Paris

Traveling with kids is just so much different than without kids. All the travel guides usually don't tell you the cool places to take kids. Thankfully there is pinterest these days and I spent time on there researching places to go and things to do with kids in each city we went. The weather in Paris was amazing the whole time we were there. It was in the 70's and sunny. It made spending time outside at many of Paris's amazing parks a breeze. 

We spent a lot of time in parks just playing. There is a huge park, Champ de Mars, that the eiffel tower is at the beginning of. Besides tourists walking far enough back to take full shots of the tower, the park really doesn't have tourists in it. And, there are THREE different play areas for kids in it! One was practically at the base of the tower and had amazing views. For a while, we were the only people in that play area. It was like our own little paradise.

Paris is full of carousels. It seems like there is one everywhere you look. And, the kids did a stint on a double decker one that had a view of the eiffel tower. But, the really cool one was a little hand crank carousel tucked back in a park. The French man operating it obviously loved his job. He would make the kids laugh and laugh...which considering that there is a language barrier proves that language isn't everything. 

There was also a petal car track in the park that the kids tried out. It was again run by a French man that seemed to love children. He cheered Connor on...of course, I don't actually know what he was saying...and both kids got excited and loved it.

The flat we stayed in was an airbnb find. It was about half the price of a decent hotel room. I really wanted us to stay close to the tower, since that was the main reason we were going. Not only was it close, but we had a view of it too. Both kids liked watching the tower "sparkle" each hour. And Connor even woke up one morning and checked to make sure the tower was still there.

 

We did a ton of walking around in Paris. One day we walked 7.5 miles. Connor actually did pretty good walking, but in the end, ended up on Ian's shoulders. Isla actually took a couple hour nap in the stroller while we were walking. Aww, the time change...it actually has her napping daily! Of course, nights aren't necessarily the best ;)

 

When we left Paris, we took a flight to Edinburgh. Isla fell asleep while we were checking in for the flight. She even slept when we took her out of her stroller and went through security. At the door to the plane, she woke when we took her out of her stroller. She literally went mental. She was kicking and screaming and I was afraid they were going to throw us off the flight before it even started...the flight attendant was kind of being mean to us about the whole thing, as if we planned it! Once we were in the air, she calmed down. But, it was a lot of crying, kicking and screaming before that. Let's just say I am not ready for our long haul flight back to America next week!

After the perfect weather we had in Paris, it was a slight shock to the system to get into Edinburgh and have the highs be in the low 50's. But being able to cozy up under a bunch of blankets in bed is one of my favorites, so I didn't mind. More on our trip to Edinburgh to come...

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