February 16, 2025 • 49 mins
Thinking about traveling to France while pregnant? In Discovering Paris and Provins on a Babymoon Adventure, host Annie Sargent chats with Hannah Compton about her unforgettable trip at 30 weeks pregnant. From the bustling streets of Paris to the medieval charm of Provins, Hannah shares her insights, surprises, and tips for expectant travelers.
Hannah and her husband spent eight days in France, splitting their time between Paris and Provins. In Paris, they explored iconic sights like Sainte-Chapelle, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Petit Palais. Hannah describes how friendly and accommodating Parisians were, from offering seats on the metro to helping her skip long lines at attractions. She also shares the joy of café culture, strolling through beautiful gardens, and enjoying a Michelin-star meal at Yam’Tcha.
In Provins, they immersed themselves in medieval history, attended a lively dinner show, and discovered charming streets. Hannah explains why Provins is a great weekend destination, especially for families. She also reflects on the ease of train travel and the relaxing pace of their visit.
If you’re curious about how France accommodates pregnant travelers or want inspiration for your next trip, this episode is packed with useful advice. Tune in for a fun and informative conversation!
Table of Contents for this Episode
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Annie (00:15):
This is Join Us in France, episode 533, cinq cent trente trois.
Bonjour, I'm Annie Sargent, and Join Usin France is the podcast where we take
a conversational journey through thebeauty, culture, and flavors of France.
Today, I bring you a conversation withHannah Compton about her unforgettable
babymoon adventure in France, fromexploring the medieval charms of Provins,
(00:42):
to navigating the busting streetsof Paris while 30 weeks pregnant.
Hannah shares her unique insightsand invaluable tips for traveling
under special circumstances.
Whether you're planning a trip toFrance or just love a good travel
story, this episode is packed withdelightful experiences and practical
advice you will not want to miss.
(01:03):
This podcast is supported by donorsand listeners who buy my tours and
services, including my ItineraryConsult Service, my GPS self-guided
tours of Paris on the VoiceMap app,or take a day trip with me around the
Southwest of France in my electric car.
You can browse all of that at myboutique: joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
(01:24):
And Patreon supporters get new episodesas soon as they are ready and ad-free.
If that sounds good to you, andI hope it does, be like them,
follow the link in the show notes.
For the Magazine part of the podcast,after the interview today, I'll discuss
Picard, the stores and why they are yourfriend while spending time in France.
(01:45):
I'll also explain how AI helpsme when producing this podcast.
Oh, my goodness, Annie mightbe turning into a robot!
Bonjour, Hannah Compton, andwelcome to Join Us in France.
Hannah (02:07):
Bonjour.
Bonjour, Annie.
Annie (02:09):
Bonjour.
Wonderful to talk to you todayabout your babymoon in France.
What an experience you had.
What an adventure.
I want to hear all about it.
So, this took place in December 2024?
Hannah (02:24):
End of September of 2023.
Annie (02:26):
Okay.
Very good.
Excellent.
And what made you decide to come inFrance, under those circumstances?
Hannah (02:34):
So, you know, similar to most people, we had a big Europe
trip planned for Summer of 2020.
Obviously that did not happen.
We ended up having our 1stchild in the Spring of 2021.
And so then, when we were pregnantwith our 2nd, we found out when we
were due at the end of November, it waslike, okay, we need to go to France,
we've got to go to Europe now becauseI don't know with two kids when we're
(02:56):
going to get a chance to do it again.
Annie (02:58):
That's true.
That's true.
So, you had baby in towand you were pregnant.
Hannah (03:03):
Well, our oldest actually stayed home, my mother was able to watch him.
It was just my husband and I, and thenobviously the baby in tow in my belly.
Annie (03:13):
In the belly, excellent.
So does that change things?
Had you been to France beforewithout being pregnant?
Hannah (03:20):
I had been to France and Europe before when I was in
college for a study abroad program,but I had not been back since.
And my husband had not been at all.
So he was a little nervous with thingsand we were a little nervous to see,
you know, to see what I would be ableto do and up to because I was about
30 weeks pregnant whenever we went.
But we were both pleasantly surprised withhow, you know, pretty seamless everything
(03:44):
was and how accommodating the people were.
And so it was actually areally great experience.
Annie (03:49):
How long did you spend?
Hannah (03:50):
We were there about 8 days.
So, we spent 3 or 4 days in Paris,and then we spent a few days in
Provins, just outside of Paris,and kind of the Champagne region.
Annie (04:00):
Oh, Provins.
Okay.
So, you spent several days there.
Okay.
I want to hear all about that becausethat is not one I have been to.
I've heard about it, butI haven't been there.
Oh, perhaps we should start with that.
What was it like going to Provins?
You went on the train, I suppose?
Hannah (04:15):
Yes, we took the train.
It was very easy.
You know, there's multipletrains going there a day.
I believe it leaves out of Gare de l'Est.
So that was really easy to navigate.
We just bought tickets there,you know, at the kiosk same day.
I think there's 1 that leavesevery hour, or 2 hours like that.
Annie (04:30):
Yeah, it's a regional train from Gare de l'Est.
So yeah, you don't have tobook that in advance typically.
Hannah (04:35):
No, it was really easy, just buy the ticket, walk right on.
And it was pretty seamless,you know, hour and a half.
The train station, it was pretty walkablefrom the train station to the B&B we
stayed at, which was kind of, Provinsis kind of the medieval portion of
it, which is the main reason peoplego is kind of a little bit up a hill.
And the B&B we stayed at waskind of at the base of it.
(04:56):
So it was really easy to just walk there,drop off our bags, and then head uphill
and explore, which was probably the mostdifficult part of the trip, was just
walking up those... we kind of had to paceit like, do I really want to do it again?
Or we kind of had a plan around that.
But yeah, that was great.
I feel like we maybe stayeda little bit too long.
It's definitely a weekend city.
But especially if you havesmall children, it was great.
(05:19):
They have lots of little shows,knights jousting, and falconry.
Lots of especially French familiesthere with their little children
dressed up as like princessesand knights and stuff like that.
That was really cute to see.
But even just seeing all the medievalarchitecture and everything, was
fun and really neat as an adult.
Annie (05:39):
Right, right.
So this is an actual fortified area.
This is the one that's closest to Paris.
It's not a reproduction.
And so it's fun that you can doit as a, I mean, most people, like
you said, it's a weekend thing.
You know, you go... you couldgo for just the day, but you
wouldn't be able to see everything.
If you wanted to see everything, you wouldhave to spend at least one night, I think.
(06:03):
Two nights might be overkill, but maybewith little kids, if they really want to
go back, and back, and back, and back.
That would be a fun thing to do.
It's kind of dead the rest of the week.
So, I recommend you just go on weekends.
You look at their schedule,they publish their schedule.
And you know, even weekends in February,there's not going to be that much.
(06:25):
I mean, there's going tobe some, but not that much.
So, it's best to go during thegood season, which September
is fine, and on weekends.
Hannah (06:35):
I would agree with that.
We stayed there, I think, until a Tuesday.
We were there for a full Mondayand it was just kind of like,
all right, what can we do?
What's open?
But, you know, they do have a littleProvins pass that includes entrance to
all of the historical sites and aspectsof it that I think is about 15 Euros.
So we did that.
Annie (06:54):
Mm hmm.
Hannah (06:55):
And then we did also, we didn't do the jousting show, but we did do a
dinner theater, I guess what they haveit called the Banquet des Troubadours.
That was a fun kind of entertainingshow and they had people that were
juggling, and people that were doingfire breathing, and it was kind of a
comedy show and it had food with it.
And they had costumesfor you to dress up in.
(07:16):
So that was fun.
Yeah, it was really fun.
They did pick on us because I thinkwe were the only Americans there.
So they made... they made lots oflittle jokes and they kept grabbing
my husband out to try to participatein things and then made jokes when he
couldn't juggle or things like that.
But it was really fun.
The only caveat with that was theshow was predominantly in French.
So, but we did have people sittingnext to us that did speak English,
(07:39):
so they did a lot of translatingfor us, and we were still able to
have a really good time with that.
It was fun.
Annie (07:43):
That's good.
Is the food any good?
Hannah (07:45):
It was, I mean, it wasn't a gourmet experience by any means.
It was good.
It was fine.
There were people near us that haddifferent dietary accommodations,
like, they didn't have dairy orthings like that, and they were able
to accommodate them pretty well too.
Annie (07:57):
Very good.
Very good.
So yeah, so perhaps arrive on a Saturdaymorning and leave on the Sunday evening.
Mm hmm.
Hannah (08:05):
Yeah, something like that.
Yeah, if there's, I mean,it's easy to do that.
I think, yeah, in a day and a half,two days total, it would be pretty
easy to see what you would want to see.
And they have a really beautiful rosegarden as well, which was nice to
just kind of calmly meander through,we did that on the Monday when
everything was pretty, you know, dead.
Annie (08:22):
Mm hmm.
Hannah (08:23):
And even at the end of September, there were a lot of things still
blooming, you know, not as much as Iwould imagine there would be in July,
but it was still beautiful just to wanderthe paths and it was relaxing, and there
were benches for me to sit on when wegot tired and everything like that.
And so that was really that wasfun and nice to go to as well.
Annie (08:40):
That's good.
That's excellent.
So the dinner was mostly in French,was the rest of the attractions,
did you have English anywhere?
Like, the museums and things,could you read stuff in English?
Hannah (08:52):
The main, the big attraction that you go into is called
Caesar's Tower, Caesar's Keep,and it's the big medieval tower.
And so that was fun.
They have stairs, you can wind yourway, walk all the way up to the top.
And that was just, I think theydo have guided tours, but we
just kind of did our own thing.
And then they also had, includingthat pass, they have all these
underground tunnels that theyused to store all the goods and
(09:16):
stuff for it being a trading town.
And I think they do have an English tour,but it's they only have so many per week.
So the one that we did wastechnically in French, but we just
kind of, you know, meandered aroundand looked around sort of thing.
Annie (09:28):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And even on the Monday when thereweren't a lot of things happening,
the restaurants and things were open.
Hannah (09:35):
They were open in the evenings, especially for dinner.
There was a main one kind of inthe regular town square, not the
medieval square that we ate atthat was an Italian and pizza shop.
And that's where we ended up eatingmost time just because it was open.
And they were open, that's a place thatthe locals tend to go more than up on
the hill where the tourist section is.
But a lot of the stores, and thingslike that, were closed on Monday.
Annie (09:57):
So you have a small medieval section, and you
have a small, is it a village?
Hannah (10:01):
Yeah, I'd say it's probably what would be more similar to an
actual French village, yeah, atthe bottom of the hill, kind of...
Annie (10:06):
Yeah.
But since there is a train, you probablyhave people that just get on the
train to go to work in Paris there.
I would assume.
Yeah, because I mean, there's a train.
It's pretty fast.
So yeah.
All right.
Okay.
So let's talk now about thetime you spent in Paris.
First of all, did you have, didyou run into any problems related
to your pregnancy while you wereaway or did it all go swimmingly?
Hannah (10:31):
Honestly, it all went very swimmingly, we didn't necessarily plan
a lot for each day because we weren'tsure what I would feel up to doing, you
know, what the pace would need to be.
But, I mean, we would usually comeback in the afternoon, maybe to take
a nap or rest, but otherwise, we werepretty well out and about most days.
We took the Metro everywhere, andhonestly, that wasn't bad at all.
(10:54):
A lot of the different stations wouldhave elevators to go up or down.
And even on the Metro trains, I waspleasantly surprised of how many people
would see me and, you know, try to motionto me like, oh, do you want this seat?
Sort of thing like that.
So, everyone was reallynice and accommodating.
And even when we would go to thedifferent museums or things like that
too, a lot of the security guards wouldsee me and say, Oh, you need to come to
(11:17):
the front of the line, you don't needto wait in this line sort of thing.
So it was very nice.
I definitely did not experience that,I have not experienced that as much in
the States as I have over in France.
So that was a nice welcome surprise.
Annie (11:29):
Yeah, this is normal.
I mean, they don't always notice thatyou're pregnant, but if they do, they will
usually wave you to the front of the line.
Same with a wheelchair orcrutches or things like that.
They usually pay attention.
The security guards pay attentionto those sorts of things.
And I assume you weren't travelingaround with like a big bag or whatever
(11:51):
so it didn't, I mean, when you'regoing places with the baby, you have
to have a baby bag, but the babywas in the belly, so no diapers yet!
Hannah (12:02):
My arms were more free.
I just had like a small satchelpurse that I carried around.
So yeah.
It was very nice.
And even in the tours too, they wouldsend me like, Oh, no, go to the front of
the checkout line and things like that.
Annie (12:13):
Nice.
That's very nice.
So what part of Paris were you staying in?
Hannah (12:17):
We stayed in Saint Germain, in a hotel right by Café Flore.
So, it was very close to, I think,two different metro stations.
So that was nice for convenience fortraveling and even just walking around
in the area or going to differentcafes and stuff was very nice.
Very convenient.
Annie (12:35):
So what sort of traveler are you?
Did you have a whole listof things you wanted to do?
All organized?
Or were you more like,okay, I'll, we'll just...
Hannah (12:44):
So, I guess that's the difference between my husband and I, because,
generally, and when I'm not pregnant andwe're traveling, we are both very type
A and we like to have an itinerary andwe like to be very busy the beginning
and see all the things we need to seeand then kind of relax at the end.
But with this, you know, we kindof had a light itinerary, but we
didn't end up staying pretty busy.
(13:04):
He had not been to Europe before,so he was a little bit more wary
and tepid about certain things.
Annie (13:10):
Meaning?
Tepid about what?
Hannah (13:13):
I think just the, like, especially the transportation a little
bit, not necessarily the metro oncewe were there, but he did not want
to take the RER from the airport tothe hotel, he wanted to take a taxi
because he was nervous about it.
Annie (13:26):
Well, that's what you should do anyway, yes.
Hannah (13:29):
Well, I guess that day, I don't know if it was because we landed ours
was an overnight flight from Dallas.
So we, we landed in the morning,so I don't know if we kind of got
stuck in some commuter traffic, butit seemed to take a really long time
to get from the airport into Paris
. Annie: That's how it
goes.
Which it's probably just maybehow it is, but we took...
Annie (13:50):
That's when most people arrive from the US.
They fly in between 7:30 and 11.
And then the planes turn aroundand leave between noon and 3.
Hannah (14:00):
Yeah, and so we did take the RER from Paris back to the airport,
and that was really easy and seamless.
So we might do that again ifwe ever go back is take the
RER just because otherwise, youknow, we're relatively young.
We can navigate the metrosand everything really easily.
Annie (14:15):
Yeah, you just have to be aware of one problem with taking the
RER is that when the RER stops, thereare some direct ones, don't stop,
which are the best ones to take.
You, even if you have to wait a littlebit, even if you have to wait 20 minutes
to get on the direct RER, you're betteroff because there's all sorts of scammers
(14:36):
on the ones that stop here and there.
They find a mark that they findeasy and they grab their stuff
and run and then the doors closeand there's nothing you can do.
Hannah (14:47):
Yeah.
Especially if you've got a bigsuitcase, it's harder to run or to stop.
Annie (14:51):
Exactly.
That's why when people are jetlagged and whatever, I think you're
just better off taking the metro.
It's depending on whereyou're going, it's 65 or less.
It's a set fare, whether you arriveon a Sunday, or a Monday, or whatever.
So, it's not the end of the world,but you are young and younguns
will be more frugal, I guess.
(15:13):
But with the two of you, once you'vebought your ticket, it's 12, 13, 14 Euros.
I'm not sure.
So, you know, it's not that much less.
Hannah (15:19):
No, it's not, with two people versus splitting a cab.
Yeah, that was the only thing.
And, you know, my husband, I thinkhis favorite thing about the trip
was cafe culture and getting anespresso, you know, four times a day,
every single time we had a chance to.
And he also enjoyed just walking, andall the street food, and getting crepes
at night, and all that kind of stuff.
(15:40):
We both like to see things, we bothlike museums, walking around the
gardens, all the different onesin Paris and everything like that.
It was a nice, relaxing trip.
Annie (15:49):
Right.
So it looks like you went to theEiffel Tower on the first day.
No, that was your second day.
Hannah (15:55):
We did walk to Trocadero just, we kind of walked, took the metro,
walked over to Trocadero just to view it.
We were there around the timeof the World Rugby Championship
stuff, and also probably Olympicpreparations as well, far in advance.
And so a lot of scaffolding and thingslike that up and around where you couldn't
explore it as much as you normally would.
But we saw that and thenwe went over to the Louvre.
(16:19):
We didn't have tickets to go see it,but just walked around, you know, the
central area, looked at the architecture,walked around the Tuileries, and then
we went to the Orangerie the first day.
Annie (16:31):
Mm hmm.
Okay.
Did you get tickets to go intothe Louvre on a different day?
Hannah (16:36):
No, we didn't.
We didn't do the Louvre at all.
I had been there before andit wasn't really something my
husband was passionate about.
And then we knew that if we went, itwould take a solid amount of time.
Yeah.
Annie (16:45):
So a tip for people who don't necessarily want to see the Louvre, but
they would like to, you know, look aroundlike you did, you can go through, if you
get into the museum from Rue de Rivoli.
So there's an entrance for the mall there,or on both sides of the Arc de Triomphe.
So there's this beautiful arch bythe Louvre, and on both sides of
(17:10):
that there's stairs that take youdownstairs, and you can look around
downstairs, there's a lot you can lookat before anybody asks you for a ticket.
So you can see the old parts of thecastle, because it was a chateau
and it was rebuilt a few times.
So you can see the old partsof that underground before
anybody asks for your ticket.
(17:30):
There's a little mall area.
Anyway, there's things that you can do,and you can see the upside down pyramids,
the small ones, they're underground.
It's worth going in just to look around,even if you don't go into the museum.
And that's totally free.
They only ask you for your ticketsfor the museum once you start entering
(17:51):
the different wings of the Louvre.
So, that first day you just lookedaround a little bit and did you
try to stay up till it was darkor did you go to sleep early?
I think we made ourselves stayup until at least around 7 PM.
That's not bad!
Hannah (18:07):
So, yeah, I was pleasantly surprised, you know, despite the jet
lag and everything, I think, makingourselves get up and walk around and
try to acclimate to the daylight isthe best thing we could have done.
And I was surprised,
it really wasn't too bad.
So we did a relatively early dinnerand then went to bed and, we're
pretty much able to reset the nextday and not have too much of an issue.
Annie (18:27):
Right.
Then the next day you wentto, let's see, let's see.
Oh, you went to the Saint Chapelle or,no, that was on, I'm on day two now.
So on day two...
Hannah (18:38):
Our first day was just the travel day.
Annie (18:39):
Okay, okay.
Hannah (18:41):
Day 3, yeah, we did do Saint Chapelle.
Annie (18:43):
So you went to the Saint Chapelle.
Did you book tickets in advance for that?
Hannah (18:46):
Yeah, so we had done, actually, the Paris Museum pass.
We did the 2 day pass, which Iactually learned is 48 hours.
So we actually used it the day beforewhen we went to the Orangerie, but
activated at 3 p. m. So we kind ofalmost had two and a half or three
days to use it, which was nice.
Annie (19:04):
Okay.
And you got away with that even with thenew... yeah, they just let you do it.
Hannah (19:09):
Yeah, because we did the Orangerie that first day, we did
museums the 2nd day and then we usedit again that next morning for the
Arc de Triomph e and everything.
Yeah.
Annie (19:17):
Right.
Right.
So, okay.
So you can do half days as well.
Hannah (19:21):
Yeah, so I guess you get an afternoon, one full
day, and then the morning.
Annie (19:25):
Okay.
That makes sense.
That makes sense.
So you went to the Sainte Chapelle.
You didn't have to reserve a specifictime for the Sainte Chapelle because...
Hannah (19:32):
We did, because that's... that was one of the ones, both the Orangerie
and Saint Chapelle are ones that youhave to make reservations for, but
they're free reservations as long asyou show up with your museum pass.
Annie (19:42):
Was that easy?
Making the time reservations?
Hannah (19:45):
Yeah, I just went on to the Orangerie website and went to
the Saint Chapelle website and justselected the museum pass option and
then printed my reservation, butdidn't have to pay anything for it.
Annie (19:55):
Perfect.
Perfect.
Very good.
Did you enjoy the Orangerieand the Sainte Chapelle?
What did you think?
Hannah (20:02):
Yes, so I love the Orangerie, you know, the water lilies obviously
are very beautiful and that'swhat they're most famous for.
And it was, even though it was relativelycrowded in there, they want everyone to
be quiet and it's still a very peacefulexperience and just being able to see
these huge paintings and being able to seeall the brush strokes and how different
it looks up close versus a little bitfarther away was just really neat to see.
(20:25):
And the Saint Chapelle also justbeautiful, and I had listened to
the episode that you and Elyse haddone about it, and all the different
stained glass in it, and how all thedifferent stained glasses are different
Bible stories, and that was neat togo in and try to figure out what the
different ones were trying to depict.
Annie (20:43):
It's hard, isn't it?
Hannah (20:44):
And I was like, I don't think I know this one.
Annie (20:46):
Yes, yes.
It's because this is thelanguage of the Middle Ages.
We don't talk like that anymore.
We've changed a bit,but they're beautiful.
Whatever, even if you don'tunderstand a single thing that
you look at it, they're beautiful.
That's wonderful.
Did you have any favoriterestaurants that day?
You mentioned that you had alunch at a cafe called Lulu's.
Hannah (21:08):
So that was in the Latin Quarter.
That had been suggested to usby my in laws that had been
to Paris the year before.
And so that is actually rightbehind the Cluny Museum, I believe.
And so it was nice.
It was pretty light.
It was a light lunch.
That's kind of what we wanted.
But they, my father in law's vegan,and so they suggested that they had
eaten there a lot because they havea lot of vegan options and stuff.
(21:29):
So, but it was delicious, but then wejust went from there to the Cluny Museum.
We're like, Oh, it's right there.
I guess we'll just hop in there too.
Annie (21:35):
Yeah, yeah, so for that one, you didn't need the reservation,
you could just waltz in.
Hannah (21:41):
It was just a walk in cafe.
Yeah.
Annie (21:43):
But I mean for the Cluny Museum.
Hannah (21:45):
Yeah.
The Cluny Museum, we just, itwas not a reservation one, we
just were like, Oh, we're here.
Let's go look.
And then we said, Oh, we cango look at the original Saint
Chapelle stained glass sections.
Annie (21:53):
Correct.
Yes, yes, oh that'scool, that's very cool.
And for dinner, you went toYamcha, not familiar with that one.
Hannah (22:03):
Yeah, So, I work with a physician that is a little bit of a
Francophile and goes to Paris every year.
And that is his favorite restaurant.
So he said, if you guys aregoing, you have to go there.
So it is a, it is an AsianFrench fusion restaurant.
And every day they have adifferent 7 course tasting menu.
(22:23):
And so that's kind of the only option.
So we didn't know what we weregetting into, but it was fantastic.
I think it actually ended up beinglike 12 different plates we got
of food, even just 7 courses.
And it, I think, I believe it'sa Michelin star restaurant.
And actually the chef is featured onChef Table France on one of the episodes.
(22:43):
But it was a great experience.
The food was amazing.
Phenomenal.
They also have like a wine pairing thatyou can do or a tea pairing with all
courses, which obviously I was pregnant,so I didn't do the wine pairing, but
we did do the tea pairing with it.
So that was a fun experience.
Annie (22:59):
Very nice.
I'm glad they offer that, you know.
I know that more and fancyrestaurants will have non alcoholic
suggestions and pairings, and that'sreally good, you know, because not
everybody wants to drink, so...
Hannah (23:12):
And they were also really good when we got there about obviously
noticing that I was pregnant.
And so I was saying, okay, well,then we'll make accommodations for
that where they're, I think the onlything that was really an issue was
one of the dishes had raw oysters.
So they left that out of my dishand gave me something different.
But otherwise, they were reallyeasy as far as that goes.
Annie (23:31):
Yeah, because even in France, you know, we love our, like our
raw milk cheeses and whatever, butduring pregnancy, they recommend you
don't have those, even in France.
In America they would say never have that.
In France they say you can haveit, but not when you're pregnant.
Hannah (23:47):
Yeah, exactly.
Annie (23:48):
Which makes sense.
All right, the next day you wentto the Champs Élysées and the
Arc de Triomphe, so do tell.
Hannah (23:56):
So that was probably the only day that we had bad weather.
Again, the Arc de Triomphe did notrequire reservations, but we used
our museum pass for entrance on that.
And even though it was rainy, itwas a good experience, they had
us use the elevator, so I didn'thave to climb the stairs all the
way to the top, which was nice.
But I think we were only outsidefor the viewpoint for just a few
(24:17):
minutes, huddled under our umbrella.
Annie (24:19):
It's not as nice when it's raining, is it?
I mean, you know.
Hannah (24:22):
No, it was a little bit of a downpour, you don't really have any
cover, but my husband is a big Tour deFrance fan and wanted to go up there
and see where all the bike riderscome down the Champs Élysées, so we
had, we still had to go see it anddo it, it was still a fun experience.
Annie (24:36):
And it's because you had the museum pass.
I'm glad to hear that themuseum pass, they don't make
you do reservations everywhere.
So it's more like the old style museumpass where you could just show up and they
would let you in, which is... pre COVID.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, a lot of places, they gotreally like crazy with reservations,
even in places where they can easilyhandle thousands of people at once.
(25:00):
But they were like, Oh no,you need a reservation.
Okay, whatever.
Yeah.
And you went to the Petit Palais.
Do tell about the Petit Palais.
I love this place.
I only went recently and I loved it.
I thought it was so fun.
Hannah (25:10):
Yeah, I feel like it was very underrated.
We walked along Champs Élysées, wentinto some stores, things like that.
I got some macarons fromthem, from the Lotterie.
and we were like, oh, we'reright here by Petit Palais.
Let's just go in there, becauseobviously that's a free one, free
museum all the time for everyone too.
And that one's just, you know, I've heardyou say that if you don't have time to
go to Versailles, this is a good option.
And I would agree.
(25:31):
It's very, you know, thegold gates, very ornate.
And then the inside, the architectureis just beautiful and airy.
And there's all thesealfrescos on the ceiling.
And we also really liked, I tookmy macarons and then we sat in
the middle where the kind of thegardens are and just sat there
and relaxed, ate my little snack.
Annie (25:47):
Yes, and they also have a very nice little...
Hannah (25:50):
They have a restaurant or cafe there.
Annie (25:51):
I mean, last time I was there, there were ladies next
to us having some noodles dish.
So they had like a pasta dish.
They do little sandwiches, they donibbles, they do fancy drinks, you
know, you can get something verynice and it's just a beautiful place.
I think it's perfect for people whoare not super duper into museums.
(26:12):
So they wouldn't go into the Louvre,for example, but they would like
to see something really prettyand really with beautiful art.
I thought it was splendid.
I think with kids, especially ifyou're with a, or with a person
who has limited attention span.
Let's put it this way.
It would be really good to go therebecause it doesn't take very long
(26:33):
and it is gloriously beautiful.
So, yeah, I really like that.
Hannah (26:38):
Yeah, I feel like you could easily be in and out of
there in under an hour, you know.
Annie (26:41):
Yes, yes.
And they have a nice museum shop if youwant to get a few souvenirs that are a
little bit more upscale because they arefrom a museum shop instead of from some,
you know, street seller or whatever.
Oh, you went to Saint-Sulpicethat day as well.
It's a beautiful church, isn't it?
Hannah (27:01):
That one was and that's not one that I saw on a lot of guides for things.
And I, we were eating an early dinner andI just saw it from the distance and I told
my husband, I was like, Hey, you sit here.
I'm just, if you're tiredof walking, I'm going to go.
And I just kind of wentover there by myself.
It was beautiful.
It's huge.
I wasn't expecting itto be that big either.
It's honestly interesting becausewhen I walked in, one of the things
(27:22):
I noticed too, is it seems like avery, like an active working church.
There were a lot of people in theirworshiping or in line to do, you
know, confession or things like that.
And it was interesting because that'snot something I'd seen in any of the
other churches that we'd been in.
Annie (27:36):
That's right.
That's right.
The 6th arrondissement wherethis is, is the most expensive
arrondissement in Paris.
It's where a lot of wealthy Frenchfamilies live and also wealthy
foreigners own property there.
But people, it's very interesting becausethe wealthier you are in France, the
(27:56):
more likely you are to go to church,especially in this part of Paris.
It's very, you know, like you sendyour kids to Catechism, you go to Mass.
It's just part of theroutine that they do.
So yes, it's a very active church.
The bishop has a choice ofcelebrating big events, either at
(28:19):
Saint-Sulpice or at Saint-Eustache.
Saint-Eustache in Les Halles, is a very,it's kind of a church of the people.
It's the popular church,with a lot of help for the
homeless and things like that.
Saint-Sulpice is the opposite.
It's the church of the rich people.
Hannah (28:36):
The well funded.
Annie (28:37):
Yes.
Yes.
But it's also a very active church.
There's a different feeling whenyou enter both of those churches and
I've gone to both very frequently.
Saint Sulpice also has the, kind ofthe old, they have a little hole at the
top, and on a specific day it shinesa beam of light and it helped them, le
Gnomon is what they call it in French.
(28:59):
I can't remember the way you say thatin English, but it used to tell, help
them tell, the correct day for Easter,which changes all the time and it's
kind of a difficult one to calculate.
In the Middle Ages people argued aboutwhen Easter was, it was a big deal.
It changes all the time as you know.
(29:20):
And I've heard that this particularGnomon was never very good at predicting
Easter, that it got it wrong a lot,but it's there and it's pretty.
So, yeah, it's a beautiful statelychurch, let's put it that way.
And they have beautiful concerts,if you go on Sunday, they do, so
it used to be that the organist whois now retired, did his "aubade"
(29:42):
he would play the organ after Mass.
So it would usually startbetween 12:15-12:30.
But now he, the guy is a youngguy and he does it between the
9:30 Mass and the 11:00 Mass.
So if you want to hear the organ,it's a free concert and they
do it just about every Sunday.
(30:03):
So it's between like 10:30-11that he's going to play or
10:15-11, or something like that.
And they usually play very modernpieces because during Mass they can't
use, they can't do the modern pieces.
So just for fun, because these are amazingmusicians and they, you know, the great
musicians of the world want to play modernpieces because, you know, that's how
(30:25):
you notice them, because they can playthe hard stuff, the hard modern stuff.
Anyway, sorry, I keep going on about it.
And also, Saint-Sulpice is partof my tour of my VoiceMap tour.
So that's why I did a bunch ofresearch about it, because I like it.
It's a beautiful place.
Hannah (30:40):
Well, it was very beautiful.
I concur.
Annie (30:42):
Yes, yes.
And that night you went to seethe Eiffel Tower, after sunset.
Was that worth it?
Hannah (30:49):
Yes.
We got there before sunset andwe're on the side where the carousel
was and kind of walked alongthe river and everything there.
And that was nice.
But what we did not calculate,I think the sunset, it was maybe
like 8:01 or something like that.
So we had to wait for a full hour beforethey would actually do the sparkle show.
I think we thought it was goingto be sunset was going to be
(31:11):
technically a little bit earlier.
So we were there for a while, butit was great, it was worth it.
You've got to see it at least fromsome angle while you're there.
Annie (31:19):
Yeah.
It's worth looking up sunset time inParis because they don't do it, it's
really the hour after the sunset.
And it's for five minutes, everyhour after sunset on the hour.
And then it's turnedoff till the next hour.
And I think they stop at like midnight orone in the morning or something like that.
(31:39):
It's not throughout thenight, but it's nice.
All right.
What, did you do anythingelse around the Eiffel Tower?
I mean, you had time to kill.
Did you go up on theTrocadéro, go find a cafe or?
Hannah (31:52):
I think we did do a cafe just to kind of kill some time, just hung
out there, had something to drink ora little snack or something like that.
We were in the green spacekind of back behind it.
So we just also kind of walked aroundthere, still enjoyed it, was still
lit up, but it wasn't sparkling.
Annie (32:11):
Yes.
So if you are in that situation andyou have a little time to kill in
that area, you could go to, there'sa street called Rue Saint Dominique,
and Rue Cler are also in that area.
They're not far at all.
And they would be good ones to,Rue Saint Dominique has a ton of
restaurants and cafes and things.
(32:32):
And I can't remember, itintersects with another one
whose name escapes me right now.
But, if you go to the end of Rue SaintDominique, then you have Rue Cler as well.
And those are fun little streets, justto kill half an hour or something.
Because if you stick around theTrocadéro, there's not much going on
there besides people selling trinkets.
(32:52):
I mean, some days you show up at theTrocadéro and there's a demonstration
or something going on that's exciting.
But most of the time thereisn't anything going on.
You know, it's like,okay, well, what do we do?
We got to wait and wehave an hour to kill.
Hannah (33:05):
Exactly.
Annie (33:06):
Yeah, I think, and so if you're facing the Eiffel Tower from
the Trocadéro, Rue Saint Dominiqueis going to be on your left.
So you go around the tower on theleft and you keep going left, and
it's in that general direction.
And you also have the Rue deL'Université right there that
people like to take photos.
It's very popular forphotos that one, as well.
(33:28):
You know, it's just a gorgeousneighborhood to walk around, but
when you're pregnant, maybe... yeah.
Hannah (33:32):
At least constantly walking around.
Yes.
Annie (33:35):
Yes.
You were pretty advanced in yourpregnancy, 30 weeks, you know,
so did it really slow you downor were you okay most days?
Hannah (33:43):
Honestly, not as much as I was expecting.
I mean, ideally, we would have been ableto do the trip a little bit earlier, more
like 20 weeks, but just with our workschedules that we weren't able to do that.
But I was pleasantly surprised, because Ialso don't feel like I'm one of those, you
know, I haven't been, I wasn't exercisingas much as I should, you know, I wasn't
in fantastic shape or stamina or anything.
(34:03):
And I did, I was a good girl,good pregnant girl, and I wore my
compression hose and stuff some ofthe days we were walking around, but
you know, there were times if therewere a lot of stairs somewhere, or
we were walking a lot, I had to kindof take it slower or sit on a bench,
or we sit at a cafe and take a break.
But overall, we'd usually come backto our hotels in the afternoon and
rest, but for an hour or 2, butotherwise we were pretty much up and
(34:27):
about almost every day we were there.
Annie (34:29):
Did you have a plan just in case something happened that you were feeling
unwell and you had to get medical care?
Hannah (34:35):
So I had looked it up beforehand and there is an American
maternity hospital in Paris.
So I had looked that up, and kind of savedthe location in my phone just in case
something, you know, where to happen.
But I had gotten clearance and everythingfrom my doctor, obviously, before we... he
said, as long as you're back by October,I think we got back September 28th or
(34:58):
something like that, kind of cut it close.
Yeah, and we had a note from him as well,whenever we traveled just in case the
airline... you know, they don't let anyonefly internationally past 35 or 36 weeks.
So I had a note from him saying that I wasclear to fly and all that kind of stuff.
Annie (35:13):
Yeah, because you had a, you were carrying a, I mean, you
were not hiding the fact that you,some women hide the pregnancy well.
Yeah.
For you, I mean, I sawthe photos you sent me.
Yeah.
You looked pregnant.
There was no mistaking it with havinghad too much dessert or whatever.
Hannah (35:28):
Yes.
Annie (35:30):
But I mean, honestly, you looked up the American pregnancy thing, but
if you were gonna give birth at 30weeks, they probably would send you
to an NICU in a different hospital.
I don't think they would, I mean,maybe 30 weeker they would take
it on, but, hmm, it's like, eh...
Hannah (35:47):
They probably would have like, at least stabilized me or something and...
Annie (35:50):
Of course, of course, yeah.
But it is, I mean, it's something toconsider, like, you know, if I cannot
do a normal pregnancy, not that I triedvery many times, but so for people
like me, you don't want to travelat all during that time, because too
many things are likely to happen.
Hannah (36:09):
Only if it's okay with your doctor and they say it's ok.
Annie (36:11):
Exactly.
I think most women have perfectlynormal pregnancies and don't have
to worry about all this stuff.
But it's good that you had thought aboutit and that you had, you know, talked to
your doctor about it because obviouslywe want babies to be happy and healthy.
And this little baby ishalf French then, huh?
Good.
Hannah (36:29):
Very, very chunky and healthy, just like we like them to be.
So, yeah, he's good.
He's 10 months old now, so I don't knowwhen we'll get the chance to go again, but
we had a great time while we were there.
Annie (36:39):
I honestly, I think people should start traveling with kids like that.
After seven is when theystart remembering things.
If you were half French and your grandmawas in France or something, then of course
you would go because there's grandma.
But just to visit, just for tourism, Ithink before seven, there's not a lot
of point to it, but if you have severalkids, then necessarily some of them are
(37:04):
going to be younger than the others.
So it's, you know, it'sa personal decision.
Hannah (37:09):
Yeah.
And I did notice there were a lotof playgrounds, you know, throughout
everywhere, just as we were walkingaround, especially in the more areas
like residential areas, there areplaygrounds everywhere, which, you
know, you could just let your kidsrun wild and burn off some energy.
Annie (37:22):
Yes, yes.
They're not necessarily bigplaygrounds, but they are everywhere.
Like it's really hard, people ask me forlists of playgrounds and things, I'm like,
well, you don't need a list, you just needto open your eyes and you'll find them.
They're not that difficult to find.
Hannah, thank you somuch for talking to me.
Any last words of wisdom about, Idon't know, something you learned about
(37:43):
France or recommendations for people?
Hannah (37:45):
Yeah, don't be afraid to, you know, do an international trip
on this, especially like everythingFrance has great medical care.
Everyone was very accommodating.
There were elevators or when we went tothe Montmartre, they had the funiculaire
to take you up, so you didn't haveto take all the stairs there, which
I definitely had bookmarked as well.
I knew I was not going to want todo all those stairs at Montmartre.
Annie (38:04):
Yes.
Hannah (38:06):
It's very doable, very easy.
I think, you know, anyone that does it,even while pregnant, heavier like me,
or earlier on, be pleasantly surprised.
Very easy and very doable.
My favorite place that we stayed,you know, hotel B&B wise, was
actually the place in Provins.
It was called (Demeure des VieuxBains, and it was absolutely beautiful.
(38:26):
We stayed in the medieval room thathad a, you know, a big four poster
king size bed, lots of space, andactually a secondary room as well
for if you did have small children.
And they had a fantasticbreakfast every morning.
They had beautiful grounds and gardensthat you, the maternity pictures I
took were taken there with the flowersand everything in the background.
So that was just a beautiful,relaxing place to stay.
(38:47):
And probably my favorite placethat we stayed the whole time.
Annie (38:49):
That's great.
So, (Demeure des Vieux Bainsin Provins, you say that it's a
short walk from the train station.
I still need to go, so perhaps Ishould book a room there next time.
Hannah (38:59):
It's just, at the base of where you turn to go
up to the medieval part, too.
So it's very easy to get between the two.
And the owner, I think,is the mayor of the town.
Annie (39:08):
Oh, oh.
Hannah (39:09):
He was also very sweet and accommodating, and the day we went
back, he just, he said, no, no, no,like, I'll drive you to the train
station, I don't want you walking.
And they actually do, they do dinnerswhere they will make you dinner
when you're there on the weekends.
So we didn't do that, but I wish we had.
That would be one thingI wish we had done.
Annie (39:24):
Right, because sometimes you stay at places where they say, would
you like to add dinner to, and that'sgood that you think you wish you had
done it because you probably saw someof what the other people were eating.
Hannah (39:35):
Or just saw them, they were all eating together with the owners.
It just seemed like a very fun, relaxed,kind of, you know, family style dinner
Annie (39:42):
Yeah, that's great.
Hannah, thank you very much.
And well, I hope you get to comeback to France with your kids
when they're a little bit older.
Hannah (39:50):
Yes, exactly.
Thank you so much.
It was great talking.
Annie (39:53):
Merci.
Au revoir.
Again, I want to thank my patrons forgiving back and supporting the show.
Patreon supporters get new episodesas soon as they are ready and ad-free.
Please be like them, follow the link inthe show notes or go to patreon.com/JoinUs
(40:18):
. And of course, patrons get many more exclusive rewards for supporting
the show, I mean, not having toput up with the ads is great, but
there 's more, there's much more.
So I do Zooms with patrons, I shareexclusive content, photos, articles
that I write, things like that.
And I'm just available to patrons.
(40:40):
We chat, they send me messages, theyhave questions, they want to know things.
And I'm happy to engage.
I can't engage with the wholeworld, but I can do it with patrons.
I don't have anybody new to thankthis week because I had to record this
earlier than normal, but I want to saythank you to all my current patrons.
It's wonderful to have you on boardin the community of travel enthusiasts
(41:00):
and francophiles, who keep thispodcast going, and if you don't like
the ads, just a few dollars a month,you can take them away, so... and
you help me continue this podcast.
So win-win.
And to support Elyse, goto patreon.com/ElysArt.
Are you thinking about a trip toFrance this year and you have a
hard time deciding what to do?
(41:22):
I can help you with my one on oneconsultation on Zoom, and you can read all
about that on joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
All right, let's talk about Picard.
If you've ever been to France,you might have noticed a Picard
store just about every other block.
It's a frozen food storeand it's huge in France.
It's huge in Spain too.
(41:44):
Although in Spain it's calledthe La Sirena and not Picard.
But it's the same idea.
We have fancy frozen food storesin France and in much of Europe.
This is true French fashion.
It's not just any frozen food.
It's high quality, well prepared,and often as good as what you'd
get in a restaurant, really.
(42:04):
French people love Picard for itsconvenience, consistency, and variety.
You'll find everything from classicFrench dishes like boeuf bourguignon,
tartiflette, escargot, to seasonalspecialties and splendid sauces to go
along with your Thai dishes, as I foundout staying with Patricia a few weeks ago.
(42:26):
And they have gourmet desserts.
They have very good desserts.
The frozen vegetables and seafood are alsoreally highly rated, often fresher than
what you find at a standard supermarket.
For visitors shopping at Picard is agreat way to experience French cuisine
without spending a fortune, or eating,out or needing a fully equipped kitchen.
(42:49):
Because I'll let you in on a secret.
When my days get too busy, I popsomething I bought at Picard in
the oven and I have a nice mealthat took me minutes to prepare.
Usually it's oven cooking,sometimes microwave, but it's never
as good in the microwave, okay?
But it's an easy way to get, to tryauthentic French flavors without the
(43:10):
fuss, plus their packaging usually hasclear cooking instructions, so even if
your French isn't perfect, you won't havetoo much trouble preparing your meal.
You can have a look at what Picard hasto offer, and even schedule a frozen food
delivery or pickup, by going to picard.
fr. And right now, they sell alot of heart shaped desserts.
(43:32):
I bought those and eaten those, they tastegood and they taste as good as they look.
This is not a Picard ad, Picard isnot a sponsor, they haven't given
me a penny to talk about them.
I just think you need to know about itbecause it's a great place to buy food.
And when you're... when you have busydays, whether you are working or visiting,
it's a very nice place to get some food.
(43:54):
All right, let's talk about ChatGPT.
People ask me sometimesnow, do you use ChatGPT?
And I do, but I use it to help mesummarize transcripts, even to make
the transcripts because all of theepisodes that I've published in the
last few years have been transcribedfully and edited as well, and AI
(44:16):
does a lot of that grunt work.
Then I look through everything tomake sure everything is spelled
correctly, but there's some AI there.
I also use ChatGPT to list all theplaces mentioned in an episode,
craft social media promos, whichI'm really bad at as a person.
(44:37):
I'm just not a very goodsocial media person.
I'm social, but not media.
And of course, sometimes I'm not surehow to say things properly in English,
or you know, I'm not the best writerwhen it comes to how to put together a
nice sentence in English, and so it canhelp me with that, but that makes sense.
(44:57):
I mean, French is my native language, soeven though I've been speaking English
a long time, sometimes I still stumble.
But the actual episodes arealways real, spontaneous
conversations between two people.
There's no script, no pre writtenanswers, just a natural exchange where
we share stories, insights, and thefun of exploring France together.
(45:20):
I also get a lot of requests from peoplewho want to be guests on the podcast.
I get so many people contacting meat this point that it's becoming
a challenge just to keep up.
I mean, several each day, right?
There's some, I can just turn downimmediately because it's obvious
they're not a good fit, but sometimesI'm not sure until I've talked to them.
So we have a 15 to 30 minute conversation.
(45:43):
And if I decide they are a goodpotential guest, I transcribed this
casual conversation we just had,and then I ask AI to summarize and
extract questions that we can useas a thread for our conversation.
It saves me so much time and itsaves time for my guests too.
So here's the bottom line.
AI is an assistant.
(46:04):
It's a very good assistant, very fastassistant, not the sort of assistant
I've ever had, I've ever been able to paybefore, because this is, you know, this is
a one person operation really, with Elyseoccasionally, and also Christian and Anne
who do the transcripts, but, you know,this is a one person operation really.
(46:26):
And so AI is very helpful, and I useit in limited fashion to save time.
So you're stuck with me folks.
Annie is not turning into a robot.
My thanks to Anne and ChristianCotovan who produce the transcripts.
Next week on the podcast, the tripreport with Teresa Watkins, where we
(46:46):
discuss her love for markets, and alsohow she agonized about some things that
she wasn't sure about, and they weren'tso hard in the end, but you know, she
has great tips for someone who like youlikes to plan her trips very carefuly.
And remember, become a patronso you don't have to put up with
the ads and help the podcast.
(47:07):
Thank you so much for listening,and I hope you join me next time so
we can look around France together!
Au revoir!
The Join Us in France travelpodcast is written, hosted, and
produced by Annie Sargent, andCopyright 2025 by AddictedToFrance.
It is released under a CreativeCommons attribution, non-commercial,
(47:29):
no derivatives license.
This is Join Us in France, episode 533, cinq cent trente trois.
Bonjour, I'm Annie Sargent, and Join Usin France is the podcast where we take
a conversational journey through thebeauty, culture, and flavors of France.
Today, I bring you a conversation withHannah Compton about her unforgettable
babymoon adventure in France, fromexploring the medieval charms of Provins,
(00:42):
to navigating the busting streetsof Paris while 30 weeks pregnant.
Hannah shares her unique insightsand invaluable tips for traveling
under special circumstances.
Whether you're planning a trip toFrance or just love a good travel
story, this episode is packed withdelightful experiences and practical
advice you will not want to miss.
(01:03):
This podcast is supported by donorsand listeners who buy my tours and
services, including my ItineraryConsult Service, my GPS self-guided
tours of Paris on the VoiceMap app,or take a day trip with me around the
Southwest of France in my electric car.
You can browse all of that at myboutique: joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
(01:24):
And Patreon supporters get new episodesas soon as they are ready and ad-free.
If that sounds good to you, andI hope it does, be like them,
follow the link in the show notes.
For the Magazine part of the podcast,after the interview today, I'll discuss
Picard, the stores and why they are yourfriend while spending time in France.
(01:45):
I'll also explain how AI helpsme when producing this podcast.
Oh, my goodness, Annie mightbe turning into a robot!
Bonjour, Hannah Compton, andwelcome to Join Us in France.
Hannah (02:07):
Bonjour.
Bonjour, Annie.
Annie (02:09):
Bonjour.
Wonderful to talk to you todayabout your babymoon in France.
What an experience you had.
What an adventure.
I want to hear all about it.
So, this took place in December 2024?
Hannah (02:24):
End of September of 2023.
Annie (02:26):
Okay.
Very good.
Excellent.
And what made you decide to come inFrance, under those circumstances?
Hannah (02:34):
So, you know, similar to most people, we had a big Europe
trip planned for Summer of 2020.
Obviously that did not happen.
We ended up having our 1stchild in the Spring of 2021.
And so then, when we were pregnantwith our 2nd, we found out when we
were due at the end of November, it waslike, okay, we need to go to France,
we've got to go to Europe now becauseI don't know with two kids when we're
(02:56):
going to get a chance to do it again.
Annie (02:58):
That's true.
That's true.
So, you had baby in towand you were pregnant.
Hannah (03:03):
Well, our oldest actually stayed home, my mother was able to watch him.
It was just my husband and I, and thenobviously the baby in tow in my belly.
Annie (03:13):
In the belly, excellent.
So does that change things?
Had you been to France beforewithout being pregnant?
Hannah (03:20):
I had been to France and Europe before when I was in
college for a study abroad program,but I had not been back since.
And my husband had not been at all.
So he was a little nervous with thingsand we were a little nervous to see,
you know, to see what I would be ableto do and up to because I was about
30 weeks pregnant whenever we went.
But we were both pleasantly surprised withhow, you know, pretty seamless everything
(03:44):
was and how accommodating the people were.
And so it was actually areally great experience.
Annie (03:49):
How long did you spend?
Hannah (03:50):
We were there about 8 days.
So, we spent 3 or 4 days in Paris,and then we spent a few days in
Provins, just outside of Paris,and kind of the Champagne region.
Annie (04:00):
Oh, Provins.
Okay.
So, you spent several days there.
Okay.
I want to hear all about that becausethat is not one I have been to.
I've heard about it, butI haven't been there.
Oh, perhaps we should start with that.
What was it like going to Provins?
You went on the train, I suppose?
Hannah (04:15):
Yes, we took the train.
It was very easy.
You know, there's multipletrains going there a day.
I believe it leaves out of Gare de l'Est.
So that was really easy to navigate.
We just bought tickets there,you know, at the kiosk same day.
I think there's 1 that leavesevery hour, or 2 hours like that.
Annie (04:30):
Yeah, it's a regional train from Gare de l'Est.
So yeah, you don't have tobook that in advance typically.
Hannah (04:35):
No, it was really easy, just buy the ticket, walk right on.
And it was pretty seamless,you know, hour and a half.
The train station, it was pretty walkablefrom the train station to the B&B we
stayed at, which was kind of, Provinsis kind of the medieval portion of
it, which is the main reason peoplego is kind of a little bit up a hill.
And the B&B we stayed at waskind of at the base of it.
(04:56):
So it was really easy to just walk there,drop off our bags, and then head uphill
and explore, which was probably the mostdifficult part of the trip, was just
walking up those... we kind of had to paceit like, do I really want to do it again?
Or we kind of had a plan around that.
But yeah, that was great.
I feel like we maybe stayeda little bit too long.
It's definitely a weekend city.
But especially if you havesmall children, it was great.
(05:19):
They have lots of little shows,knights jousting, and falconry.
Lots of especially French familiesthere with their little children
dressed up as like princessesand knights and stuff like that.
That was really cute to see.
But even just seeing all the medievalarchitecture and everything, was
fun and really neat as an adult.
Annie (05:39):
Right, right.
So this is an actual fortified area.
This is the one that's closest to Paris.
It's not a reproduction.
And so it's fun that you can doit as a, I mean, most people, like
you said, it's a weekend thing.
You know, you go... you couldgo for just the day, but you
wouldn't be able to see everything.
If you wanted to see everything, you wouldhave to spend at least one night, I think.
(06:03):
Two nights might be overkill, but maybewith little kids, if they really want to
go back, and back, and back, and back.
That would be a fun thing to do.
It's kind of dead the rest of the week.
So, I recommend you just go on weekends.
You look at their schedule,they publish their schedule.
And you know, even weekends in February,there's not going to be that much.
(06:25):
I mean, there's going tobe some, but not that much.
So, it's best to go during thegood season, which September
is fine, and on weekends.
Hannah (06:35):
I would agree with that.
We stayed there, I think, until a Tuesday.
We were there for a full Mondayand it was just kind of like,
all right, what can we do?
What's open?
But, you know, they do have a littleProvins pass that includes entrance to
all of the historical sites and aspectsof it that I think is about 15 Euros.
So we did that.
Annie (06:54):
Mm hmm.
Hannah (06:55):
And then we did also, we didn't do the jousting show, but we did do a
dinner theater, I guess what they haveit called the Banquet des Troubadours.
That was a fun kind of entertainingshow and they had people that were
juggling, and people that were doingfire breathing, and it was kind of a
comedy show and it had food with it.
And they had costumesfor you to dress up in.
(07:16):
So that was fun.
Yeah, it was really fun.
They did pick on us because I thinkwe were the only Americans there.
So they made... they made lots oflittle jokes and they kept grabbing
my husband out to try to participatein things and then made jokes when he
couldn't juggle or things like that.
But it was really fun.
The only caveat with that was theshow was predominantly in French.
So, but we did have people sittingnext to us that did speak English,
(07:39):
so they did a lot of translatingfor us, and we were still able to
have a really good time with that.
It was fun.
Annie (07:43):
That's good.
Is the food any good?
Hannah (07:45):
It was, I mean, it wasn't a gourmet experience by any means.
It was good.
It was fine.
There were people near us that haddifferent dietary accommodations,
like, they didn't have dairy orthings like that, and they were able
to accommodate them pretty well too.
Annie (07:57):
Very good.
Very good.
So yeah, so perhaps arrive on a Saturdaymorning and leave on the Sunday evening.
Mm hmm.
Hannah (08:05):
Yeah, something like that.
Yeah, if there's, I mean,it's easy to do that.
I think, yeah, in a day and a half,two days total, it would be pretty
easy to see what you would want to see.
And they have a really beautiful rosegarden as well, which was nice to
just kind of calmly meander through,we did that on the Monday when
everything was pretty, you know, dead.
Annie (08:22):
Mm hmm.
Hannah (08:23):
And even at the end of September, there were a lot of things still
blooming, you know, not as much as Iwould imagine there would be in July,
but it was still beautiful just to wanderthe paths and it was relaxing, and there
were benches for me to sit on when wegot tired and everything like that.
And so that was really that wasfun and nice to go to as well.
Annie (08:40):
That's good.
That's excellent.
So the dinner was mostly in French,was the rest of the attractions,
did you have English anywhere?
Like, the museums and things,could you read stuff in English?
Hannah (08:52):
The main, the big attraction that you go into is called
Caesar's Tower, Caesar's Keep,and it's the big medieval tower.
And so that was fun.
They have stairs, you can wind yourway, walk all the way up to the top.
And that was just, I think theydo have guided tours, but we
just kind of did our own thing.
And then they also had, includingthat pass, they have all these
underground tunnels that theyused to store all the goods and
(09:16):
stuff for it being a trading town.
And I think they do have an English tour,but it's they only have so many per week.
So the one that we did wastechnically in French, but we just
kind of, you know, meandered aroundand looked around sort of thing.
Annie (09:28):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And even on the Monday when thereweren't a lot of things happening,
the restaurants and things were open.
Hannah (09:35):
They were open in the evenings, especially for dinner.
There was a main one kind of inthe regular town square, not the
medieval square that we ate atthat was an Italian and pizza shop.
And that's where we ended up eatingmost time just because it was open.
And they were open, that's a place thatthe locals tend to go more than up on
the hill where the tourist section is.
But a lot of the stores, and thingslike that, were closed on Monday.
Annie (09:57):
So you have a small medieval section, and you
have a small, is it a village?
Hannah (10:01):
Yeah, I'd say it's probably what would be more similar to an
actual French village, yeah, atthe bottom of the hill, kind of...
Annie (10:06):
Yeah.
But since there is a train, you probablyhave people that just get on the
train to go to work in Paris there.
I would assume.
Yeah, because I mean, there's a train.
It's pretty fast.
So yeah.
All right.
Okay.
So let's talk now about thetime you spent in Paris.
First of all, did you have, didyou run into any problems related
to your pregnancy while you wereaway or did it all go swimmingly?
Hannah (10:31):
Honestly, it all went very swimmingly, we didn't necessarily plan
a lot for each day because we weren'tsure what I would feel up to doing, you
know, what the pace would need to be.
But, I mean, we would usually comeback in the afternoon, maybe to take
a nap or rest, but otherwise, we werepretty well out and about most days.
We took the Metro everywhere, andhonestly, that wasn't bad at all.
(10:54):
A lot of the different stations wouldhave elevators to go up or down.
And even on the Metro trains, I waspleasantly surprised of how many people
would see me and, you know, try to motionto me like, oh, do you want this seat?
Sort of thing like that.
So, everyone was reallynice and accommodating.
And even when we would go to thedifferent museums or things like that
too, a lot of the security guards wouldsee me and say, Oh, you need to come to
(11:17):
the front of the line, you don't needto wait in this line sort of thing.
So it was very nice.
I definitely did not experience that,I have not experienced that as much in
the States as I have over in France.
So that was a nice welcome surprise.
Annie (11:29):
Yeah, this is normal.
I mean, they don't always notice thatyou're pregnant, but if they do, they will
usually wave you to the front of the line.
Same with a wheelchair orcrutches or things like that.
They usually pay attention.
The security guards pay attentionto those sorts of things.
And I assume you weren't travelingaround with like a big bag or whatever
(11:51):
so it didn't, I mean, when you'regoing places with the baby, you have
to have a baby bag, but the babywas in the belly, so no diapers yet!
Hannah (12:02):
My arms were more free.
I just had like a small satchelpurse that I carried around.
So yeah.
It was very nice.
And even in the tours too, they wouldsend me like, Oh, no, go to the front of
the checkout line and things like that.
Annie (12:13):
Nice.
That's very nice.
So what part of Paris were you staying in?
Hannah (12:17):
We stayed in Saint Germain, in a hotel right by Café Flore.
So, it was very close to, I think,two different metro stations.
So that was nice for convenience fortraveling and even just walking around
in the area or going to differentcafes and stuff was very nice.
Very convenient.
Annie (12:35):
So what sort of traveler are you?
Did you have a whole listof things you wanted to do?
All organized?
Or were you more like,okay, I'll, we'll just...
Hannah (12:44):
So, I guess that's the difference between my husband and I, because,
generally, and when I'm not pregnant andwe're traveling, we are both very type
A and we like to have an itinerary andwe like to be very busy the beginning
and see all the things we need to seeand then kind of relax at the end.
But with this, you know, we kindof had a light itinerary, but we
didn't end up staying pretty busy.
(13:04):
He had not been to Europe before,so he was a little bit more wary
and tepid about certain things.
Annie (13:10):
Meaning?
Tepid about what?
Hannah (13:13):
I think just the, like, especially the transportation a little
bit, not necessarily the metro oncewe were there, but he did not want
to take the RER from the airport tothe hotel, he wanted to take a taxi
because he was nervous about it.
Annie (13:26):
Well, that's what you should do anyway, yes.
Hannah (13:29):
Well, I guess that day, I don't know if it was because we landed ours
was an overnight flight from Dallas.
So we, we landed in the morning,so I don't know if we kind of got
stuck in some commuter traffic, butit seemed to take a really long time
to get from the airport into Paris
. Annie: That's how it
goes.
Which it's probably just maybehow it is, but we took...
Annie (13:50):
That's when most people arrive from the US.
They fly in between 7:30 and 11.
And then the planes turn aroundand leave between noon and 3.
Hannah (14:00):
Yeah, and so we did take the RER from Paris back to the airport,
and that was really easy and seamless.
So we might do that again ifwe ever go back is take the
RER just because otherwise, youknow, we're relatively young.
We can navigate the metrosand everything really easily.
Annie (14:15):
Yeah, you just have to be aware of one problem with taking the
RER is that when the RER stops, thereare some direct ones, don't stop,
which are the best ones to take.
You, even if you have to wait a littlebit, even if you have to wait 20 minutes
to get on the direct RER, you're betteroff because there's all sorts of scammers
(14:36):
on the ones that stop here and there.
They find a mark that they findeasy and they grab their stuff
and run and then the doors closeand there's nothing you can do.
Hannah (14:47):
Yeah.
Especially if you've got a bigsuitcase, it's harder to run or to stop.
Annie (14:51):
Exactly.
That's why when people are jetlagged and whatever, I think you're
just better off taking the metro.
It's depending on whereyou're going, it's 65 or less.
It's a set fare, whether you arriveon a Sunday, or a Monday, or whatever.
So, it's not the end of the world,but you are young and younguns
will be more frugal, I guess.
(15:13):
But with the two of you, once you'vebought your ticket, it's 12, 13, 14 Euros.
I'm not sure.
So, you know, it's not that much less.
Hannah (15:19):
No, it's not, with two people versus splitting a cab.
Yeah, that was the only thing.
And, you know, my husband, I thinkhis favorite thing about the trip
was cafe culture and getting anespresso, you know, four times a day,
every single time we had a chance to.
And he also enjoyed just walking, andall the street food, and getting crepes
at night, and all that kind of stuff.
(15:40):
We both like to see things, we bothlike museums, walking around the
gardens, all the different onesin Paris and everything like that.
It was a nice, relaxing trip.
Annie (15:49):
Right.
So it looks like you went to theEiffel Tower on the first day.
No, that was your second day.
Hannah (15:55):
We did walk to Trocadero just, we kind of walked, took the metro,
walked over to Trocadero just to view it.
We were there around the timeof the World Rugby Championship
stuff, and also probably Olympicpreparations as well, far in advance.
And so a lot of scaffolding and thingslike that up and around where you couldn't
explore it as much as you normally would.
But we saw that and thenwe went over to the Louvre.
(16:19):
We didn't have tickets to go see it,but just walked around, you know, the
central area, looked at the architecture,walked around the Tuileries, and then
we went to the Orangerie the first day.
Annie (16:31):
Mm hmm.
Okay.
Did you get tickets to go intothe Louvre on a different day?
Hannah (16:36):
No, we didn't.
We didn't do the Louvre at all.
I had been there before andit wasn't really something my
husband was passionate about.
And then we knew that if we went, itwould take a solid amount of time.
Yeah.
Annie (16:45):
So a tip for people who don't necessarily want to see the Louvre, but
they would like to, you know, look aroundlike you did, you can go through, if you
get into the museum from Rue de Rivoli.
So there's an entrance for the mall there,or on both sides of the Arc de Triomphe.
So there's this beautiful arch bythe Louvre, and on both sides of
(17:10):
that there's stairs that take youdownstairs, and you can look around
downstairs, there's a lot you can lookat before anybody asks you for a ticket.
So you can see the old parts of thecastle, because it was a chateau
and it was rebuilt a few times.
So you can see the old partsof that underground before
anybody asks for your ticket.
(17:30):
There's a little mall area.
Anyway, there's things that you can do,and you can see the upside down pyramids,
the small ones, they're underground.
It's worth going in just to look around,even if you don't go into the museum.
And that's totally free.
They only ask you for your ticketsfor the museum once you start entering
(17:51):
the different wings of the Louvre.
So, that first day you just lookedaround a little bit and did you
try to stay up till it was darkor did you go to sleep early?
I think we made ourselves stayup until at least around 7 PM.
That's not bad!
Hannah (18:07):
So, yeah, I was pleasantly surprised, you know, despite the jet
lag and everything, I think, makingourselves get up and walk around and
try to acclimate to the daylight isthe best thing we could have done.
And I was surprised,
it really wasn't too bad.
So we did a relatively early dinnerand then went to bed and, we're
pretty much able to reset the nextday and not have too much of an issue.
Annie (18:27):
Right.
Then the next day you wentto, let's see, let's see.
Oh, you went to the Saint Chapelle or,no, that was on, I'm on day two now.
So on day two...
Hannah (18:38):
Our first day was just the travel day.
Annie (18:39):
Okay, okay.
Hannah (18:41):
Day 3, yeah, we did do Saint Chapelle.
Annie (18:43):
So you went to the Saint Chapelle.
Did you book tickets in advance for that?
Hannah (18:46):
Yeah, so we had done, actually, the Paris Museum pass.
We did the 2 day pass, which Iactually learned is 48 hours.
So we actually used it the day beforewhen we went to the Orangerie, but
activated at 3 p. m. So we kind ofalmost had two and a half or three
days to use it, which was nice.
Annie (19:04):
Okay.
And you got away with that even with thenew... yeah, they just let you do it.
Hannah (19:09):
Yeah, because we did the Orangerie that first day, we did
museums the 2nd day and then we usedit again that next morning for the
Arc de Triomph e and everything.
Yeah.
Annie (19:17):
Right.
Right.
So, okay.
So you can do half days as well.
Hannah (19:21):
Yeah, so I guess you get an afternoon, one full
day, and then the morning.
Annie (19:25):
Okay.
That makes sense.
That makes sense.
So you went to the Sainte Chapelle.
You didn't have to reserve a specifictime for the Sainte Chapelle because...
Hannah (19:32):
We did, because that's... that was one of the ones, both the Orangerie
and Saint Chapelle are ones that youhave to make reservations for, but
they're free reservations as long asyou show up with your museum pass.
Annie (19:42):
Was that easy?
Making the time reservations?
Hannah (19:45):
Yeah, I just went on to the Orangerie website and went to
the Saint Chapelle website and justselected the museum pass option and
then printed my reservation, butdidn't have to pay anything for it.
Annie (19:55):
Perfect.
Perfect.
Very good.
Did you enjoy the Orangerieand the Sainte Chapelle?
What did you think?
Hannah (20:02):
Yes, so I love the Orangerie, you know, the water lilies obviously
are very beautiful and that'swhat they're most famous for.
And it was, even though it was relativelycrowded in there, they want everyone to
be quiet and it's still a very peacefulexperience and just being able to see
these huge paintings and being able to seeall the brush strokes and how different
it looks up close versus a little bitfarther away was just really neat to see.
(20:25):
And the Saint Chapelle also justbeautiful, and I had listened to
the episode that you and Elyse haddone about it, and all the different
stained glass in it, and how all thedifferent stained glasses are different
Bible stories, and that was neat togo in and try to figure out what the
different ones were trying to depict.
Annie (20:43):
It's hard, isn't it?
Hannah (20:44):
And I was like, I don't think I know this one.
Annie (20:46):
Yes, yes.
It's because this is thelanguage of the Middle Ages.
We don't talk like that anymore.
We've changed a bit,but they're beautiful.
Whatever, even if you don'tunderstand a single thing that
you look at it, they're beautiful.
That's wonderful.
Did you have any favoriterestaurants that day?
You mentioned that you had alunch at a cafe called Lulu's.
Hannah (21:08):
So that was in the Latin Quarter.
That had been suggested to usby my in laws that had been
to Paris the year before.
And so that is actually rightbehind the Cluny Museum, I believe.
And so it was nice.
It was pretty light.
It was a light lunch.
That's kind of what we wanted.
But they, my father in law's vegan,and so they suggested that they had
eaten there a lot because they havea lot of vegan options and stuff.
(21:29):
So, but it was delicious, but then wejust went from there to the Cluny Museum.
We're like, Oh, it's right there.
I guess we'll just hop in there too.
Annie (21:35):
Yeah, yeah, so for that one, you didn't need the reservation,
you could just waltz in.
Hannah (21:41):
It was just a walk in cafe.
Yeah.
Annie (21:43):
But I mean for the Cluny Museum.
Hannah (21:45):
Yeah.
The Cluny Museum, we just, itwas not a reservation one, we
just were like, Oh, we're here.
Let's go look.
And then we said, Oh, we cango look at the original Saint
Chapelle stained glass sections.
Annie (21:53):
Correct.
Yes, yes, oh that'scool, that's very cool.
And for dinner, you went toYamcha, not familiar with that one.
Hannah (22:03):
Yeah, So, I work with a physician that is a little bit of a
Francophile and goes to Paris every year.
And that is his favorite restaurant.
So he said, if you guys aregoing, you have to go there.
So it is a, it is an AsianFrench fusion restaurant.
And every day they have adifferent 7 course tasting menu.
(22:23):
And so that's kind of the only option.
So we didn't know what we weregetting into, but it was fantastic.
I think it actually ended up beinglike 12 different plates we got
of food, even just 7 courses.
And it, I think, I believe it'sa Michelin star restaurant.
And actually the chef is featured onChef Table France on one of the episodes.
(22:43):
But it was a great experience.
The food was amazing.
Phenomenal.
They also have like a wine pairing thatyou can do or a tea pairing with all
courses, which obviously I was pregnant,so I didn't do the wine pairing, but
we did do the tea pairing with it.
So that was a fun experience.
Annie (22:59):
Very nice.
I'm glad they offer that, you know.
I know that more and fancyrestaurants will have non alcoholic
suggestions and pairings, and that'sreally good, you know, because not
everybody wants to drink, so...
Hannah (23:12):
And they were also really good when we got there about obviously
noticing that I was pregnant.
And so I was saying, okay, well,then we'll make accommodations for
that where they're, I think the onlything that was really an issue was
one of the dishes had raw oysters.
So they left that out of my dishand gave me something different.
But otherwise, they were reallyeasy as far as that goes.
Annie (23:31):
Yeah, because even in France, you know, we love our, like our
raw milk cheeses and whatever, butduring pregnancy, they recommend you
don't have those, even in France.
In America they would say never have that.
In France they say you can haveit, but not when you're pregnant.
Hannah (23:47):
Yeah, exactly.
Annie (23:48):
Which makes sense.
All right, the next day you wentto the Champs Élysées and the
Arc de Triomphe, so do tell.
Hannah (23:56):
So that was probably the only day that we had bad weather.
Again, the Arc de Triomphe did notrequire reservations, but we used
our museum pass for entrance on that.
And even though it was rainy, itwas a good experience, they had
us use the elevator, so I didn'thave to climb the stairs all the
way to the top, which was nice.
But I think we were only outsidefor the viewpoint for just a few
(24:17):
minutes, huddled under our umbrella.
Annie (24:19):
It's not as nice when it's raining, is it?
I mean, you know.
Hannah (24:22):
No, it was a little bit of a downpour, you don't really have any
cover, but my husband is a big Tour deFrance fan and wanted to go up there
and see where all the bike riderscome down the Champs Élysées, so we
had, we still had to go see it anddo it, it was still a fun experience.
Annie (24:36):
And it's because you had the museum pass.
I'm glad to hear that themuseum pass, they don't make
you do reservations everywhere.
So it's more like the old style museumpass where you could just show up and they
would let you in, which is... pre COVID.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, a lot of places, they gotreally like crazy with reservations,
even in places where they can easilyhandle thousands of people at once.
(25:00):
But they were like, Oh no,you need a reservation.
Okay, whatever.
Yeah.
And you went to the Petit Palais.
Do tell about the Petit Palais.
I love this place.
I only went recently and I loved it.
I thought it was so fun.
Hannah (25:10):
Yeah, I feel like it was very underrated.
We walked along Champs Élysées, wentinto some stores, things like that.
I got some macarons fromthem, from the Lotterie.
and we were like, oh, we'reright here by Petit Palais.
Let's just go in there, becauseobviously that's a free one, free
museum all the time for everyone too.
And that one's just, you know, I've heardyou say that if you don't have time to
go to Versailles, this is a good option.
And I would agree.
(25:31):
It's very, you know, thegold gates, very ornate.
And then the inside, the architectureis just beautiful and airy.
And there's all thesealfrescos on the ceiling.
And we also really liked, I tookmy macarons and then we sat in
the middle where the kind of thegardens are and just sat there
and relaxed, ate my little snack.
Annie (25:47):
Yes, and they also have a very nice little...
Hannah (25:50):
They have a restaurant or cafe there.
Annie (25:51):
I mean, last time I was there, there were ladies next
to us having some noodles dish.
So they had like a pasta dish.
They do little sandwiches, they donibbles, they do fancy drinks, you
know, you can get something verynice and it's just a beautiful place.
I think it's perfect for people whoare not super duper into museums.
(26:12):
So they wouldn't go into the Louvre,for example, but they would like
to see something really prettyand really with beautiful art.
I thought it was splendid.
I think with kids, especially ifyou're with a, or with a person
who has limited attention span.
Let's put it this way.
It would be really good to go therebecause it doesn't take very long
(26:33):
and it is gloriously beautiful.
So, yeah, I really like that.
Hannah (26:38):
Yeah, I feel like you could easily be in and out of
there in under an hour, you know.
Annie (26:41):
Yes, yes.
And they have a nice museum shop if youwant to get a few souvenirs that are a
little bit more upscale because they arefrom a museum shop instead of from some,
you know, street seller or whatever.
Oh, you went to Saint-Sulpicethat day as well.
It's a beautiful church, isn't it?
Hannah (27:01):
That one was and that's not one that I saw on a lot of guides for things.
And I, we were eating an early dinner andI just saw it from the distance and I told
my husband, I was like, Hey, you sit here.
I'm just, if you're tiredof walking, I'm going to go.
And I just kind of wentover there by myself.
It was beautiful.
It's huge.
I wasn't expecting itto be that big either.
It's honestly interesting becausewhen I walked in, one of the things
(27:22):
I noticed too, is it seems like avery, like an active working church.
There were a lot of people in theirworshiping or in line to do, you
know, confession or things like that.
And it was interesting because that'snot something I'd seen in any of the
other churches that we'd been in.
Annie (27:36):
That's right.
That's right.
The 6th arrondissement wherethis is, is the most expensive
arrondissement in Paris.
It's where a lot of wealthy Frenchfamilies live and also wealthy
foreigners own property there.
But people, it's very interesting becausethe wealthier you are in France, the
(27:56):
more likely you are to go to church,especially in this part of Paris.
It's very, you know, like you sendyour kids to Catechism, you go to Mass.
It's just part of theroutine that they do.
So yes, it's a very active church.
The bishop has a choice ofcelebrating big events, either at
(28:19):
Saint-Sulpice or at Saint-Eustache.
Saint-Eustache in Les Halles, is a very,it's kind of a church of the people.
It's the popular church,with a lot of help for the
homeless and things like that.
Saint-Sulpice is the opposite.
It's the church of the rich people.
Hannah (28:36):
The well funded.
Annie (28:37):
Yes.
Yes.
But it's also a very active church.
There's a different feeling whenyou enter both of those churches and
I've gone to both very frequently.
Saint Sulpice also has the, kind ofthe old, they have a little hole at the
top, and on a specific day it shinesa beam of light and it helped them, le
Gnomon is what they call it in French.
(28:59):
I can't remember the way you say thatin English, but it used to tell, help
them tell, the correct day for Easter,which changes all the time and it's
kind of a difficult one to calculate.
In the Middle Ages people argued aboutwhen Easter was, it was a big deal.
It changes all the time as you know.
(29:20):
And I've heard that this particularGnomon was never very good at predicting
Easter, that it got it wrong a lot,but it's there and it's pretty.
So, yeah, it's a beautiful statelychurch, let's put it that way.
And they have beautiful concerts,if you go on Sunday, they do, so
it used to be that the organist whois now retired, did his "aubade"
(29:42):
he would play the organ after Mass.
So it would usually startbetween 12:15-12:30.
But now he, the guy is a youngguy and he does it between the
9:30 Mass and the 11:00 Mass.
So if you want to hear the organ,it's a free concert and they
do it just about every Sunday.
(30:03):
So it's between like 10:30-11that he's going to play or
10:15-11, or something like that.
And they usually play very modernpieces because during Mass they can't
use, they can't do the modern pieces.
So just for fun, because these are amazingmusicians and they, you know, the great
musicians of the world want to play modernpieces because, you know, that's how
(30:25):
you notice them, because they can playthe hard stuff, the hard modern stuff.
Anyway, sorry, I keep going on about it.
And also, Saint-Sulpice is partof my tour of my VoiceMap tour.
So that's why I did a bunch ofresearch about it, because I like it.
It's a beautiful place.
Hannah (30:40):
Well, it was very beautiful.
I concur.
Annie (30:42):
Yes, yes.
And that night you went to seethe Eiffel Tower, after sunset.
Was that worth it?
Hannah (30:49):
Yes.
We got there before sunset andwe're on the side where the carousel
was and kind of walked alongthe river and everything there.
And that was nice.
But what we did not calculate,I think the sunset, it was maybe
like 8:01 or something like that.
So we had to wait for a full hour beforethey would actually do the sparkle show.
I think we thought it was goingto be sunset was going to be
(31:11):
technically a little bit earlier.
So we were there for a while, butit was great, it was worth it.
You've got to see it at least fromsome angle while you're there.
Annie (31:19):
Yeah.
It's worth looking up sunset time inParis because they don't do it, it's
really the hour after the sunset.
And it's for five minutes, everyhour after sunset on the hour.
And then it's turnedoff till the next hour.
And I think they stop at like midnight orone in the morning or something like that.
(31:39):
It's not throughout thenight, but it's nice.
All right.
What, did you do anythingelse around the Eiffel Tower?
I mean, you had time to kill.
Did you go up on theTrocadéro, go find a cafe or?
Hannah (31:52):
I think we did do a cafe just to kind of kill some time, just hung
out there, had something to drink ora little snack or something like that.
We were in the green spacekind of back behind it.
So we just also kind of walked aroundthere, still enjoyed it, was still
lit up, but it wasn't sparkling.
Annie (32:11):
Yes.
So if you are in that situation andyou have a little time to kill in
that area, you could go to, there'sa street called Rue Saint Dominique,
and Rue Cler are also in that area.
They're not far at all.
And they would be good ones to,Rue Saint Dominique has a ton of
restaurants and cafes and things.
(32:32):
And I can't remember, itintersects with another one
whose name escapes me right now.
But, if you go to the end of Rue SaintDominique, then you have Rue Cler as well.
And those are fun little streets, justto kill half an hour or something.
Because if you stick around theTrocadéro, there's not much going on
there besides people selling trinkets.
(32:52):
I mean, some days you show up at theTrocadéro and there's a demonstration
or something going on that's exciting.
But most of the time thereisn't anything going on.
You know, it's like,okay, well, what do we do?
We got to wait and wehave an hour to kill.
Hannah (33:05):
Exactly.
Annie (33:06):
Yeah, I think, and so if you're facing the Eiffel Tower from
the Trocadéro, Rue Saint Dominiqueis going to be on your left.
So you go around the tower on theleft and you keep going left, and
it's in that general direction.
And you also have the Rue deL'Université right there that
people like to take photos.
It's very popular forphotos that one, as well.
(33:28):
You know, it's just a gorgeousneighborhood to walk around, but
when you're pregnant, maybe... yeah.
Hannah (33:32):
At least constantly walking around.
Yes.
Annie (33:35):
Yes.
You were pretty advanced in yourpregnancy, 30 weeks, you know,
so did it really slow you downor were you okay most days?
Hannah (33:43):
Honestly, not as much as I was expecting.
I mean, ideally, we would have been ableto do the trip a little bit earlier, more
like 20 weeks, but just with our workschedules that we weren't able to do that.
But I was pleasantly surprised, because Ialso don't feel like I'm one of those, you
know, I haven't been, I wasn't exercisingas much as I should, you know, I wasn't
in fantastic shape or stamina or anything.
(34:03):
And I did, I was a good girl,good pregnant girl, and I wore my
compression hose and stuff some ofthe days we were walking around, but
you know, there were times if therewere a lot of stairs somewhere, or
we were walking a lot, I had to kindof take it slower or sit on a bench,
or we sit at a cafe and take a break.
But overall, we'd usually come backto our hotels in the afternoon and
rest, but for an hour or 2, butotherwise we were pretty much up and
(34:27):
about almost every day we were there.
Annie (34:29):
Did you have a plan just in case something happened that you were feeling
unwell and you had to get medical care?
Hannah (34:35):
So I had looked it up beforehand and there is an American
maternity hospital in Paris.
So I had looked that up, and kind of savedthe location in my phone just in case
something, you know, where to happen.
But I had gotten clearance and everythingfrom my doctor, obviously, before we... he
said, as long as you're back by October,I think we got back September 28th or
(34:58):
something like that, kind of cut it close.
Yeah, and we had a note from him as well,whenever we traveled just in case the
airline... you know, they don't let anyonefly internationally past 35 or 36 weeks.
So I had a note from him saying that I wasclear to fly and all that kind of stuff.
Annie (35:13):
Yeah, because you had a, you were carrying a, I mean, you
were not hiding the fact that you,some women hide the pregnancy well.
Yeah.
For you, I mean, I sawthe photos you sent me.
Yeah.
You looked pregnant.
There was no mistaking it with havinghad too much dessert or whatever.
Hannah (35:28):
Yes.
Annie (35:30):
But I mean, honestly, you looked up the American pregnancy thing, but
if you were gonna give birth at 30weeks, they probably would send you
to an NICU in a different hospital.
I don't think they would, I mean,maybe 30 weeker they would take
it on, but, hmm, it's like, eh...
Hannah (35:47):
They probably would have like, at least stabilized me or something and...
Annie (35:50):
Of course, of course, yeah.
But it is, I mean, it's something toconsider, like, you know, if I cannot
do a normal pregnancy, not that I triedvery many times, but so for people
like me, you don't want to travelat all during that time, because too
many things are likely to happen.
Hannah (36:09):
Only if it's okay with your doctor and they say it's ok.
Annie (36:11):
Exactly.
I think most women have perfectlynormal pregnancies and don't have
to worry about all this stuff.
But it's good that you had thought aboutit and that you had, you know, talked to
your doctor about it because obviouslywe want babies to be happy and healthy.
And this little baby ishalf French then, huh?
Good.
Hannah (36:29):
Very, very chunky and healthy, just like we like them to be.
So, yeah, he's good.
He's 10 months old now, so I don't knowwhen we'll get the chance to go again, but
we had a great time while we were there.
Annie (36:39):
I honestly, I think people should start traveling with kids like that.
After seven is when theystart remembering things.
If you were half French and your grandmawas in France or something, then of course
you would go because there's grandma.
But just to visit, just for tourism, Ithink before seven, there's not a lot
of point to it, but if you have severalkids, then necessarily some of them are
(37:04):
going to be younger than the others.
So it's, you know, it'sa personal decision.
Hannah (37:09):
Yeah.
And I did notice there were a lotof playgrounds, you know, throughout
everywhere, just as we were walkingaround, especially in the more areas
like residential areas, there areplaygrounds everywhere, which, you
know, you could just let your kidsrun wild and burn off some energy.
Annie (37:22):
Yes, yes.
They're not necessarily bigplaygrounds, but they are everywhere.
Like it's really hard, people ask me forlists of playgrounds and things, I'm like,
well, you don't need a list, you just needto open your eyes and you'll find them.
They're not that difficult to find.
Hannah, thank you somuch for talking to me.
Any last words of wisdom about, Idon't know, something you learned about
(37:43):
France or recommendations for people?
Hannah (37:45):
Yeah, don't be afraid to, you know, do an international trip
on this, especially like everythingFrance has great medical care.
Everyone was very accommodating.
There were elevators or when we went tothe Montmartre, they had the funiculaire
to take you up, so you didn't haveto take all the stairs there, which
I definitely had bookmarked as well.
I knew I was not going to want todo all those stairs at Montmartre.
Annie (38:04):
Yes.
Hannah (38:06):
It's very doable, very easy.
I think, you know, anyone that does it,even while pregnant, heavier like me,
or earlier on, be pleasantly surprised.
Very easy and very doable.
My favorite place that we stayed,you know, hotel B&B wise, was
actually the place in Provins.
It was called (Demeure des VieuxBains, and it was absolutely beautiful.
(38:26):
We stayed in the medieval room thathad a, you know, a big four poster
king size bed, lots of space, andactually a secondary room as well
for if you did have small children.
And they had a fantasticbreakfast every morning.
They had beautiful grounds and gardensthat you, the maternity pictures I
took were taken there with the flowersand everything in the background.
So that was just a beautiful,relaxing place to stay.
(38:47):
And probably my favorite placethat we stayed the whole time.
Annie (38:49):
That's great.
So, (Demeure des Vieux Bainsin Provins, you say that it's a
short walk from the train station.
I still need to go, so perhaps Ishould book a room there next time.
Hannah (38:59):
It's just, at the base of where you turn to go
up to the medieval part, too.
So it's very easy to get between the two.
And the owner, I think,is the mayor of the town.
Annie (39:08):
Oh, oh.
Hannah (39:09):
He was also very sweet and accommodating, and the day we went
back, he just, he said, no, no, no,like, I'll drive you to the train
station, I don't want you walking.
And they actually do, they do dinnerswhere they will make you dinner
when you're there on the weekends.
So we didn't do that, but I wish we had.
That would be one thingI wish we had done.
Annie (39:24):
Right, because sometimes you stay at places where they say, would
you like to add dinner to, and that'sgood that you think you wish you had
done it because you probably saw someof what the other people were eating.
Hannah (39:35):
Or just saw them, they were all eating together with the owners.
It just seemed like a very fun, relaxed,kind of, you know, family style dinner
Annie (39:42):
Yeah, that's great.
Hannah, thank you very much.
And well, I hope you get to comeback to France with your kids
when they're a little bit older.
Hannah (39:50):
Yes, exactly.
Thank you so much.
It was great talking.
Annie (39:53):
Merci.
Au revoir.
Again, I want to thank my patrons forgiving back and supporting the show.
Patreon supporters get new episodesas soon as they are ready and ad-free.
Please be like them, follow the link inthe show notes or go to patreon.com/JoinUs
(40:18):
. And of course, patrons get many more exclusive rewards for supporting
the show, I mean, not having toput up with the ads is great, but
there 's more, there's much more.
So I do Zooms with patrons, I shareexclusive content, photos, articles
that I write, things like that.
And I'm just available to patrons.
(40:40):
We chat, they send me messages, theyhave questions, they want to know things.
And I'm happy to engage.
I can't engage with the wholeworld, but I can do it with patrons.
I don't have anybody new to thankthis week because I had to record this
earlier than normal, but I want to saythank you to all my current patrons.
It's wonderful to have you on boardin the community of travel enthusiasts
(41:00):
and francophiles, who keep thispodcast going, and if you don't like
the ads, just a few dollars a month,you can take them away, so... and
you help me continue this podcast.
So win-win.
And to support Elyse, goto patreon.com/ElysArt.
Are you thinking about a trip toFrance this year and you have a
hard time deciding what to do?
(41:22):
I can help you with my one on oneconsultation on Zoom, and you can read all
about that on joinusinfrance.com/boutique.
All right, let's talk about Picard.
If you've ever been to France,you might have noticed a Picard
store just about every other block.
It's a frozen food storeand it's huge in France.
It's huge in Spain too.
(41:44):
Although in Spain it's calledthe La Sirena and not Picard.
But it's the same idea.
We have fancy frozen food storesin France and in much of Europe.
This is true French fashion.
It's not just any frozen food.
It's high quality, well prepared,and often as good as what you'd
get in a restaurant, really.
(42:04):
French people love Picard for itsconvenience, consistency, and variety.
You'll find everything from classicFrench dishes like boeuf bourguignon,
tartiflette, escargot, to seasonalspecialties and splendid sauces to go
along with your Thai dishes, as I foundout staying with Patricia a few weeks ago.
(42:26):
And they have gourmet desserts.
They have very good desserts.
The frozen vegetables and seafood are alsoreally highly rated, often fresher than
what you find at a standard supermarket.
For visitors shopping at Picard is agreat way to experience French cuisine
without spending a fortune, or eating,out or needing a fully equipped kitchen.
(42:49):
Because I'll let you in on a secret.
When my days get too busy, I popsomething I bought at Picard in
the oven and I have a nice mealthat took me minutes to prepare.
Usually it's oven cooking,sometimes microwave, but it's never
as good in the microwave, okay?
But it's an easy way to get, to tryauthentic French flavors without the
(43:10):
fuss, plus their packaging usually hasclear cooking instructions, so even if
your French isn't perfect, you won't havetoo much trouble preparing your meal.
You can have a look at what Picard hasto offer, and even schedule a frozen food
delivery or pickup, by going to picard.
fr. And right now, they sell alot of heart shaped desserts.
(43:32):
I bought those and eaten those, they tastegood and they taste as good as they look.
This is not a Picard ad, Picard isnot a sponsor, they haven't given
me a penny to talk about them.
I just think you need to know about itbecause it's a great place to buy food.
And when you're... when you have busydays, whether you are working or visiting,
it's a very nice place to get some food.
(43:54):
All right, let's talk about ChatGPT.
People ask me sometimesnow, do you use ChatGPT?
And I do, but I use it to help mesummarize transcripts, even to make
the transcripts because all of theepisodes that I've published in the
last few years have been transcribedfully and edited as well, and AI
(44:16):
does a lot of that grunt work.
Then I look through everything tomake sure everything is spelled
correctly, but there's some AI there.
I also use ChatGPT to list all theplaces mentioned in an episode,
craft social media promos, whichI'm really bad at as a person.
(44:37):
I'm just not a very goodsocial media person.
I'm social, but not media.
And of course, sometimes I'm not surehow to say things properly in English,
or you know, I'm not the best writerwhen it comes to how to put together a
nice sentence in English, and so it canhelp me with that, but that makes sense.
(44:57):
I mean, French is my native language, soeven though I've been speaking English
a long time, sometimes I still stumble.
But the actual episodes arealways real, spontaneous
conversations between two people.
There's no script, no pre writtenanswers, just a natural exchange where
we share stories, insights, and thefun of exploring France together.
(45:20):
I also get a lot of requests from peoplewho want to be guests on the podcast.
I get so many people contacting meat this point that it's becoming
a challenge just to keep up.
I mean, several each day, right?
There's some, I can just turn downimmediately because it's obvious
they're not a good fit, but sometimesI'm not sure until I've talked to them.
So we have a 15 to 30 minute conversation.
(45:43):
And if I decide they are a goodpotential guest, I transcribed this
casual conversation we just had,and then I ask AI to summarize and
extract questions that we can useas a thread for our conversation.
It saves me so much time and itsaves time for my guests too.
So here's the bottom line.
AI is an assistant.
(46:04):
It's a very good assistant, very fastassistant, not the sort of assistant
I've ever had, I've ever been able to paybefore, because this is, you know, this is
a one person operation really, with Elyseoccasionally, and also Christian and Anne
who do the transcripts, but, you know,this is a one person operation really.
(46:26):
And so AI is very helpful, and I useit in limited fashion to save time.
So you're stuck with me folks.
Annie is not turning into a robot.
My thanks to Anne and ChristianCotovan who produce the transcripts.
Next week on the podcast, the tripreport with Teresa Watkins, where we
(46:46):
discuss her love for markets, and alsohow she agonized about some things that
she wasn't sure about, and they weren'tso hard in the end, but you know, she
has great tips for someone who like youlikes to plan her trips very carefuly.
And remember, become a patronso you don't have to put up with
the ads and help the podcast.
(47:07):
Thank you so much for listening,and I hope you join me next time so
we can look around France together!
Au revoir!
The Join Us in France travelpodcast is written, hosted, and
produced by Annie Sargent, andCopyright 2025 by AddictedToFrance.
It is released under a CreativeCommons attribution, non-commercial,
(47:29):
no derivatives license.
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