March 24, 2025 • 44 mins
Paris Macaron Class: vi.me/mTi2C
Bespoke Family Tours of Paris with Zoe at The Petit Guide (we did the Montmartre tour)
Photo shoot: Flytographer! If you've never used them before, use my link to get $25 off your first photo shoot!
In this episode, we're sharing how we took our family of 5 to Paris using travel points, showing how we explored Paris while staying at the Hyatt Regency Paris E'toile with Eiffel Tower views. We break down exactly how we managed hotel accommodations, transportation, dining and activities for three kids in one of Europe's most beautiful cities.
• Using 85,000 airline points to fly all five family members to Paris
• Navigating European hotel room limitations with connecting rooms for families
• Taking advantage of Club Lounge access at Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile
• Using the Paris Metro system with kids – surprisingly easy with navigation apps
• Participating in kid-friendly activities like The Petite Guide tour of Montmartre
• Taking a macaroon-making class where kids got hands-on experience
• Visiting the Louvre Museum and seeing Napoleon's apartments
• Enjoying the Tuileries Gardens with playground, trampolines and carousel
• Finding family-friendly dining at Le Relais de L'Entrecôte and Brasserie de Louvre
• Experiencing unexpected kindness from strangers on the Metro
If you enjoyed hearing about our Paris adventures, please share this episode with a friend who might be planning their own family trip!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you've been wanting to take your family to
Paris on points, we are sharingexactly how we did that for our
family of five.
In today's episode, we're goingto tell you exactly where we
stayed, what we did and even afew places that we ate with kids
.
So listen in.
Hi, I'm Raya.
(00:27):
And I'm Dwayne, and we are yourhosts of the Travel Party of
Five podcast, where we share howwe travel as a family of five
around the world.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We will also share how we use points and miles to
travel as affordably as possibleand sometimes even completely
free.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family
but you're not sure how, we'dlove for you to listen in.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn
a thing or two to get youcloser to your next trip.
Hey guys, welcome back.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Hello friends, we are fresh off of our two-week
European adventure.
We just got home yesterday.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yes, so fresh.
We still have jet lag.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yes, everyone is a little bit tired.
Everyone was up very early thismorning but today we are going
to share all the details aboutthe first part of our trip,
which is our time in Paris.
Patty, so this was Dwayne'sfirst time visiting Paris, and
so before we jump into all thedetails of, like the hotel and
(01:39):
all the stuff we did, I'm justcurious like what did you think
and was it what you expected?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oh, we, we.
Yeah, it was.
I thought it was great.
I think the next time we go weneed to experience outside of
Paris, like other parts ofFrance, I feel like we didn't
get the whole French experience.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Oh yeah, no, I would would agree with that.
So like one of my dream trips,as a total side note, is to like
drive a car from paris downthrough the entire country and
then like even into spain, butand like like kind of explore
all the little french townsalong the way.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
That is yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to that
.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, I don't know if I would do that with kids, but
but overall it was a great time.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Paris is, you know.
Unfortunately, it rained mostof the time we were there.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yes, and it was cold and it was cold, so we didn't
have overall for the whole tripwe didn't have super great
weather, but there's nothing wecan do about it.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
We made the best of what we were given yes, okay.
Sorry, go ahead.
Oh no, I was just going to sayoverall it was a great time.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Did it live up to your expectations that you had?
Yes, yes, yeah, okay, let'stalk about the hotel.
So before we dive into thedetails, we're not going to
spend a ton of time on, like,how we booked it, because I just
did a whole episode about thatthat came out last week.
So if you want to know exactlyhow we booked it, where we
stayed, flights, all that thatis in last week's episode, so
(03:17):
pop over and listen to that.
But for Paris specifically, wedid stay at the Hyatt Regency
Paris Etoile Etoile means starin French.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
It does yes.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Stayed there.
I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
This was my second time staying there.
Actually, I stayed there lastyear with my mom and sister and
I knew that it would be theperfect place to have a family
of five, because I knew that wecould get two rooms.
We could put two in one room,three in the other and they
could be connecting, becausethat's exactly how we had it
last year and that's like,literally, the setup that we had
(03:55):
this time was exactly the same.
So it's called when you book it, you would book two separate
rooms, or sometimes it'savailable for points, it's
called the Regency Family Suiteand it's literally just two
connecting rooms.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
And first of all we had to book that because, unlike
the States, the rooms there arevery small.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, normal occupancy for a European hotel
is two, sometimes three.
Occupancy for a European hotelis two, sometimes three, and so
if you're like just starting toplan a trip to Europe, you need
to keep that in mind.
First and foremost, this hotelis great for families.
It is not in like the citycenter of Paris, though.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It is not.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
However, I didn't find that to be a detriment to
us at all.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
We took the Metro pretty much every everywhere we
went.
So we flew on air Francestraight from Chicago to Paris.
85,000 points for all five ofus to fly.
Those were um miles that Itransferred from somewhere to
flying blue.
All four banks transfer.
I can't remember where theycame from at the time, but
(05:04):
that's a smoking deal and Iguess we can talk about the
flight, because obviously Ididn't talk about that in last
week's episode because we hadn'ttaken it yet.
So Air France economy overnightflight first time for our kids
flying on a red eye like that,overnight too, and longest
flight for them, I thinkeveryone did really well.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, what was that?
I forget that was what.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Eight and a half hours, yes, roughly yeah um, and
so we, we took off around fiveo'clock chicago time and we
landed at 8 am paris time.
And I mean I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Did the kids sleep on ?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
that a little bit, but like not a lot.
Our daughter slept the most,probably because she's the
tiniest and she could easilylike she just laid on Dwayne's
lap and she slept.
The boys, they slept a littlebit and I slept again a little
bit because I was in the samerow with them and Dwayne and our
daughter were in the middle row.
Did you sleep at all?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
No, not really A cat nap here and there, but that was
about it.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, I mean it was fine.
The food was not great actually, because even though we were
not at the back of the plane,for some reason when they got to
us they had run out of the meatoption, the chicken option, so
all they had was a vegetarianoption, and I'm not very picky
and it was not good it was verybad actually.
(06:26):
Fortunately for the kids.
Well, for our two younger kids,I had pre-ordered a kid's meal.
That came out well before ourmeal and it was good.
It came out before everybody'smeal and it was good, yep.
So our two youngest had likepasta and, I don't know, it was
fine for kids.
They enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, our oldest didnot.
I don't know, for I think Ijust didn't pre-order for him
(06:49):
because he's the mostadventurous eater of the three
and I thought he'll be fine withwhatever it is, but I did not
plan for them running out of theum the chicken, so I mean, and
they ran out like fairly early.
It's because they like weregoing in weird sections and they
like started in the back.
(07:10):
Then they moved up closertowards the front of economy and
so we were.
Even though we were in themiddle in economy, we were still
served.
Last Like, it was at least afull hour after our kids got
their meals that we got ours.
Yeah, it was not good food, sothat was disappointing.
But the rest of the flight wasfine.
I mean, I got everyoneturtleneck pillows and I think
(07:34):
I'm the only one that used mine.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Really, Well, what's funny is I tried to use mine,
but this is while our daughterwas laying on me, I couldn't
figure it out and there was likethis thing you had to remove
from the Velcro, and I didn'trealize that.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Oh, so it wouldn't stick.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, it wouldn't stick.
I was like what's going on here?
And then finally I figured itout and Aria was up and I was
like oh, whatever.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, I normally can sleep fairly decently on an
economy flight overnight, buthaving all the kids there did
add an extra element to it,because I have to be aware of
them also and you know they'relike mom, mom, mom, mom, like
they don't acknowledge that I'mtrying to sleep, like they don't
care.
So everyone was pretty tiredwhen we landed.
(08:18):
We took a taxi from the airportto the hotel.
As a side note, there are guysstanding there as you're walking
towards the taxis, trying toget you to take a taxi.
Ignore them and, just becausethey're not licensed taxi
drivers, and just go to like thetaxi line and there will be
(08:38):
licensed taxi drivers therewaiting.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yes, there's like a dedicated person there that
calls taxis for you.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
They'll ask you how many people.
We were able to easily get onethat fit all five of us and our
luggage, no problem.
And it's also a set fee.
So it depends whether you'regoing to the right bank or the
left bank, but they shouldcharge you a set fee and no more
.
I think we did pay a smallsurcharge because we were a
larger family.
(09:08):
Was that a scam?
I don't know.
We didn't pay it on the wayback, so I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
But I don't.
I thought it was just what 50euros.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
I thought no, but we paid 70, I think, or something
like that.
We paid 20 more than I thought.
On the way there Again, wasthat like I mean, should we have
paid that?
It's really hard to tellsometimes if you're being taken
advantage of, if you're atourist, and I think it just
happens sometimes.
So, yeah, whatever we got tothe hotel, totally worth it.
(09:42):
The taxi is worth it.
You can take the metro.
It is possible.
We did not want to do that justbecause of all the kids and all
the bags after an eight and ahalf hour flight.
No, yeah so taxi is is how wedid it.
And yeah, um, obviously, ifyou're on a super budget, you
can take the metro.
It is not that difficult.
(10:03):
We took the Metro everywhereelse we went.
We bought passes, navigo cardsfor each of us there's a
discounted one you can get forkids and so that's what we did,
and we just reloaded them usingmy phone when they ran low.
Super easy to use.
Yes, if you've never used theMetro, like abroad, or even in
(10:25):
new york city, like all you dois type in where you want to go
in apple maps or google maps weI'm partial to apple, but
whatever floats your boat andthen you, it will you choose the
public transportation optionand it will tell you what train
to take and it will say, like,take the M1 train towards
whatever and get off at afterfour stops, at whatever stop,
(10:49):
and it is literally idiot proof.
So just a little tangent therefor you.
But okay, so we get to thehotel.
It's maybe 10am by now.
Now that we've gotten our bags,we've driven in the taxi, which
it's about a half an hour drive, I would say, from the airport
to the Hyatt.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Regency Check-in's not until four.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah, three or four and our room was not ready.
Our rooms were not ready, Ishould say and so we went up to
the club.
We did have club access.
I have globalist status, sothat automatically gives me club
access, and I had gifted Duanea club access award.
So we went up to the club.
However, I think even if wedidn't, they would have given us
(11:30):
club access for that day.
That was the impression I had,because our room wasn't ready
and we were waiting.
So I do think, even if youdon't have it, they will likely
give it to you for the day ifyou arrive super early.
So we went up to the club.
They were still servingbreakfast, actually, so we had
some breakfast, we had somecoffee.
Most importantly, I let thekids have Coke because I wanted
(11:55):
them to stay awake and have thecaffeine, and we hung out there
for a bit.
We ended up leaving our bagsand going for a walk.
We stumbled upon something onour walk that we weren't really
intending to.
What was that?
The Arc, yeah, the Arc deTriomphe, triomphe.
Yes, it's about a 10 minutewalk from the hotel and there
was maybe 10 lanes of carszooming around it in a circle.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yes, it was pretty busy.
Would you have wanted to drivein that, I mean, would I?
No, can I?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Of course, we were also trying to get outside and
get in the sunlight so that thathelps your body adjust to the
jet lag easier too.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yes, keep the kids up and all that stuff.
But yes, we took, like you said, a 10-minute walk, which was
pretty easy in the light rain.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah, the weather wasn't too bad that day.
It wasn't too bad.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
But yeah, the weather wasn't too bad that day.
It wasn't too bad, um, but yeah, the triumph was a quiet.
The tree arc to triumph waspretty nice.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I mean again, it was busy when we were driving into
the uh, leaving the airport anddriving to the hotel, the taxi
driver kept saying things toDwayne and he was speaking in
English, but I know Dwayne washaving a hard time understanding
him and at one point the taxidriver pointed out something.
What was it?
A plane or something?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
It was the Concorde, the supersonic jet, that used to
fly.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
And it's just like park stationary right.
Yes, they have it on display bythe airport.
And Dwayne just said oh, but hemade his like.
Instead of saying oh, he waslike oh and I was like told him
later that that was his Frenchway of saying oh.
When in France you know, oh, Ijust I've never heard him make
that sound before.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Anyways, our room was not ready until literally three
or four yeah, I mean, we hadquite a bit of time to kill they
had someone in the room theysaid that had a late checkout,
until two, so they had to turnit quickly.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So I mean it's fine like there's no issue.
Check-in is check-in.
You know we were early so it iswhat it is, but yeah anyway,
back to the club.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
What did you think of the club?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I think it's a fantastic club, especially when
you compare it to like adomestic club, like the Grand
Hyatt Choir or something I, orlike the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale.
I think there's so many moreoptions than.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
I thought it was a pretty good club as well.
The best thing about the clubwas the view.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Oh yeah, the view of the Eiffel Tower is wonderful.
The food?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
was okay.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I mean they have a lot of charcuterie stuff and
bread and meat and cheese.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Croissants and all that.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Croissants.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Croissant Coffee machines and beer they have, I
even think I had a beer at 10 amthat day they have wine on tap
oh, they have wine on tap.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yes, yeah, and so that's cool.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
You just push a button and it fills your glass
yes, so the club is like on thewhatever floor, top floor, was
it the top floor?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
it might be the top floor.
It was like 34.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Anyway, views were great.
Food was okay.
Um, we ate there every day forbreakfast yes because it was
free.
Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
But after the second day I was over it that's how
duane feels about every club,though, because duane wants like
meat and more meat and moremeat with his breakfast and he
wants like a giant meal that isall his calories for the whole
day, and that's not how they eatin Europe.
(15:35):
So, sorry to disappoint you, Iwill say the food is.
It's like it's fine, like it'snot bad food.
The quality is way better food.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
The quality is way better than here in the US the
quality is way better, but theoptions are not.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yes, it's just, the options are limited and like
they have like chicken sausage,right?
Well, my like Dwayne, and thekids like pork sausage.
So it's just, you know it'svery American of you Chickens
just need to stick to beingchickens.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah, oh my gosh.
We're 15 minutes in.
All we've talked about is theclub and the hotel.
We haven't even gotten in ourroom yet.
Okay, so we check into our room.
It's exactly as I expected itto be, but what did you think
about it?
Because you had no frame ofreference.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
The rooms.
I think they were fine.
They were again small.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yes, but I mean doable.
Totally doable.
Our kids were pumped that theyhad their own room.
They never get their own room.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And again, like the club, we had a great view, we
had Eiffel.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Tower views.
Yeah, they had set up the kids'room with three beds, so
normally there's two twin bedsin there, and they had converted
the sofa into the third bed,which was perfect.
Our daughter slept there andthe kids were so excited to have
their own room, their ownbathroom.
It's really nice to have twobathrooms when you have a big
(16:58):
family.
Yeah, and it was great.
It was honestly fantastic.
The rooms were not the biggest,but it was plenty.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, plenty for us For sure it worked out great.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Yeah, and the service at the hotel in general I find
very good.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
It's worth noting, this hotel, at the time that
this comes out, is a Category 4.
But literally tomorrow, tuesday, march 25, 2025, it's going to
change from a category four to acategory five hotel, and so you
won't be able to use free nightcertificates there anymore and
the points cost per night isgoing to go up slightly.
(17:35):
I still think this is the bestvalue for families wanting to
use points for like Hyatt inParis.
Use points for like Hyatt inParis.
I would 100% stay here again.
The other thing that's coolabout the hotel is it's it's
attached to like a mall kind of.
It's called um, what is itcalled?
(17:55):
Plastic?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
congress.
I don't remember what it'scalled, but I mean it's not like
a mall in.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
America, though no, it's not when I was here.
When I was there last year, itwas not finished at all, like
there was still a lot ofconstruction and walking through
it felt weird.
It was much more finished thisyear, but still not completely
done.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I mean, we walked through that mall Every day,
every day, and there were storesin there that I didn't see one
customer in.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yes, it was not a very busy mall.
There's also a pharmacy therethat's open 24 hours a day that
you can get to without everstepping foot outside, so that's
great.
I actually got some skincarefrom there before we left.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
There's also a Starbucks in that mall that
didn't open up until like 8am,which I thought was crazy.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yes, welcome to Europe.
It's crazy for Americans, butit's not crazy for Europeans.
So, um, the reason we wouldwalk through the mall, too, is
that was the way to the closestMetro stop, which is the M1.
Um Port, port de Mayo, is thename of the stop on the M1 train
(19:11):
line, and so that's where westarted and stopped most most
times we took the Metro.
Let's talk about a few of thethings that we did in Paris.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Let's start with so the second day, our first full
day.
Well, I guess second daybecause we got there at 10 am.
Anyway, the second day we werethere, we partook in a photo
shoot that we had booked.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yes, we booked a photo shoot with flightographer.
Let me give some some color tothis, because we so.
We got in at like what 8am.
We got to the hotel at 10.
We made the kids stay up untillike 738 PM and then they and
they did, and they fell asleep.
And I am thinking, perfect,they're going to sleep through
(20:04):
the night and they are going towake up.
You know a regular time andwe're going to all be on the
time zone and we're going to beready to go.
But that is not what happened.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Not the case at all.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
They woke up at one o'clock in the morning every
single one of them and they werewide awake.
There was no getting them backto bed and we had a photo shoot
booked at.
We're supposed to meet her atseven, I think 7.15 something,
and so there's nothing I can do.
She pushed it back a littlebecause of the rain.
(20:36):
Yeah, yeah, I'll get there.
So the kids are just up, we letthem watch TV, their iPads,
whatever, and then we startgetting ready to go to the photo
.
Yeah, yeah, I'll get there.
So the kids are just up, we letthem watch TV, their iPads,
whatever, and then we startgetting ready to go to the photo
shoot.
You know, hair makeup for me,getting the boys all dressed the
whole nine yards.
And then I get a text from thephotographer saying you know,
hey, it looks like it's raining,are you seeing that?
(20:58):
And I was like, oh, it doesn'treally look like it's raining
from here.
But again we're on like the.
What floor were we on?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
30, uh 19, I think.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yeah.
So it's like kind of hard totell.
So I'm like, oh, I don't, Idon't really know.
I'm like I think we should justgo over with kind of a thing.
So we go and we meet thephotographer.
It's cold, it's it is rainingand, um, it's, it's early, and
(21:29):
my kids have been awake for likeseven hours already and it's
not even 8 am, so everyone's alittle cranky.
Uh, my poor daughter isfreezing because she has on a
dress.
I couldn't find any tights thatdidn't look weird on her cause
she's so teeny, and so it was.
(21:52):
I was not sure the photos weregoing to turn out, because it
was a lot of bribing, a lot oflike I'll give you 10 pieces of
candy if you can just smile forone second.
But they did turn out.
Actually, they came out quitegood.
I thought they were great.
Yeah, they were really good.
So after we tortured ourchildren with a photo shoot, we
didn't have any plans for therest of the day, so we just kind
(22:13):
of spent the day wanderingaround Paris.
We spent most of our time in LeMarais.
No, that's not how you say it,le Marais, that's how you say it
in French.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Did we go back to the ?
Speaker 1 (22:25):
hotel first.
Oh yeah, we did, because we hadto change and everything.
That's the day we went to NotreDame too.
We went to Notre Dame.
We did not buy tickets inadvance for Notre Dame because
we were not planning to goinside, but the line for no
tickets seemed to be movingfairly quickly and duane wanted
to go in.
So we did get in the line andit did move fairly quickly.
I think stop moving.
(22:46):
I think we waited maybe sevenminutes.
It wasn't long at all.
So we went in notre dame.
That was free and so that wasnice.
Our kids little candle in theresaid a little prayer.
Duane had some sneaker shops hewanted to look at, so so we
went to a few of those.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, I went to a Stussy store, got a Paris
exclusive shirt.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Ooh, la la.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yes, oui, oui, mon chéri.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
We popped into a chocolate shop and got the kids
each a little piece of chocolate.
We went to a Portuguese bakeryand got some pasta de nata.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I saw a Banksy art.
Banksy Banksy art.
Yes, someone had vandalized it,though, which was pretty shitty
.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
It kind of rained on and off but we just had a nice
day kind of wandering thestreets of Paris.
We got a falafel at La DuFalafel, which is a place I went
to when I was in Paris 12 yearsago and I still remember it.
What I remember eating had alot more sauce than the one we
got, but it was good.
Our kids all had more than onebite.
That's how I know that it was awin.
(23:54):
I mean there was a long line.
There was a long line.
Yeah, it's very popular and Imean if it's been in business 12
years, you know it's got to begood, you know.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, I feel like that's not that long ago.
Was it only two, did it justopen when you went.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
I have no idea it could have been longer.
I have no idea, I just know atleast 12 years In the restaurant
world that's a long time.
Anyways, okay.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Not in Spain.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Okay, well, that'll be the next episode.
Some other things that we didin Paris.
I scheduled us a tour with thePetit Guide, which is the small
guide.
That's what it means.
Petit means small, I guess.
Technically.
In French Her name is Zoe Zoe.
(24:44):
I've followed on Instagram forquite a few years now and I was
so excited to be able to takeone of her tours with the kids.
So, for a little background,she's on Instagram at
thepetiteguide.
I will link it in the shownotes.
But her name is Zoe.
It is her, um, like herbusiness.
I do think that sometimes shehas other people doing tours for
(25:06):
her, but our tour was bookedwith her and it is tours
specifically geared towards kidsand you can choose kind of the
areas that you want to tour.
So, uh, montmartre is a popularone, that's the one that we did
.
She also does like a get toknow your neighborhood kind of a
tour.
So Montmartre is a popular one,that's the one that we did.
She also does like a get toknow your neighborhood kind of a
tour.
So if you're staying in an area, you know she'll tour you
(25:26):
around that area and she has afew other ones, so you can find
her on Instagram and check herout.
But I would highly recommendshe was one of the best tour
guides I think we had on thetrip.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yes, very informative .
Speaker 1 (25:41):
She explained everything about kind of the
Montmartre neighborhood, what itused to be compared to what it
is now.
Um, we talked a lot about theart and, like the history, the
kids got to see where picassoused to live.
She brought notebooks andpencils so they could draw and
we took like a little break andhad the kids, you know, draw
something.
It was really good, yeah, ourkids really enjoyed it, yeah,
(26:04):
and she brought bubbles for thekids.
We stopped at her favoritebakery and got to get a snack.
It was very good.
It was very good, yeah.
The other thing that I thoughtwas so cool is we walked by a
school, like a regular school,and they have their lunch menu
posted outside, and so shetalked about that with our kids
(26:27):
and they read through the lunchmenu together and I just thought
it was really fun for our kidsto get to see.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
What I thought was most interesting is she said
that kids are not allowed tobring their own lunch to school
oh, yeah, she did say that.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah, so we talked a lot about like what it's like to
be a kid in france, and that'sthe kind of stuff that really
engages kids, you know, becauseit it affects them and they can
think like, oh, like that wouldbe crazy.
You know, um, there was a lotof vegetables on the lunch menu,
I think the kids were like whoa, yeah, and then the Montmartre
(27:03):
tour specifically ends at SacreCoeur and so you kind of hike up
the steps and you get thereally beautiful views of Paris.
It was a little bit foggy andcloudy the day we were there,
but really would highlyrecommend her.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I'm sure, any tour that she does is great.
Yeah, very knowledgeable.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
She also had some really good recommendations for
us, and some of them we did, sowe'll talk about those here
shortly.
But the other thing that I hadbooked was a macaroon class.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Macaroon.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Macaroon, and this class was specifically geared
towards kids.
Maca roll, and this was thisclass was specifically geared
towards kids.
I wanted to do a croissantclass, but I couldn't find one
that I felt like would let thekids help.
Yeah, because, again, ouryoungest is five and, like a lot
of them, had age limits of likeseven or eight, and so this
macaroon class was really good.
(27:56):
Actually, it was in a smallcafe called the april cafe.
The only thing I would say isit's not in a part of paris that
you're probably going to go tolike it wasn't.
I never felt unsafe, but itjust was in a totally different
area to us than all the touristystuff you know, yeah,
(28:16):
definitely a different part ofparis, but yeah, still totally
fine to go to.
Yes, and we just again put theaddress into the GPS.
It told us the trains to takeand we took them and we found it
no problem.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, getting around is super easy.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
That was one of the things that you liked the most
about Europe.
Right was the transportation.
Yes, and the character architectarchitecture Dwayne took
approximately 1000 pictures ofrandom streets in every city
that we went to.
It was pretty cute.
So the macaroon class thoughthe kids did most of it.
(28:55):
They mixed the, they sifted,they mixed the batter, they
added the coloring, they stirredit in, they piped them out,
they filled them and I mean wehelped too, but the kids really
got to have a hand in everypiece and it was.
It was good.
It was literally in the back ofthis tiny cafe, so people could
be coming in and ordering likea cappuccino and you're just
(29:16):
like literally right there doingit.
So I would recommend that.
I would recommend it, though Iwill link everything that we did
that was that's bookable.
I will link in the show notes,yeah, so if you want to book it,
you can go there.
Another thing that we did thatI hadn't booked um was the
Louvre, and that was because youwanted to do it and I didn't.
(29:39):
Um was the Louvre, and that wasbecause you wanted to do it and
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
I didn't know you wanted to do that.
So yeah, and I mean, that placewas crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It was very packed, very packed so we ended up
booking tickets the day beforewe wanted to go, that same day
that we were talking about going, but they didn't have any
tickets available so we couldn'tbook it.
So we ended up booking it forthe next day.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
And just heads up if you're looking to spend or to
look at everything in Louvre, Imean you're going to have to
Days.
Yeah, it's going to be a wholeday worth at least, and then
some.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
It was incredibly crowded when we were there.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
it was hot inside, like I mean, the place is
enormous yeah, so we really didtwo things.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
We looked at the mona lisa because duane wanted to
see it, us and about 100 otherpeople.
What did you think of the monalisa?
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I thought it was great.
Everyone keep, keep, kept itwas small.
But I think it was small justbecause you couldn't get super
close to it.
I mean it was a normal sizepainting.
But when everyone kept tellingme it was small, I thought it
was just like a little tiny,like picture.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
I mean it's like eight by 10.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
It's bigger than that .
It looks like that becauseyou're so far away.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
I mean, I've seen it up close.
It's bigger than that.
It's like that People can't seewhat you're pointing at.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Well, I'm just saying I'm talking to you because you
said it was an 8x10.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
He's pointing to something that's maybe like
10x20.
Yeah, I don't think it's thatbig.
The other thing that we wantedto see in the Louvre was
Napoleon's apartments, and thatwas pretty cool.
I have not seen that before,and even our kids were kind of
like wait, this was an apartmentLike this is huge, it's so
(31:30):
opulent, like there's just somuch gold, and it was pretty big
and crazy.
What did you think of it?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I just want to say I love his ice cream.
Oh, that's Neapolitan, notNapoleon, I mean.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
I thought it was great.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I mean, oh God, you knew it wasn't, it was very I
don't even know the word Like.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
I think opulent is a good word.
That is a good word.
You knew it wasn't Neapol, Imean napoleon.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Right, you knew right because I mean, do we need it
to get a divorce?
I thought it was a guy thatimpacted, oh bless your heart.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
You did not, oh my god.
Okay, the other thing we didthat the kids really liked and
this was a recommendation fromzo, again at the Petite Guide
and, as a side note, we paidfull price for her tour, so not
sponsored in any way.
I just really thought she does.
I think she does a good job andI just want to recommend her.
(32:33):
But she also had some reallygood recommendations, and one of
the things she recommended wasto visit the tooleries and let
the kids play on the playground.
There's a playground in thetooleries and the tooleries is
right by the louvre, so what istoolery?
that those are the gardens thatwe went, and that's what it's
called the tooleries, andthere's a metro stop right by
(32:55):
there so you could take themetro right there.
It's really close to the louvre, so what you could do is let
the kids play and get all theirenergy out, then go to the lube.
That was our original plan, butthe tickets were sold out, so
we ended up just spending sometime in the in the gardens and
letting the kids run amok anddoing the lube a different day.
(33:16):
But there's a playground therewhich is obviously it's free
they had a carousel there's acarousel near the playground
which is not free.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Not free, but not it was like it was fine, yeah, two
dollars, two euros per kid forone uh little jaunt around.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
It was fine.
And then they also havetrampolines that you have to
know to look for them.
They're not free.
You have to know to look forthem because they're not free.
You have to know to look forthem because they're not super
visible.
But we also paid for the kidsto jump on them for seven
minutes and again it wasn't.
I mean, was it expensive forseven minutes?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Probably, but we needed them to get their energy
out because what's funny isthere was an American family
there when we got there andshe's like it's not free and
it's only seven minutes.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
In the Tuileries we also met another American family
who ironically was also fromour same town in Arizona and
they live probably seven minutesfrom us, so you could
definitely tell it was springbreak time for arizona.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Oh, at the tooleries we got probably the best hot
chocolate of our trip there.
Yes, it was super good, superthick, with two c's, and I mean
it was delicious.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Well, you were also telling me.
You were like I didn't realizethat Paris was known for hot
chocolate.
I mean, I didn't, I just butyeah, I mean they are when I
think of.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Paris.
I don't think of hot chocolate.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
What do you think of Croissant Croissant?
What a triumph.
It's the arc de triumph.
Anyways, yes, it was very good.
Hot chocolate, it was very hot,and it was a cold day, like
maybe one of the coldest days,and it was really nice to sit on
a bench and let the kids playand have a nice hot drink and
(35:12):
just kind of relax.
I think that's very Paris andso that was great.
Okay, let's talk about a coupleof restaurants.
We didn't.
We didn't do like paris finedining on this trip.
I'll just tell you that rightnow I don't know how you would
do that with with kids at leastnot the age of our kids, and our
kids are not picky by any means, but we did.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
The tour guide did recommend one place which we
went to which was kind of finedining.
They of fact threw us in acorner where no one else was
sitting, Because we were notdressed appropriately, probably,
and fun fact.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
So the restaurant that she recommended again Zoe
recommended was the Brasserie deLouvre Perfect spot to have
lunch before you go to theLouvre or after you've been
visiting the Louvre.
It is in the Hotel de Louvre,which is a Hyatt hotel, that you
can also book, with pointsright next to the Louvre.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
What category is it?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Six maybe, I think.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
It looked pretty fancy.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Yes and the restaurant is definitely a
little fancier.
They did stick us in a corner,we were not dressed
appropriately, but they servedus and everything was fine and I
do think also we had noreservations.
But again, we were kind ofvisiting in the off season.
I think if you were to go inthe summer you would want to
make a reservation for sure.
(36:37):
The food was good.
It was, I would say,traditional French food.
Zoe had said that it's herkids's favorite kid's menu is at
that restaurant and they didhave a good kid's menu.
Our daughter got salmon, Ourson got.
They called it steak, but Ifeel like it was a hamburger
patty, kind of Like it wasn't asteak, it was like ground beef
(37:02):
that was shaped into a patty.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
I'm trying to remember what it looked like.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
And then our older son got he orders off the adult
menu, sadly for our wallets, buthim and Dwayne actually got the
same thing, which was alsosteak, and I got some sea bass
and it was like the fish camewith a lemon squeezer and Dwayne
and the kids were like this isthe fanciest lemon squeezer I've
(37:28):
ever seen in my life.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
I've never seen a lemon squeezer like that.
Yes, and I also got the onionsoup.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Oh yeah, french onion soup, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
We're in France, so they just call it onion soup.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Oh, I see, I see, I see what you did there.
The soup was not as savory as Ithought it was going to be.
It was okay.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
It was sweet.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
It was more sweet.
Yeah, the bread and butter was10 out of 10.
Like butter in Paris is Frenchbutter in general is just chef's
kiss so much better thananything we have here in America
.
The other restaurant that wewent to I talked about on the
last Paris episode is the famoussteak frites restaurant.
(38:10):
It is called I'm going tobutcher this, but Le Relais de
L'Entrecôte.
Again, forgive me, my Frenchaccent is pas bien, but they
only serve one thing, and it issteak and french fries.
The only question that you needto tell them is how you like
(38:31):
your steak, and everyone getsthe same thing it's the steak,
it's the green sauce and it'sthe french fries.
It is delicious.
Duane is gonna tell you that itwas okay, but he's wrong.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
it's delicious it was okay, wasn't delicious to me,
it wasn't bad, but just wasn'tsomething to write home about,
you know.
So would I be mad if I neverwent there again?
Speaker 1 (38:55):
no, all three of our kids chowed down on their plates
and devoured all of it,including the green sauce, Like
they didn't bat an eye.
They just ate it.
And our oldest had seconds.
Because what they do is theygive you a smaller portion and
then they come around again.
And Dwayne was even like thisis it?
This is it.
And I was like no, they'regoing to come around again and
(39:15):
give you a second portion.
And they did.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
I mean they did.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
They gave me a hefty second portion.
Second, it was more than thefirst portion.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, I couldn't finish all mine, but I.
It's also right next to thehyatt regency.
Also, keep in mind that peopleline up for this place and at
least an hour before it opens,like I got there right at six I
was the second person in linebut by the time it opened, like
how long?
I mean there was probably 40-50people on the line.
Yeah, yeah, but again you, theysit you down and you know they
ask you how you like your meatand boom, it comes out fairly
(39:52):
quickly.
Yes, because they only got onefreaking thing on the menu.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
And they serve everyone at the same time.
Oh, there's also a salad thatthey bring out which has, like a
very mustardy dressing, whichseems to be a very French thing,
and I also really enjoy thesalad.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
I mean, I thought the salad was probably the best
part.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yeah, no, the yeah so highly would recommend.
It is right next to the Hyattand you can walk there, so
there's also a McDonald's rightthere that you can also walk to,
and we did eat there once,Cause the kids were curious what
do they have at McDonald's inFrance?
I got some chicken nuggets andthey were good.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
You had a French thing.
What was it?
It was like a peanut wrap orsomething.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
It was a goat cheese chicken wrap.
It was okay, it was fine.
I didn't finish it, I only tookone or two bites.
I just was curious to try it,you know, because they don't
have that here.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
I stayed American and got a Big Mac.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Yeah, okay, I feel like we've covered most of the
highlights.
Am I leaving anything out?
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I don't think so.
I mean, if you take anythingfrom this episode, just know
that it's super easy to travelaround Paris, especially with
kids.
I mean, like you said earlier,it's idiot proof.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Oh yeah, especially with the Metro.
I wouldn't be scared of usingthe Metro.
I think there's a lot of feararound it.
There are obviously pickpockets, that's you know, in every city
.
I think as long as you're smartabout it, then you're going to
be fine.
We didn't have any issues.
In fact, my uh, one of thepockets on my bag was unzipped
at one point and another girltold me, as like she was getting
(41:30):
off the train and I was gettingon, and she was like oh, like
she said it in French.
I forget what she said, but Iknew what she was talking about
and I was like oh, mercy, youknow what?
There's one more thing that Iwant to talk about really quick,
because kind of on that samenote, so that that French girl
was like, hey, your bag's open,I was like, oh, thank you so
much.
Uh, we, the first day that wewere there, the kids were really
tired and we were on the metroand our two youngest were
(41:52):
sitting together on one side ofthe of the car and we were on
the other side and it was apretty full car, so there were
people standing between us so wecouldn't really see them and
all of a sudden we realizedthey're both sleeping and you
know their head in one chair,yeah, like together, yeah, and
so their head.
You know they're sleeping andthe train is moving and their
(42:15):
heads are kind of like noddingforward, as you do when you're
sleeping, sitting up.
But duane and I couldn't get tothem because there are
literally people standing likebetween us and rush hour yeah,
and so like strangers were likehelping to keep the kids heads
up so that they didn't fall, andI just thought that was like a
(42:37):
really sweet moment yes, it wasdefinitely a very sweet moment.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Um matter of fact, I think the people that were
helping her were Japanese.
That were also tourists yeah,yeah, yeah they.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
It was just yeah.
It's like no one knows oneanother, but here they are
looking out for my kids becauseI can't.
So I feel like that's ametaphor for one of the reasons
that we like to travel and whatI hope our kids learn from
travel is that people are good.
For the most part, people aregood.
(43:13):
Most people are yeah, so I will.
We will leave you with thatmessage of positivity today and
we will be back next week for arecap of Barcelona, which is our
next stop on this trip.
Yes, so thank you so much forlistening.
Again, I will put everythingthat we booked in the show notes
, so if you have questions, youcan check there, and then I also
(43:35):
should have a Paris highlighton Instagram.
If you want to go, check thatout, if you want to see the
hotel or see some of the photosand videos from the tours and
the classes that we took, thatwill all live on Instagram.
So come say hi.
We are on Instagram at TravelParty of Five.
And, yes, send me a message.
I love it.
We've been getting a lot moremessages lately and I love it so
(43:57):
much, so come say hi to me.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
We appreciate you.
Tell your friends about us.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Yes, share it with a friend and we will catch you
next week.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Bye, have a good one.
If you've been wanting to take your family to
Paris on points, we are sharingexactly how we did that for our
family of five.
In today's episode, we're goingto tell you exactly where we
stayed, what we did and even afew places that we ate with kids
.
So listen in.
Hi, I'm Raya.
(00:27):
And I'm Dwayne, and we are yourhosts of the Travel Party of
Five podcast, where we share howwe travel as a family of five
around the world.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We will also share how we use points and miles to
travel as affordably as possibleand sometimes even completely
free.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family
but you're not sure how, we'dlove for you to listen in.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn
a thing or two to get youcloser to your next trip.
Hey guys, welcome back.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Hello friends, we are fresh off of our two-week
European adventure.
We just got home yesterday.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yes, so fresh.
We still have jet lag.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yes, everyone is a little bit tired.
Everyone was up very early thismorning but today we are going
to share all the details aboutthe first part of our trip,
which is our time in Paris.
Patty, so this was Dwayne'sfirst time visiting Paris, and
so before we jump into all thedetails of, like the hotel and
(01:39):
all the stuff we did, I'm justcurious like what did you think
and was it what you expected?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oh, we, we.
Yeah, it was.
I thought it was great.
I think the next time we go weneed to experience outside of
Paris, like other parts ofFrance, I feel like we didn't
get the whole French experience.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Oh yeah, no, I would would agree with that.
So like one of my dream trips,as a total side note, is to like
drive a car from paris downthrough the entire country and
then like even into spain, butand like like kind of explore
all the little french townsalong the way.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
That is yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to that
.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, I don't know if I would do that with kids, but
but overall it was a great time.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Paris is, you know.
Unfortunately, it rained mostof the time we were there.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yes, and it was cold and it was cold, so we didn't
have overall for the whole tripwe didn't have super great
weather, but there's nothing wecan do about it.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
We made the best of what we were given yes, okay.
Sorry, go ahead.
Oh no, I was just going to sayoverall it was a great time.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Did it live up to your expectations that you had?
Yes, yes, yeah, okay, let'stalk about the hotel.
So before we dive into thedetails, we're not going to
spend a ton of time on, like,how we booked it, because I just
did a whole episode about thatthat came out last week.
So if you want to know exactlyhow we booked it, where we
stayed, flights, all that thatis in last week's episode, so
(03:17):
pop over and listen to that.
But for Paris specifically, wedid stay at the Hyatt Regency
Paris Etoile Etoile means starin French.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
It does yes.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Stayed there.
I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
This was my second time staying there.
Actually, I stayed there lastyear with my mom and sister and
I knew that it would be theperfect place to have a family
of five, because I knew that wecould get two rooms.
We could put two in one room,three in the other and they
could be connecting, becausethat's exactly how we had it
last year and that's like,literally, the setup that we had
(03:55):
this time was exactly the same.
So it's called when you book it, you would book two separate
rooms, or sometimes it'savailable for points, it's
called the Regency Family Suiteand it's literally just two
connecting rooms.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
And first of all we had to book that because, unlike
the States, the rooms there arevery small.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, normal occupancy for a European hotel
is two, sometimes three.
Occupancy for a European hotelis two, sometimes three, and so
if you're like just starting toplan a trip to Europe, you need
to keep that in mind.
First and foremost, this hotelis great for families.
It is not in like the citycenter of Paris, though.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It is not.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
However, I didn't find that to be a detriment to
us at all.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
We took the Metro pretty much every everywhere we
went.
So we flew on air Francestraight from Chicago to Paris.
85,000 points for all five ofus to fly.
Those were um miles that Itransferred from somewhere to
flying blue.
All four banks transfer.
I can't remember where theycame from at the time, but
(05:04):
that's a smoking deal and Iguess we can talk about the
flight, because obviously Ididn't talk about that in last
week's episode because we hadn'ttaken it yet.
So Air France economy overnightflight first time for our kids
flying on a red eye like that,overnight too, and longest
flight for them, I thinkeveryone did really well.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, what was that?
I forget that was what.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Eight and a half hours, yes, roughly yeah um, and
so we, we took off around fiveo'clock chicago time and we
landed at 8 am paris time.
And I mean I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Did the kids sleep on ?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
that a little bit, but like not a lot.
Our daughter slept the most,probably because she's the
tiniest and she could easilylike she just laid on Dwayne's
lap and she slept.
The boys, they slept a littlebit and I slept again a little
bit because I was in the samerow with them and Dwayne and our
daughter were in the middle row.
Did you sleep at all?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
No, not really A cat nap here and there, but that was
about it.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, I mean it was fine.
The food was not great actually, because even though we were
not at the back of the plane,for some reason when they got to
us they had run out of the meatoption, the chicken option, so
all they had was a vegetarianoption, and I'm not very picky
and it was not good it was verybad actually.
(06:26):
Fortunately for the kids.
Well, for our two younger kids,I had pre-ordered a kid's meal.
That came out well before ourmeal and it was good.
It came out before everybody'smeal and it was good, yep.
So our two youngest had likepasta and, I don't know, it was
fine for kids.
They enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, our oldest didnot.
I don't know, for I think Ijust didn't pre-order for him
(06:49):
because he's the mostadventurous eater of the three
and I thought he'll be fine withwhatever it is, but I did not
plan for them running out of theum the chicken, so I mean, and
they ran out like fairly early.
It's because they like weregoing in weird sections and they
like started in the back.
(07:10):
Then they moved up closertowards the front of economy and
so we were.
Even though we were in themiddle in economy, we were still
served.
Last Like, it was at least afull hour after our kids got
their meals that we got ours.
Yeah, it was not good food, sothat was disappointing.
But the rest of the flight wasfine.
I mean, I got everyoneturtleneck pillows and I think
(07:34):
I'm the only one that used mine.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Really, Well, what's funny is I tried to use mine,
but this is while our daughterwas laying on me, I couldn't
figure it out and there was likethis thing you had to remove
from the Velcro, and I didn'trealize that.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Oh, so it wouldn't stick.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, it wouldn't stick.
I was like what's going on here?
And then finally I figured itout and Aria was up and I was
like oh, whatever.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, I normally can sleep fairly decently on an
economy flight overnight, buthaving all the kids there did
add an extra element to it,because I have to be aware of
them also and you know they'relike mom, mom, mom, mom, like
they don't acknowledge that I'mtrying to sleep, like they don't
care.
So everyone was pretty tiredwhen we landed.
(08:18):
We took a taxi from the airportto the hotel.
As a side note, there are guysstanding there as you're walking
towards the taxis, trying toget you to take a taxi.
Ignore them and, just becausethey're not licensed taxi
drivers, and just go to like thetaxi line and there will be
(08:38):
licensed taxi drivers therewaiting.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yes, there's like a dedicated person there that
calls taxis for you.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
They'll ask you how many people.
We were able to easily get onethat fit all five of us and our
luggage, no problem.
And it's also a set fee.
So it depends whether you'regoing to the right bank or the
left bank, but they shouldcharge you a set fee and no more
.
I think we did pay a smallsurcharge because we were a
larger family.
(09:08):
Was that a scam?
I don't know.
We didn't pay it on the wayback, so I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
But I don't.
I thought it was just what 50euros.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
I thought no, but we paid 70, I think, or something
like that.
We paid 20 more than I thought.
On the way there Again, wasthat like I mean, should we have
paid that?
It's really hard to tellsometimes if you're being taken
advantage of, if you're atourist, and I think it just
happens sometimes.
So, yeah, whatever we got tothe hotel, totally worth it.
(09:42):
The taxi is worth it.
You can take the metro.
It is possible.
We did not want to do that justbecause of all the kids and all
the bags after an eight and ahalf hour flight.
No, yeah so taxi is is how wedid it.
And yeah, um, obviously, ifyou're on a super budget, you
can take the metro.
It is not that difficult.
(10:03):
We took the Metro everywhereelse we went.
We bought passes, navigo cardsfor each of us there's a
discounted one you can get forkids and so that's what we did,
and we just reloaded them usingmy phone when they ran low.
Super easy to use.
Yes, if you've never used theMetro, like abroad, or even in
(10:25):
new york city, like all you dois type in where you want to go
in apple maps or google maps weI'm partial to apple, but
whatever floats your boat andthen you, it will you choose the
public transportation optionand it will tell you what train
to take and it will say, like,take the M1 train towards
whatever and get off at afterfour stops, at whatever stop,
(10:49):
and it is literally idiot proof.
So just a little tangent therefor you.
But okay, so we get to thehotel.
It's maybe 10am by now.
Now that we've gotten our bags,we've driven in the taxi, which
it's about a half an hour drive, I would say, from the airport
to the Hyatt.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Regency Check-in's not until four.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah, three or four and our room was not ready.
Our rooms were not ready, Ishould say and so we went up to
the club.
We did have club access.
I have globalist status, sothat automatically gives me club
access, and I had gifted Duanea club access award.
So we went up to the club.
However, I think even if wedidn't, they would have given us
(11:30):
club access for that day.
That was the impression I had,because our room wasn't ready
and we were waiting.
So I do think, even if youdon't have it, they will likely
give it to you for the day ifyou arrive super early.
So we went up to the club.
They were still servingbreakfast, actually, so we had
some breakfast, we had somecoffee.
Most importantly, I let thekids have Coke because I wanted
(11:55):
them to stay awake and have thecaffeine, and we hung out there
for a bit.
We ended up leaving our bagsand going for a walk.
We stumbled upon something onour walk that we weren't really
intending to.
What was that?
The Arc, yeah, the Arc deTriomphe, triomphe.
Yes, it's about a 10 minutewalk from the hotel and there
was maybe 10 lanes of carszooming around it in a circle.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yes, it was pretty busy.
Would you have wanted to drivein that, I mean, would I?
No, can I?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Of course, we were also trying to get outside and
get in the sunlight so that thathelps your body adjust to the
jet lag easier too.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yes, keep the kids up and all that stuff.
But yes, we took, like you said, a 10-minute walk, which was
pretty easy in the light rain.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah, the weather wasn't too bad that day.
It wasn't too bad.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
But yeah, the weather wasn't too bad that day.
It wasn't too bad, um, but yeah, the triumph was a quiet.
The tree arc to triumph waspretty nice.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
I mean again, it was busy when we were driving into
the uh, leaving the airport anddriving to the hotel, the taxi
driver kept saying things toDwayne and he was speaking in
English, but I know Dwayne washaving a hard time understanding
him and at one point the taxidriver pointed out something.
What was it?
A plane or something?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
It was the Concorde, the supersonic jet, that used to
fly.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
And it's just like park stationary right.
Yes, they have it on display bythe airport.
And Dwayne just said oh, but hemade his like.
Instead of saying oh, he waslike oh and I was like told him
later that that was his Frenchway of saying oh.
When in France you know, oh, Ijust I've never heard him make
that sound before.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Anyways, our room was not ready until literally three
or four yeah, I mean, we hadquite a bit of time to kill they
had someone in the room theysaid that had a late checkout,
until two, so they had to turnit quickly.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So I mean it's fine like there's no issue.
Check-in is check-in.
You know we were early so it iswhat it is, but yeah anyway,
back to the club.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
What did you think of the club?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I think it's a fantastic club, especially when
you compare it to like adomestic club, like the Grand
Hyatt Choir or something I, orlike the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale.
I think there's so many moreoptions than.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
I thought it was a pretty good club as well.
The best thing about the clubwas the view.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Oh yeah, the view of the Eiffel Tower is wonderful.
The food?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
was okay.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I mean they have a lot of charcuterie stuff and
bread and meat and cheese.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Croissants and all that.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Croissants.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Croissant Coffee machines and beer they have, I
even think I had a beer at 10 amthat day they have wine on tap
oh, they have wine on tap.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yes, yeah, and so that's cool.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
You just push a button and it fills your glass
yes, so the club is like on thewhatever floor, top floor, was
it the top floor?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
it might be the top floor.
It was like 34.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Anyway, views were great.
Food was okay.
Um, we ate there every day forbreakfast yes because it was
free.
Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
But after the second day I was over it that's how
duane feels about every club,though, because duane wants like
meat and more meat and moremeat with his breakfast and he
wants like a giant meal that isall his calories for the whole
day, and that's not how they eatin Europe.
(15:35):
So, sorry to disappoint you, Iwill say the food is.
It's like it's fine, like it'snot bad food.
The quality is way better food.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
The quality is way better than here in the US the
quality is way better, but theoptions are not.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yes, it's just, the options are limited and like
they have like chicken sausage,right?
Well, my like Dwayne, and thekids like pork sausage.
So it's just, you know it'svery American of you Chickens
just need to stick to beingchickens.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah, oh my gosh.
We're 15 minutes in.
All we've talked about is theclub and the hotel.
We haven't even gotten in ourroom yet.
Okay, so we check into our room.
It's exactly as I expected itto be, but what did you think
about it?
Because you had no frame ofreference.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
The rooms.
I think they were fine.
They were again small.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yes, but I mean doable.
Totally doable.
Our kids were pumped that theyhad their own room.
They never get their own room.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And again, like the club, we had a great view, we
had Eiffel.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Tower views.
Yeah, they had set up the kids'room with three beds, so
normally there's two twin bedsin there, and they had converted
the sofa into the third bed,which was perfect.
Our daughter slept there andthe kids were so excited to have
their own room, their ownbathroom.
It's really nice to have twobathrooms when you have a big
(16:58):
family.
Yeah, and it was great.
It was honestly fantastic.
The rooms were not the biggest,but it was plenty.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, plenty for us For sure it worked out great.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Yeah, and the service at the hotel in general I find
very good.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
It's worth noting, this hotel, at the time that
this comes out, is a Category 4.
But literally tomorrow, tuesday, march 25, 2025, it's going to
change from a category four to acategory five hotel, and so you
won't be able to use free nightcertificates there anymore and
the points cost per night isgoing to go up slightly.
(17:35):
I still think this is the bestvalue for families wanting to
use points for like Hyatt inParis.
Use points for like Hyatt inParis.
I would 100% stay here again.
The other thing that's coolabout the hotel is it's it's
attached to like a mall kind of.
It's called um, what is itcalled?
(17:55):
Plastic?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
congress.
I don't remember what it'scalled, but I mean it's not like
a mall in.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
America, though no, it's not when I was here.
When I was there last year, itwas not finished at all, like
there was still a lot ofconstruction and walking through
it felt weird.
It was much more finished thisyear, but still not completely
done.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I mean, we walked through that mall Every day,
every day, and there were storesin there that I didn't see one
customer in.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yes, it was not a very busy mall.
There's also a pharmacy therethat's open 24 hours a day that
you can get to without everstepping foot outside, so that's
great.
I actually got some skincarefrom there before we left.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
There's also a Starbucks in that mall that
didn't open up until like 8am,which I thought was crazy.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yes, welcome to Europe.
It's crazy for Americans, butit's not crazy for Europeans.
So, um, the reason we wouldwalk through the mall, too, is
that was the way to the closestMetro stop, which is the M1.
Um Port, port de Mayo, is thename of the stop on the M1 train
(19:11):
line, and so that's where westarted and stopped most most
times we took the Metro.
Let's talk about a few of thethings that we did in Paris.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Let's start with so the second day, our first full
day.
Well, I guess second daybecause we got there at 10 am.
Anyway, the second day we werethere, we partook in a photo
shoot that we had booked.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yes, we booked a photo shoot with flightographer.
Let me give some some color tothis, because we so.
We got in at like what 8am.
We got to the hotel at 10.
We made the kids stay up untillike 738 PM and then they and
they did, and they fell asleep.
And I am thinking, perfect,they're going to sleep through
(20:04):
the night and they are going towake up.
You know a regular time andwe're going to all be on the
time zone and we're going to beready to go.
But that is not what happened.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Not the case at all.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
They woke up at one o'clock in the morning every
single one of them and they werewide awake.
There was no getting them backto bed and we had a photo shoot
booked at.
We're supposed to meet her atseven, I think 7.15 something,
and so there's nothing I can do.
She pushed it back a littlebecause of the rain.
(20:36):
Yeah, yeah, I'll get there.
So the kids are just up, we letthem watch TV, their iPads,
whatever, and then we startgetting ready to go to the photo
.
Yeah, yeah, I'll get there.
So the kids are just up, we letthem watch TV, their iPads,
whatever, and then we startgetting ready to go to the photo
shoot.
You know, hair makeup for me,getting the boys all dressed the
whole nine yards.
And then I get a text from thephotographer saying you know,
hey, it looks like it's raining,are you seeing that?
(20:58):
And I was like, oh, it doesn'treally look like it's raining
from here.
But again we're on like the.
What floor were we on?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
30, uh 19, I think.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yeah.
So it's like kind of hard totell.
So I'm like, oh, I don't, Idon't really know.
I'm like I think we should justgo over with kind of a thing.
So we go and we meet thephotographer.
It's cold, it's it is rainingand, um, it's, it's early, and
(21:29):
my kids have been awake for likeseven hours already and it's
not even 8 am, so everyone's alittle cranky.
Uh, my poor daughter isfreezing because she has on a
dress.
I couldn't find any tights thatdidn't look weird on her cause
she's so teeny, and so it was.
(21:52):
I was not sure the photos weregoing to turn out, because it
was a lot of bribing, a lot oflike I'll give you 10 pieces of
candy if you can just smile forone second.
But they did turn out.
Actually, they came out quitegood.
I thought they were great.
Yeah, they were really good.
So after we tortured ourchildren with a photo shoot, we
didn't have any plans for therest of the day, so we just kind
(22:13):
of spent the day wanderingaround Paris.
We spent most of our time in LeMarais.
No, that's not how you say it,le Marais, that's how you say it
in French.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Did we go back to the ?
Speaker 1 (22:25):
hotel first.
Oh yeah, we did, because we hadto change and everything.
That's the day we went to NotreDame too.
We went to Notre Dame.
We did not buy tickets inadvance for Notre Dame because
we were not planning to goinside, but the line for no
tickets seemed to be movingfairly quickly and duane wanted
to go in.
So we did get in the line andit did move fairly quickly.
I think stop moving.
(22:46):
I think we waited maybe sevenminutes.
It wasn't long at all.
So we went in notre dame.
That was free and so that wasnice.
Our kids little candle in theresaid a little prayer.
Duane had some sneaker shops hewanted to look at, so so we
went to a few of those.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, I went to a Stussy store, got a Paris
exclusive shirt.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Ooh, la la.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yes, oui, oui, mon chéri.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
We popped into a chocolate shop and got the kids
each a little piece of chocolate.
We went to a Portuguese bakeryand got some pasta de nata.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I saw a Banksy art.
Banksy Banksy art.
Yes, someone had vandalized it,though, which was pretty shitty
.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
It kind of rained on and off but we just had a nice
day kind of wandering thestreets of Paris.
We got a falafel at La DuFalafel, which is a place I went
to when I was in Paris 12 yearsago and I still remember it.
What I remember eating had alot more sauce than the one we
got, but it was good.
Our kids all had more than onebite.
That's how I know that it was awin.
(23:54):
I mean there was a long line.
There was a long line.
Yeah, it's very popular and Imean if it's been in business 12
years, you know it's got to begood, you know.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, I feel like that's not that long ago.
Was it only two, did it justopen when you went.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
I have no idea it could have been longer.
I have no idea, I just know atleast 12 years In the restaurant
world that's a long time.
Anyways, okay.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Not in Spain.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Okay, well, that'll be the next episode.
Some other things that we didin Paris.
I scheduled us a tour with thePetit Guide, which is the small
guide.
That's what it means.
Petit means small, I guess.
Technically.
In French Her name is Zoe Zoe.
(24:44):
I've followed on Instagram forquite a few years now and I was
so excited to be able to takeone of her tours with the kids.
So, for a little background,she's on Instagram at
thepetiteguide.
I will link it in the shownotes.
But her name is Zoe.
It is her, um, like herbusiness.
I do think that sometimes shehas other people doing tours for
(25:06):
her, but our tour was bookedwith her and it is tours
specifically geared towards kidsand you can choose kind of the
areas that you want to tour.
So, uh, montmartre is a popularone, that's the one that we did
.
She also does like a get toknow your neighborhood kind of a
tour.
So Montmartre is a popular one,that's the one that we did.
She also does like a get toknow your neighborhood kind of a
tour.
So if you're staying in an area, you know she'll tour you
(25:26):
around that area and she has afew other ones, so you can find
her on Instagram and check herout.
But I would highly recommendshe was one of the best tour
guides I think we had on thetrip.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yes, very informative .
Speaker 1 (25:41):
She explained everything about kind of the
Montmartre neighborhood, what itused to be compared to what it
is now.
Um, we talked a lot about theart and, like the history, the
kids got to see where picassoused to live.
She brought notebooks andpencils so they could draw and
we took like a little break andhad the kids, you know, draw
something.
It was really good, yeah, ourkids really enjoyed it, yeah,
(26:04):
and she brought bubbles for thekids.
We stopped at her favoritebakery and got to get a snack.
It was very good.
It was very good, yeah.
The other thing that I thoughtwas so cool is we walked by a
school, like a regular school,and they have their lunch menu
posted outside, and so shetalked about that with our kids
(26:27):
and they read through the lunchmenu together and I just thought
it was really fun for our kidsto get to see.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
What I thought was most interesting is she said
that kids are not allowed tobring their own lunch to school
oh, yeah, she did say that.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah, so we talked a lot about like what it's like to
be a kid in france, and that'sthe kind of stuff that really
engages kids, you know, becauseit it affects them and they can
think like, oh, like that wouldbe crazy.
You know, um, there was a lotof vegetables on the lunch menu,
I think the kids were like whoa, yeah, and then the Montmartre
(27:03):
tour specifically ends at SacreCoeur and so you kind of hike up
the steps and you get thereally beautiful views of Paris.
It was a little bit foggy andcloudy the day we were there,
but really would highlyrecommend her.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
I'm sure, any tour that she does is great.
Yeah, very knowledgeable.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
She also had some really good recommendations for
us, and some of them we did, sowe'll talk about those here
shortly.
But the other thing that I hadbooked was a macaroon class.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Macaroon.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Macaroon, and this class was specifically geared
towards kids.
Maca roll, and this was thisclass was specifically geared
towards kids.
I wanted to do a croissantclass, but I couldn't find one
that I felt like would let thekids help.
Yeah, because, again, ouryoungest is five and, like a lot
of them, had age limits of likeseven or eight, and so this
macaroon class was really good.
(27:56):
Actually, it was in a smallcafe called the april cafe.
The only thing I would say isit's not in a part of paris that
you're probably going to go tolike it wasn't.
I never felt unsafe, but itjust was in a totally different
area to us than all the touristystuff you know, yeah,
(28:16):
definitely a different part ofparis, but yeah, still totally
fine to go to.
Yes, and we just again put theaddress into the GPS.
It told us the trains to takeand we took them and we found it
no problem.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, getting around is super easy.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
That was one of the things that you liked the most
about Europe.
Right was the transportation.
Yes, and the character architectarchitecture Dwayne took
approximately 1000 pictures ofrandom streets in every city
that we went to.
It was pretty cute.
So the macaroon class thoughthe kids did most of it.
(28:55):
They mixed the, they sifted,they mixed the batter, they
added the coloring, they stirredit in, they piped them out,
they filled them and I mean wehelped too, but the kids really
got to have a hand in everypiece and it was.
It was good.
It was literally in the back ofthis tiny cafe, so people could
be coming in and ordering likea cappuccino and you're just
(29:16):
like literally right there doingit.
So I would recommend that.
I would recommend it, though Iwill link everything that we did
that was that's bookable.
I will link in the show notes,yeah, so if you want to book it,
you can go there.
Another thing that we did thatI hadn't booked um was the
Louvre, and that was because youwanted to do it and I didn't.
(29:39):
Um was the Louvre, and that wasbecause you wanted to do it and
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
I didn't know you wanted to do that.
So yeah, and I mean, that placewas crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It was very packed, very packed so we ended up
booking tickets the day beforewe wanted to go, that same day
that we were talking about going, but they didn't have any
tickets available so we couldn'tbook it.
So we ended up booking it forthe next day.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
And just heads up if you're looking to spend or to
look at everything in Louvre, Imean you're going to have to
Days.
Yeah, it's going to be a wholeday worth at least, and then
some.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
It was incredibly crowded when we were there.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
it was hot inside, like I mean, the place is
enormous yeah, so we really didtwo things.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
We looked at the mona lisa because duane wanted to
see it, us and about 100 otherpeople.
What did you think of the monalisa?
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I thought it was great.
Everyone keep, keep, kept itwas small.
But I think it was small justbecause you couldn't get super
close to it.
I mean it was a normal sizepainting.
But when everyone kept tellingme it was small, I thought it
was just like a little tiny,like picture.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
I mean it's like eight by 10.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
It's bigger than that .
It looks like that becauseyou're so far away.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
I mean, I've seen it up close.
It's bigger than that.
It's like that People can't seewhat you're pointing at.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Well, I'm just saying I'm talking to you because you
said it was an 8x10.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
He's pointing to something that's maybe like
10x20.
Yeah, I don't think it's thatbig.
The other thing that we wantedto see in the Louvre was
Napoleon's apartments, and thatwas pretty cool.
I have not seen that before,and even our kids were kind of
like wait, this was an apartmentLike this is huge, it's so
(31:30):
opulent, like there's just somuch gold, and it was pretty big
and crazy.
What did you think of it?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I just want to say I love his ice cream.
Oh, that's Neapolitan, notNapoleon, I mean.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
I thought it was great.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I mean, oh God, you knew it wasn't, it was very I
don't even know the word Like.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
I think opulent is a good word.
That is a good word.
You knew it wasn't Neapol, Imean napoleon.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Right, you knew right because I mean, do we need it
to get a divorce?
I thought it was a guy thatimpacted, oh bless your heart.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
You did not, oh my god.
Okay, the other thing we didthat the kids really liked and
this was a recommendation fromzo, again at the Petite Guide
and, as a side note, we paidfull price for her tour, so not
sponsored in any way.
I just really thought she does.
I think she does a good job andI just want to recommend her.
(32:33):
But she also had some reallygood recommendations, and one of
the things she recommended wasto visit the tooleries and let
the kids play on the playground.
There's a playground in thetooleries and the tooleries is
right by the louvre, so what istoolery?
that those are the gardens thatwe went, and that's what it's
called the tooleries, andthere's a metro stop right by
(32:55):
there so you could take themetro right there.
It's really close to the louvre, so what you could do is let
the kids play and get all theirenergy out, then go to the lube.
That was our original plan, butthe tickets were sold out, so
we ended up just spending sometime in the in the gardens and
letting the kids run amok anddoing the lube a different day.
(33:16):
But there's a playground therewhich is obviously it's free
they had a carousel there's acarousel near the playground
which is not free.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Not free, but not it was like it was fine, yeah, two
dollars, two euros per kid forone uh little jaunt around.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
It was fine.
And then they also havetrampolines that you have to
know to look for them.
They're not free.
You have to know to look forthem because they're not free.
You have to know to look forthem because they're not super
visible.
But we also paid for the kidsto jump on them for seven
minutes and again it wasn't.
I mean, was it expensive forseven minutes?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Probably, but we needed them to get their energy
out because what's funny isthere was an American family
there when we got there andshe's like it's not free and
it's only seven minutes.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
In the Tuileries we also met another American family
who ironically was also fromour same town in Arizona and
they live probably seven minutesfrom us, so you could
definitely tell it was springbreak time for arizona.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Oh, at the tooleries we got probably the best hot
chocolate of our trip there.
Yes, it was super good, superthick, with two c's, and I mean
it was delicious.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Well, you were also telling me.
You were like I didn't realizethat Paris was known for hot
chocolate.
I mean, I didn't, I just butyeah, I mean they are when I
think of.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Paris.
I don't think of hot chocolate.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
What do you think of Croissant Croissant?
What a triumph.
It's the arc de triumph.
Anyways, yes, it was very good.
Hot chocolate, it was very hot,and it was a cold day, like
maybe one of the coldest days,and it was really nice to sit on
a bench and let the kids playand have a nice hot drink and
(35:12):
just kind of relax.
I think that's very Paris andso that was great.
Okay, let's talk about a coupleof restaurants.
We didn't.
We didn't do like paris finedining on this trip.
I'll just tell you that rightnow I don't know how you would
do that with with kids at leastnot the age of our kids, and our
kids are not picky by any means, but we did.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
The tour guide did recommend one place which we
went to which was kind of finedining.
They of fact threw us in acorner where no one else was
sitting, Because we were notdressed appropriately, probably,
and fun fact.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
So the restaurant that she recommended again Zoe
recommended was the Brasserie deLouvre Perfect spot to have
lunch before you go to theLouvre or after you've been
visiting the Louvre.
It is in the Hotel de Louvre,which is a Hyatt hotel, that you
can also book, with pointsright next to the Louvre.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
What category is it?
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Six maybe, I think.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
It looked pretty fancy.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Yes and the restaurant is definitely a
little fancier.
They did stick us in a corner,we were not dressed
appropriately, but they servedus and everything was fine and I
do think also we had noreservations.
But again, we were kind ofvisiting in the off season.
I think if you were to go inthe summer you would want to
make a reservation for sure.
(36:37):
The food was good.
It was, I would say,traditional French food.
Zoe had said that it's herkids's favorite kid's menu is at
that restaurant and they didhave a good kid's menu.
Our daughter got salmon, Ourson got.
They called it steak, but Ifeel like it was a hamburger
patty, kind of Like it wasn't asteak, it was like ground beef
(37:02):
that was shaped into a patty.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
I'm trying to remember what it looked like.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
And then our older son got he orders off the adult
menu, sadly for our wallets, buthim and Dwayne actually got the
same thing, which was alsosteak, and I got some sea bass
and it was like the fish camewith a lemon squeezer and Dwayne
and the kids were like this isthe fanciest lemon squeezer I've
(37:28):
ever seen in my life.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
I've never seen a lemon squeezer like that.
Yes, and I also got the onionsoup.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Oh yeah, french onion soup, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
We're in France, so they just call it onion soup.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Oh, I see, I see, I see what you did there.
The soup was not as savory as Ithought it was going to be.
It was okay.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
It was sweet.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
It was more sweet.
Yeah, the bread and butter was10 out of 10.
Like butter in Paris is Frenchbutter in general is just chef's
kiss so much better thananything we have here in America
.
The other restaurant that wewent to I talked about on the
last Paris episode is the famoussteak frites restaurant.
(38:10):
It is called I'm going tobutcher this, but Le Relais de
L'Entrecôte.
Again, forgive me, my Frenchaccent is pas bien, but they
only serve one thing, and it issteak and french fries.
The only question that you needto tell them is how you like
(38:31):
your steak, and everyone getsthe same thing it's the steak,
it's the green sauce and it'sthe french fries.
It is delicious.
Duane is gonna tell you that itwas okay, but he's wrong.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
it's delicious it was okay, wasn't delicious to me,
it wasn't bad, but just wasn'tsomething to write home about,
you know.
So would I be mad if I neverwent there again?
Speaker 1 (38:55):
no, all three of our kids chowed down on their plates
and devoured all of it,including the green sauce, Like
they didn't bat an eye.
They just ate it.
And our oldest had seconds.
Because what they do is theygive you a smaller portion and
then they come around again.
And Dwayne was even like thisis it?
This is it.
And I was like no, they'regoing to come around again and
(39:15):
give you a second portion.
And they did.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
I mean they did.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
They gave me a hefty second portion.
Second, it was more than thefirst portion.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, I couldn't finish all mine, but I.
It's also right next to thehyatt regency.
Also, keep in mind that peopleline up for this place and at
least an hour before it opens,like I got there right at six I
was the second person in linebut by the time it opened, like
how long?
I mean there was probably 40-50people on the line.
Yeah, yeah, but again you, theysit you down and you know they
ask you how you like your meatand boom, it comes out fairly
(39:52):
quickly.
Yes, because they only got onefreaking thing on the menu.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
And they serve everyone at the same time.
Oh, there's also a salad thatthey bring out which has, like a
very mustardy dressing, whichseems to be a very French thing,
and I also really enjoy thesalad.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
I mean, I thought the salad was probably the best
part.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yeah, no, the yeah so highly would recommend.
It is right next to the Hyattand you can walk there, so
there's also a McDonald's rightthere that you can also walk to,
and we did eat there once,Cause the kids were curious what
do they have at McDonald's inFrance?
I got some chicken nuggets andthey were good.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
You had a French thing.
What was it?
It was like a peanut wrap orsomething.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
It was a goat cheese chicken wrap.
It was okay, it was fine.
I didn't finish it, I only tookone or two bites.
I just was curious to try it,you know, because they don't
have that here.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
I stayed American and got a Big Mac.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Yeah, okay, I feel like we've covered most of the
highlights.
Am I leaving anything out?
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I don't think so.
I mean, if you take anythingfrom this episode, just know
that it's super easy to travelaround Paris, especially with
kids.
I mean, like you said earlier,it's idiot proof.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Oh yeah, especially with the Metro.
I wouldn't be scared of usingthe Metro.
I think there's a lot of feararound it.
There are obviously pickpockets, that's you know, in every city
.
I think as long as you're smartabout it, then you're going to
be fine.
We didn't have any issues.
In fact, my uh, one of thepockets on my bag was unzipped
at one point and another girltold me, as like she was getting
(41:30):
off the train and I was gettingon, and she was like oh, like
she said it in French.
I forget what she said, but Iknew what she was talking about
and I was like oh, mercy, youknow what?
There's one more thing that Iwant to talk about really quick,
because kind of on that samenote, so that that French girl
was like, hey, your bag's open,I was like, oh, thank you so
much.
Uh, we, the first day that wewere there, the kids were really
tired and we were on the metroand our two youngest were
(41:52):
sitting together on one side ofthe of the car and we were on
the other side and it was apretty full car, so there were
people standing between us so wecouldn't really see them and
all of a sudden we realizedthey're both sleeping and you
know their head in one chair,yeah, like together, yeah, and
so their head.
You know they're sleeping andthe train is moving and their
(42:15):
heads are kind of like noddingforward, as you do when you're
sleeping, sitting up.
But duane and I couldn't get tothem because there are
literally people standing likebetween us and rush hour yeah,
and so like strangers were likehelping to keep the kids heads
up so that they didn't fall, andI just thought that was like a
(42:37):
really sweet moment yes, it wasdefinitely a very sweet moment.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Um matter of fact, I think the people that were
helping her were Japanese.
That were also tourists yeah,yeah, yeah they.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
It was just yeah.
It's like no one knows oneanother, but here they are
looking out for my kids becauseI can't.
So I feel like that's ametaphor for one of the reasons
that we like to travel and whatI hope our kids learn from
travel is that people are good.
For the most part, people aregood.
(43:13):
Most people are yeah, so I will.
We will leave you with thatmessage of positivity today and
we will be back next week for arecap of Barcelona, which is our
next stop on this trip.
Yes, so thank you so much forlistening.
Again, I will put everythingthat we booked in the show notes
, so if you have questions, youcan check there, and then I also
(43:35):
should have a Paris highlighton Instagram.
If you want to go, check thatout, if you want to see the
hotel or see some of the photosand videos from the tours and
the classes that we took, thatwill all live on Instagram.
So come say hi.
We are on Instagram at TravelParty of Five.
And, yes, send me a message.
I love it.
We've been getting a lot moremessages lately and I love it so
(43:57):
much, so come say hi to me.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
We appreciate you.
Tell your friends about us.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Yes, share it with a friend and we will catch you
next week.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Bye, have a good one.
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