I love to give my children experiences as gifts and what better experience than exploring the City of Lights for your birthday. Recently, we visited France to celebrate my oldest daughter's birthday and it turned out to be a wonderful celebration of a beautiful soul as well as an amazing trip for the family.
Celebrating Our Princess:
We celebrated our daughter with a delicious birthday lunch at La Terresse restaurant near the Eiffel Tower. We enjoyed shrimp ravioli, salads and sandwiches. The staff was so nice to surprise our daughter with a treat and serenade her with happy birthday. After lunch we did some sightseeing and walked down to the Eiffel Tower.
Eiffel Tower Photos:
We surprised our daughter with a photo shoot in front of the Eiffel Tower for her birthday. We also took the opportunity to take a few family photos as well, but the shoot turned out beautifully.
Seine River Sightseeing Cruise:
We took a 1-hour Seine River Sightseeing Cruise while in Paris, and the best part is it was only $17 per person! I booked the deal through hotels.com and couldn't be more thrilled with the experience. The boat had Panoramic windows as well as seating outside, which allowed for great viewing of the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and all the beautiful bridges around Paris. Seeing the Eiffel Tower all lit up was an awe-inspiring sight to see and the grand finale to our evening cruise.
Louvre:
I love to visit museums when I travel, but the Louvre was a dream destination. So when in Paris, seeing the Louvre is a must! I've always wanted to see the Mona Lisa in person so it was a treat to experience the Louvre with my children. In addition to the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo we enjoyed taking in all the stunning paintings, murals and sculptures at the Louvre. We did get a great photo in front of the Pyramid outside, but if you ever go and you don't want people in your shot, go super early.
Disneyland Paris:
We took the train from Paris (Eiffel Tower area) to Disneyland Paris, which was about a hour away. We went early and spent the entire day at Disneyland. We've been to Disneyland, Disney World and now we're so excited to add Disneyland Paris to our list of Disney parks visited. My husband works for the Disney company, so our tickets were covered and our train tickets were around 65 euros round trip for a group of five. Thus, this day at Disney was relatively inexpensive outside of food and splurging on a few small souvenirs.
Disneyland Paris is a super fun amusement park with a lot of retro-style rides. Each of the Lands have exciting rides, fun themes and tailored experiences to make them slightly different from other Disney parks we've visited in the United States.The kids favorite ride was Hyper Space Mountain and they still talk about that experience till this day. Our night ended with a phenomenal fireworks and light display at the Castle that just took our breath away. I've never seen anything like this light show ever before!
Versailles:
After several days in Paris, we traveled about an hour to Versailles, France. We spent a day touring the Chateau De Versailles, or Palace of Versailles, along with the gardens and fountains. I wanted all of us to experience the beauty, art, paintings, history, architecture and opulence of such a magnificent palace and it's grounds. It's important that I introduce the children to new things all the time. While in Versailles the children and I had an opportunity to see history and art up close and personal, the kinds of things most of us only read about in school. It was hard to take it all in, and quite busy, but well worth the visit.
The art and sculptures inside and out are just stunning. The fountains are so vast that I ran out of wishes and pennies, but I couldn't stop smiling because every direction I looked there was something else equally or more stunning to marvel at. The gardens go on for what looks like forever. I wear glasses so I can't see but so far anyway, but just when I thought there was nothing else to see I spotted the incredible Grand Canal, another massive and beautiful water way off in the distance.
I hope when the children read about the Treaty of Versailles they remember something about the time we spent there exploring the palace and the quaint adjacent town, and feel a connection to history.
Versailles Sightseeing Day:
During breakfast the children enjoyed watching the sheep out the window on the lawn, so afterward we went around to get a closer look at the cute little sheep and the grounds around the Waldorf Astoria Trianon Palace Versailles. We spent the day sightseeing in Versailles on our own. We didn't want to follow any map, so we just enjoyed wandering around town checking out the architecture, neighborhoods, homes, churches, local business and snacking at cute cafe's. We saw the Church of Notre-Dame, Versailles and the cutest little restaurant that reminded us of NYC, complete with a vintage taxi cab out front, called Le New York American restaurant. This was our last day in France so we explored a little, relaxed some and prepared to head home.
Final Note - Deals:
We scored an amazing flight deal on Delta for $288 from JFK to CDG round trip. That was one of the best flight deals I've ever scored! We splurged a bit on our hotel accommodations because we have three children, so that required large rooms or two rooms at times. We stayed close to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and at the Waldorf Astoria in Versailles, so we paid a little extra to be close to the action. This trip was a lot of fun and a great success!
Happy Birthday to Princess C and Goodbye France......... until next time, Au revoir!
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