trip, but I didn’t have one at all. Oh well, I will have to go with what the others give me.

As we were boarding the plane, I reminded the kids, for the 18th time that they had to sleep on this flight. We had a busy first day and they needed to get as much rest as possible. “Ok mom, we know mom.“ was the response I kept hearing. The kids opted to sit together in the middle row. I was a little nervous about that, but they are really good kids, so I went with it. The kids and I slept almost the entire flight waking up only for an occasional beverage or meal. As we were exiting the airplane three different flight attendants praised my children for being so well behaved. I was very proud of themJ It was a great way to start the morning in Paris.

 

[It'sASmallWorld]

I'm loving the detail in your trip report, and can't wait for the next installment!

What is the Flat Stanley project then? Is that a bit like the travelling bear we have in classes here, that goes away with a classmate and they keep a diary?

 

[sweetlovin']

Wow ..That's some preparation and organisation you've done there.Very impressed.

I try and get into the right time zone every time we go to Asia as it really does help when going from West to East

Look forward to reading more

ps - love the Flat Stanley projects, wished we had them when I was a child

I didn't know about Flat Stanley until she brought it home. Admittedly, I wasn't thrilled to take a project with me, but it ended up being a little fun. We forgot him on the 2nd day, so he missed out on a few sights.

When I travel to Asia, I try to stay up the entire night before and sleep on the plane. I find it much easier going west than going East. When I come home from Asia, I am a mess. But coming back home from Europe, I adjust pretty quickly.

 

[sweetlovin']

I'm loving the detail in your trip report, and can't wait for the next installment!

What is the Flat Stanley project then? Is that a bit like the travelling bear we have in classes here, that goes away with a classmate and they keep a diary?

Yes, we had something simular in a preschool class called Sara Bear. We took Sara Bear to Washington D.C., Disney World, and I don't remember the last one.

 

[Mum to Belle]

Loving the alarm moment!!

As we were exiting the airplane three different flight attendants praised my children for being so well behaved. I was very proud of themJ It was a great way to start the morning in Paris.

Awwww, proud Mummy moment!!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

What a great start - looking forward to more -! Great that you all slept on the plane - man wish I could do that!!

 

[zinderella]

Really enjoying your TR and can't wait to see what you made of DLP!!!!

 

[LoodlesNoodles]

Excellent, also looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the park

 

[sweetlovin']

Fri April 1st No Rest for the Weary

We headed out to baggage claim and found two of the three checked bags. The only bag missing was my black Mickey Mouse suitcase. An airline worker explained that all the bags had been around and if our bag was not there, it was lost and we needed to go to another desk and report the bag to the airlines. As I started to walk away, I noticed an elderly French woman trailing my bag behind her. Now keep in mind I am suffering sleep deprivation as I envisioned running up, tackling her to the ground, and grabbing my bag. I sized her up, I could take her.

“Wait, that’s mine” I called out as I walked towards her. As it turns out, the poor confused older woman had realized it wasn’t hers, so I took it, thanked her "Merci", and off we were to customs. The line for customs wasn’t terrible at all and soon all of my children had their first passport stamp. My son was thrilled and snatched it as quick as he could to admire the much anticipated black circle stamp.

As we walked down the ramp, our Tio Shuttle guy was there waiting for us with a sign. He completely misspelled my name, but at that point, he could call me anything he wanted as long as he was there. We asked if he would mind waiting for just a bit while we stopped at the currency exchange. He was more than willing to wait, so after being ripped off, I mean after exchanging my money, off we were to our hotel.

We got to Hotel du Cadran at about 10:30am. Our room wasn’t ready, we stored our luggage and asked how to get to the Eiffel Tower. The hotel clerk, very nice and friendly, explained that it was just a 5 minute walk over to the tower. My crew was hungry, but I had read that there was a quick counter service at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower. With that in mind, we set off for what turned out to be a 10 minute walk with a 6yo. On the way, I spotted the closest subway stop, about 5 minutes from the hotel. Perfect!! We got to the Eiffel Tower and looked for the food right away and fed the kids sandwiches and drinks. I grabbed a hot chocolate because I was cold. This first day was one of the colder days on our trip and all of our warm jackets were packed in the suitcases back in the hotel storage.

It literally took me about 8 months of researching and planning this trip. I think I spent more time planning this trip than I did my wedding. I had bought the Eiffel Tower tickets ahead of time, but our time wasn’t until 1:30pm. It was just about noon when the kids had finished eating, so (thanks to these boards and all of the wonderful information) I explained that if we walked to the other side and crossed the street we would find a river cruise tour that runs for about an hour. We were not disappointed as the next cruise was leaving in 5 minutes. YAY!! We boarded and off we were down the Seine River, seeing the most beautiful sites of Paris! Well, some of us anyway; others used it to take a short but much needed siesta.

 

[Cyrano]

You are off to an excellent start. Looking forward to the next installment

 

[stargatebarbie]

wow you all did so well with so much travelling your children are loverly cant wait to see what they thought of the parks

 

[sweetlovin']

Friday April 1st Part Two

After the cruise I awoke the sleeping ones and we were off to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower from Nico's Perspective!

We queued and we were on the elevator pretty quickly. Now, three people in my group are known for being deathly afraid of heights. So I told them all let’s start at the very top and make our way down. It had been some time since the last time I had been up the tower and I had forgotten that you had to get out at the 2nd level to get to the Summit.

The girls took pictures and enjoyed the views of Paris (despite the cold blustery winds).

(YIKES!!)

They loved the tower and were thrilled enjoying the entire experience. Poor Nico was clinging to me, tears streaming down his face, as we stood in line waiting to board the lift to the top floor. I kept both of my arms wrapped around him and kept telling him to hang in there. “It gets better buddy I promise!” I felt so bad for this poor child and this line was not moving very quickly. It took us what seemed like a lifetime (especially to Nico) to get toward the center of the tower and board the elevator. Now, I have been up the tower, and I was aware we were going up to an enclosed space. However, the elevator to get up to the summit is all open and my poor child started to shake in fear as he watched the elevator slowly move farther and farther away from the earth’s safe ground. We finally reached the summit and Nico let go and perked up immediately. He loved seeing the flags of all the different countries (especially Djibouti, the puppy’s name, and the Philippines, since they are half Filipino!)

(Nico's pictures inside the summit.)

With Nico in better spirits and the two girls happy as can be, we made our way back down the tower and walked back to the hotel.

All the way back to the hotel, we explained to the kids that we had about 90 minutes of down time where we could unpack our luggage, change our clothes, grab a snack, and such before we needed to head out again. We got back to our hotel to find out the room was not quite ready. We all just sat there for about 30 minutes trying to wait as patiently as possible for our room. Finally, the room was ready, but now we were out of time. We had to get our bags, change our clothes, and head off to the Louvre. At this point, we were concerned about time, so we asked the hotel to call a taxi for 5 people. In no time at all the taxi showed up and we were off to the Louvre.

In my numerous days of researching , I found a tour company that gives kids private tours of the Louvre. These are tours designed for kids from ages 5-12 that make touring the Louvre kid friendly and interactive. After many emails, I realized that the best time to do these tours is on a Tuesday or Friday night because the crowds are extremely light. I knew my kids were going to be tired booking this tour that night, but I also knew they would appreciate it more not having to fight crowds to see the exhibits. It turned out to be a great decision.

As we met the tour director, Alexandra, she gave the kids an introduction to the game and a book to help solve the mystery.

She hid a treasure somewhere in the Louvre and the kids were going to find the clues to solve the riddle and find the treasure. It was set up so well as the Alexandra led the kids through the museum. She taught them about Hammurabi’s code, Venus de Milo, the moat of the original castle and so on.

The kids clues consisted of things like finding the original mason markings on the stones of the moat, looking for the first portrait to show expressions, and detecting how gods portrayed. My favorite part of the tour took place while learning about Hammurabi’s code.

Alexandra asked the kids, “Who is more powerful than a king?” Nico said, “Oh that’s easy, the queen.” He is wise beyond his years The answer she was looking for was a God, but she was pleased with his answer as well.

The kids finished their tour and found out that they had to ask in French for their treasure at the coat check. They were rewarded with a game of the sites of Paris. What a wonderful surprise for all of us and a souvenir that were weren’t expecting. YAY!!

Tired and hungry, we left the Louvre looking for a taxi. It is nearly impossible to find a taxi for 5 people. As were we walking the streets we spotted a McDonalds. The kids were so hungry we decided to stop there and feed them before setting off in search of the subway stop. The food ordered, we found a table in the corner upstairs and started to chow down. As we were eating, I turned to see a mouse running behind the kids booth. This is not the big huggable mouse that I was waiting to see in DLP. No, this was a little grey mouse with no clothes scampering through a restaurant I where I was eating. GROSS!! “Oh my goodness!! A mouse!! We have to leave right now, YUCK” I exclaimed.

Samantha stood up to look and the other kids looked around their feet, but no one could see him. They must have been starving because they all just sat there eating. Maybe they didn’t believe me. Finally, the mouse ran out from behind the kids booth and back to another woman’s bag. I didn’t see this, but Diego told me later that he saw the mouse crawl into the woman’s bag sitting on the floor. He explained, “I have no idea how to say ‘Hey lady there is a mouse in your bag’ so I just sat there and did nothing.” That poor woman!

Tired and full, we found the metro station and made our way back to our hotel. After being up since the previous morning we fell into our beds ready for long deep sleep.

 

[Carrie_Cat]

We had them in the old appartment building. It's because of all the restaurants and really old buildings. They live in the walls and you see them in certain metro stations running around on the tracks.

Rather them than rats though **shudders** I wonder if the women took it home with her or if it escaped before her leaving.

Moving on, love the pictures from the Seine,Tour Eiffel and the Louvre. Nice to see Flat Stanley getting in on the action.

What a great tour/game the children did in the Louvre. I had no idea that you could do something like that. Will have to see for when my niece comes over if it's possible as I think she might like that a lot. Was it easy to set up ?

 

[sweetlovin']

More pics from the 1st day

The first page of the book of the tour

Spirit of Victory

 

[sweetlovin']

What a great tour/game the children did in the Louvre. I had no idea that you could do something like that. Will have to see for when my niece comes over if it's possible as I think she might like that a lot. Was it easy to set up ?

Yes, it was very easy to set up. I went through and googled family tours in Paris and this was one of the links.

http://www.parismuse.com/seminars/family.shtml

It's expensive, but it was completely worth it. I will say, Samantha really needed some help. But it was explained later that when its two 4 yos or 2 10yos it is easier than a 10yo and 6yo. So as we were going through, I noticed Nico answering most of the questions not Julie. But towards the end, Nico started to not feel well and he started kind of walking slower and not responding as much to the tour guide. But when he stopped answering, Julie took over and right at the Mona Lisa Alexandra asked for a recap of what they learned. It was Julianna that gave every detail. So even though she wasn't responding to all the questions, she was learning the information. This tour, for my family, was worth every penny.

 

[sweetlovin']

Sat April 2nd A Walking We Shall Go

The junior suite at Hotel du Cadran was amazing!! Big for a European hotel, the room had 1 double bed and 3 twin sized beds. Two in the same room and one off towards the bathroom, almost like a separate room. I wish I had pictures of the room because it was so lovely! We all fit quite nicely and had enough space so that we didn’t feel as though we were on top of each other. The wall next to the bed had sliding mirrors for closets and slippers were provided to walk on the hardwood floor. The room was absolutely lovely. Again, thank goodness for my months of research, I had chosen wisely.

I should point out here, that I sleep by myself. I have been sleeping in my own room for years now and I am used to quiet, dark, peaceful sleeps. I knew going into this that Diego, aka Lee, snores. I don’t drink at all, so I came prepared with lots and lots of Nyquil pills to knock me out, knowing that my body would respond quite nicely to the alcohol induced sleep. No amount of pills or drugs could help with the noise coming from Diego’s mouth. I swear, every time he would breath out, the walls shook. I was nervous fire was going to start appearing from him. So while most of the crew slept peacefully (and some loudly) I tossed and turned all night. About 4am, Samantha, who had chosen to sleep in the bed off by itself, crawled into my bed with me frightened and for some reason, her snuggling up put me to sleep for about two hours.

We awoke to get ready for our day ahead. We had noticed a bakery right on the corner where our hotel sat. The scent of warm fresh baked pastries greeted us as we walked up to the counter . “Je voudrais sa” I pointed as I went through and ordered. The French studying was working as I pointed at warm doughnuts, chocolate croissant, warm muffins and such. un deux trois quatre cinq, I could even give the woman the amounts. Wow, kudos to Rosetta Stone and Rocket French, it works!!

We got our goodies and stopped at the market right across the street from the hotel. Diego went in this time to buy the drinks. He had been studying French as well, and wanted to test his knowledge. When he got up to the cashier, she rang him up and said, “Neuf Euro” He responded, “Je ne comprends pas” she pointed at the screen and he paid the money. “Merci, au revoir” he replied. He was so excited and proud to have had an entire conversation in French.

We ate our goodies and realizing the time, had the hotel call us a taxi. At this point, Diego was carrying almost everything in his magical vest. He had pockets of pockets of places to put things. So, he was carrying the directions of where to meet our next tour guide. We got into the taxi and made our way to Notre Dame Cathedral. We got out of the taxi and looked for the statue where we were to meet our tour guide. After walking around for a little while, Diego pulled out the paper again only to find out we were suppose to be at Place des Vosges!! We were completely lost and the taxi had left long ago. Diego stopped a nice Frenchman and asked for directions, however, we were very limited in our French skills. With Diego leading the way, we walked what seemed like forever to yet another wrong statue. At this point, the tour company called me and explained where to go (we were really far) and to take the subway. We went to the subway station and the guy explained we were better off walking since it was one stop away and not a far walk. I think he didn’t see the 6yo we had in tow, or maybe 6yos walk extremely fast in Paris. Samantha and trailed behind the others as we walked for about 15 to 20 minutes to our destination.

Place Des Vosges was absolutely beautiful!!

It was the first planned square in Paris tucked away from the busy city streets. “Ah, the beautiful part of Paris I thought to myself.

Rachel our tour guide had waited almost 45 minutes and she was still there when we arrived. This was the same tour company at the Treasure Hunt of the Louvre. If it was anything like the previous night, we were in for an amazing treat. Rachel gave the kids compasses and books to write down their clues.

Today, the kids were to lead the way down the streets of Paris to all the destinations in the book, again, using hints and clues (and compasses) to find the way. I was so thankful Diego wasn’t put in charge to lead the way.



The tour was called “If building could talk” and we made the same walk that Victor Hugo made years ago when he was writing his book ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

This tour was amazing as we were led through the beautiful small gardens,

big gorgeous buildings,

we even got to see the last part of the original wall surrounding Paris. The only part of the wall still intect.

This tour was worth every penny as we walked our way through the streets and alleyways, ending up right back at the Notre Dame Cathedral.