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Paris & Germany: Day-by-Day

April 3, 2018 / Comments (0)

A year ago, I bought one-way tickets from NY to Paris. For $150 each, I couldn’t pass it up. I figured I had a year to figure it out. A year sure flies by!

This blog will give you quick details of our trip to Paris and Germany, day-by day. I tarveled with my 5-year daughter and 8-year old son.The Mission Paris book in the photo was awesome. It has a bunch of the most visited places in Paris and the kids had to hunt for different objects.

Random Things to Note

  • We took the metro everywhere. No need to rent a car for what we did.
  • Discover and AMEX are not widely accepted at all.
  • Your credit/debit card must have a chip in it to be used.
  • The kids are not very adventurorus when it comes to food. We mostly ate street food, pizza, and meals I cooked.

Day 0

Fly from Charlotte to NJ – stayed with friends. ($225)

Fly from EWR to Paris s on TAP Portugal. ($450)

 

TAP Portugal is an amazing airline. The kids felt like royalty. Full meals, goodies bags, cupcakes (wine for mom!), in-flight entertainment, the whole nine.

We went through customs in Lisbon. Kicked myself for not getting Global Entry – I had plenty of time to get it done. Kids were tired and whiney. Waited an hour.

Flew from Lisbon to Paris. Used Blacklane car service to our Airbnb. The car was waiting for us when we arrived. ($6o)

Checked in to our Airbnb at 1PM. ($615). It was located in the 13th and close to two metro stops, restaurants, market, etc. Would definitely stay again.

  

Slept the WHOLE day away!

Day 1

Eiffel Tower tour with Get Your Guide.  ($150) We were still very tired and arrived late. The wonderful organizer waited for us to arrive and we caught up with the guide.

Lovely tour that included summit access. It was a beautiful day to visit the Eiffel Tower. However, I don’t think I would pay for this tour again. It was fun, but overpriced.

 

Went to Laduree at my son’s request. Ate macaroons. ($20)

Spent the afternoon at Tuileries Garden. They had a fun playground and an outdoor trampoline area (6 euros). Stopped and had Bordeaux (finally!) and hot chocolate (15 euros).

 

Headed to the Catacombs for a self-guided audio tour.

Bought skip the line tickets directly from the Catacombs website (39 euros). The line was wrapped around the block,  but with our tickets we were able to walk right in.

My 5yo daughter was scared beyond belief, but she made it through okay.

My 8yo son LOVED it.

I tried to keep them going all day to get adjusted to the time change. It worked.

Day 2

Took the EuroRail to Frankfurt to visit my oldest son who is stationed in Germany ($350 R/T).

 

Spent the day at THE MOST amazing museum – Senckleburg: world of biodiversity.

Day 3

Woke up to beautiful snowfall. Headed back to Paris. The train was 90 minutes late 🙁 But they refund you 25% of the price if the train is 90 minutes late. You just fill out a form online – bonus!

The kids requested to rest. We spent the day just hanging out in our apartment.  It was cold and sleeting this day – so no complaints from me! I was able to get a lot of my work done this day.

Day 4

I was tired of family selfies from our California Trip, so I had booked a two-hour photo shoot with Michel from photoinparis.com. It was chilly, but we had an amazing time! And I am in love with our photos. (250 euros)

I really wanted to see the Lourve, but was nervous about dragging my kids through such a huge place without a plan.  I booked a treasure hunt tour with Paris Muse. ($400)

Izaiah and Reyna were art history secret spies looking for specific clues. Julian, our guide, was engaging with lots of fun stories that kept the kids interests for two hours. We hit the museum high points and all learned a lot. Expensive but worth it! A really wonderful experience!

Day 5

Disneyland Paris! ($150)

We took the train from Paris to Disney. The train drops you off right at the entrance. It started snowing as soon as we arrived – which was magical. But then it got REALLY cold! I mean so cold, my tears froze. The kids were fine and it ended up warming up. It was more crowded then I thought it would be for a cold Tuesday, but we had a great time.

 

Day 6 – 8

This is when our travel woes began. Our flight to NY was cancelled due to Winter Storm Toby. Norwegain Air couldn’t get us on a new flight for FIVE days! Now, I loved Paris, but it was time to go home. We decided to fly into Orlando the following day, spent the night there, and fly home the next day. In all honesty, Norwegian Air was terrible about the whole thing. I will never fly them again.

All in all, we had an AMAZING trip. I loved Paris and seeing it through the eyes of my children was even better! I would love to go back with adults and do a foodie adventure and wine tour. Who’s in?

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