Our week in Paris with three children was a whirlwind. While I cull through my 1500+ pictures and pages of journal entries, gearing up to write another trip report, here’s a quick photo gallery of Paris in autumn. It’s well known that Paris is beautiful in spring. But I never considered the color that would [...]

A previous trip with our toddler Ada showed us that traveling with children, while challenging, could still be fun and we were eager to do it again. Then I got pregnant with twin boys. While overwhelmed raising a toddler and two demanding babies, I believed my days of international travel were over. As they grew [...]

After a day of packing, cleaning, and watching the San Francisco Giants beat the Phillies in the playoff game, we loaded the car with luggage and kids, and took off for the Hyatt Airport Hotel. Staying for one night at the hotel equaled ten days of free parking and a free shuttle to and from [...]

There are several options on how to get from the airport into Paris: metro, taxi, shuttle service, and private car. We chose the last option even though it’s the most expensive, because it’s also the easiest.  We avoided  learning how to use the metro with jet lag, luggage and children;  we avoided finding a five [...]

It was 2 o’clock in the morning, and the kids were eating yogurt in the kitchen. Don’t you just love jet lag? They promised to get back in bed, only if they slept with us: Ethan and Chase followed Aaron to one bedroom, while Ada snuggled into bed with me. Within minutes, the sweet sound [...]

After spending the day navigating through churches with opinionated  kids, Aaron and I needed to unwind. And we needed to find a daily itinerary that satisfied everyone in the family. Once they kids fell asleep — and after a few glasses of wine —  Aaron got a little too relaxed, and said a few things that [...]

It was still our third day in Paris. My mood had traveled from elation after seeing Monet’s Waterlilies alone, to despair once I returned home and heard about the knock on the apartment door. After getting the kids outside to play in the rain, Aaron and I came up with a plan: exhaust the kids. [...]

Our heads buzzed from sugar and caffeine, our lungs longed for fresh air, and our legs were ready to run. After spending the last few hours restrained and under our best behavior while touring the Louvre, we  were eager to spend the last few hours of our third day exploring Parisian parks. Since  our hop-on/off [...]

I strut down the streets of Paris, listening to the echo of my heeled boots — alone.  With my wallet newly stuffed from the ATM, and a bag of breakfast goodies in my hand, my head is in the morning clouds, living an alternate life — no longer a Mom, but as a mysterious woman. [...]

I stood at the base of the Arc de Triomphe full of awe and fear. You see, I’m scared of heights. I worry that for some dumb reason I’ll throw myself over the edge, something I did once before. When I was 16 years old, I jumped off a 30 ft cliff into the ocean in [...]

My favorite meal on a trip is usually a mix of mouth-watering flavor and ideal atmosphere. While visiting Vancouver Island, it was eating fresh Halibut on the patio of a restaurant at sunset while watching planes land on the inlet. In Tuscany we devoured homemade pie made  from local berries  in a quaint trattoria. But [...]

While researching our trip to Paris, the theme I saw time and again, was that Paris was family-friendly because of its numerous parks. There are small ones where you’d least expect them (next to Notre Dame).  Or parks with fountains, tennis courts, cafes, and breathtakingly beautiful ones — like  Luxembourg Gardens. Luxembourg Gardens is an [...]

  She towered in front of us, an intricate shadow against a blindingly bright morning sky. A touristy grin spread from ear to ear, and I squealed to the kids “Look! Look! It’s the Eiffel Tower!” We were standing on the terrace in front of the Palais Chaillot, which not only looks over the Jardins [...]

  Herding kids through Paris wasn’t easy. Because there is just so much to see when you’re only four feet high. They’d step into a street to watch a leaf floating in a puddle, oblivious to the bus lumbering towards them. They’d dance, run or wrestle on the sidewalks, bumping into bystanders.  They’d see something [...]

  Have you ever made a friend online?   I met my first internet friend Julia from England, on a travel forum when I posted that I was pregnant with twins several years ago. Julia was not only a Mom of twin boys, she was a family-travel enthusiast; we immediately clicked.  What began as a [...]

  We loved riding the Metro. It was the fastest and easiest way to zip from one side of Paris to the other. There are many online sites that thoroughly describe how to buy a Metro ticket, explain the complex Metro map, how easy it is to transfer between trains, and so on. What I [...]

  It was twilight. We were cozy in our apartment after spending our last day in Paris visiting Sacre Coeur. As I began packing our bags, a feeling nagged at me, as if we forgot to do something, but I couldn’t figure out what. Then it hit me – we never saw the Eiffel Tower [...]

This apartment was  slightly (really) over our budget, but it included everything on my apartment rental wish list: two bedrooms, bathtub for kids, washer/dryer, fantastic location (bonus: in the rich-with-history Palais Royal – Palais Royal Gardens literally at our doorstep), walking distance to the Louvre and Tuileries Garden, and next to a main metro station. [...]