C y a b n a B ve a l r T TM
PARIS
A TRAVEL GUIDE MADE FOR PARENTS By Celine and Dan Brewer 1
OTHER BABY CAN TRAVEL EBOOKS Baby Can Travel: New York City
Baby Can Travel: London
Baby Can Travel: Barcelona
Baby Can Travel: Anywhere
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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PLANNING YOUR TRIP
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PARIS IS A GREAT CHOICE One of the great things about travelling with an infant is that you can pick the destination based on what you want to see and do. Your baby will not have an opinion about seeing the Empire State Building vs. the Eiffel Tower - they just want to be with you! That said, there are still important things to consider for your infant when picking your destination:
þ The weather in spring and fall is warm, but not too hot. Summer may be off-limits though. þ It has a great public transportation system. þ It is a very walkable, stroller friendly city. þ It is baby and breastfeeding friendly. þ There are enough world-class attractions to fill a week or two of your time.
þ Is it safe? There are still a few potential downsides to consider: þ Does it have access to good health care? þ Is the weather appropriate for your baby's health þ Petty theft can be troublesome (pickpockets, etc.). (e.g., not too hot or too cold to be outside)? þ Local meal times may not coincide with nap/bed þ Does it have good transportation options? times for older babies. þ Is it a walkable city? Can you push a stroller on most of the city streets? þ If your baby is breastfed, does the local culture accept breastfeeding? Fortunately, Paris is a great choice as a destination for travelling with a baby! þ Paris is a safe city. þ They have a good first world health care system. Be aware of your coverage or lack thereof before you leave home. 8
PREDICTING YOUR BABY'S NEEDS The first step in planning your trip is to think about the change from the time you book your trip. Will they be needs of all the travellers, including both the baby and eating solid food? How long will they nap each day? the parents. Having a solid idea of each of your needs Will they be crawling? will help you make thoughtful decisions about your trip. The table below provides guidance on what your child It is fascinating to watch infants grow as their skills and may be like at the age of travel. Every baby develops at personalities change so rapidly. For these reasons, you their own pace, so treat these as guidelines only. need to spend a bit of time anticipating what your child will be like on the date you travel, as they will certainly
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By considering what your child may be like at the proposed time of your trip, you can plan accordingly. The key elements to consider are sleeping and feeding:
When planning your trip, factor this time into your sightseeing aspirations. How will you feed them? What will you feed them? Where will you feed them? And how long will this all take?
Amount & Location of Sleep Your baby's need for sleep will be one of the biggest factors in how much time you will have sightseeing at your destination. Very young babies tend to have the most naps, but are generally able to fall asleep anywhere and anytime. As they become older, they become more aware of the world around them and may have more difficulty falling asleep on-the-go, especially if your destination is very stimulating. As they get even older, their need for multiple naps dwindles and becomes less of a factor in your daily planning. Feeding Method Very young babies are easy to travel with as you can feed them on-the-go either by breastfeeding or by bottle. As your child transitions to solid food, feeding them takes up more of your day. The months after they start eating solids are especially slow going as they are just learning to eat - they play with their food, eat half, rub the other half in their hair, clothes, the carpet, etc. As they get more skilled at eating, the time it takes generally decreases and will become less of a factor in your daily planning.
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Generically speaking, the most challenging age to travel with an infant is between 6-11 months. They typically need two naps per day and may have difficulty sleeping on-the-go due to the exciting world around them. Their newfound appreciation for, but lack of skills to eat solid food may also slow you down.
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HOW DOES PARIS FIT INTO THIS? Paris is a world-class tourist destination. When planning to take your infant there, you need to factor in two main things: â–ş It is very easy to get around Paris, but it is big and takes time to get places. For example, it will take approximately one hour to walk from Notre-Dame to the Eiffel Tower. The same trip will take you approximately twenty minutes by subway or ten minutes by taxi. â–ş Paris is one of the most exciting cities in the world and as a result can be very stimulating for your baby. If your baby is just starting to become aware of the world around them, taking them from their familiar home to Paris puts you at risk of overstimulating them. Despite some of the potential challenges you may face, you can take a baby of any age to Paris and have a wonderful time. Just start with a clear set of expectations to avoid being frustrated during your trip.
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OUR EXPERIENCE Our daughter was 14 months old when we brought her to Paris. Before leaving for Paris she was sleeping around eleven hours per night at home and was taking two naps per day (around three hours total in duration). She was mostly eating solid food, but was still quite slow. We started our trip with the assumption that she would have her first nap of the day while we were on-thego and then we'd go back to the apartment early afternoon for her second nap of the day. It took us a few days to catch on that she was not sleeping easily or very well for her first nap of the day. Paris is very interesting for a baby her age. She was also taking 30-45 minutes to properly eat solid food. The combination of needing to be in the apartment for her naps, plus the time to feed her solid food required some changes to our plans: 1. We stopped going out to attractions first thing in the morning. We would feed her and let her play a little (preferably at an outdoor playground) before putting her down for nap #1. 2. We typically had 3-4 hours of sightseeing time after her first nap. Our stroller had a food tray so we would feed her while we were on the move or while we were eating lunch. 3. We would go out for another two hours after her afternoon nap. This gave us time to have her home, feed her and let her play a little before bed. We had a great time in Paris with our daughter. We learned from the mistakes we had made in New York City four months prior and had a much more enjoyable time. We made sure she had time to play every day which is not only important for her development, but it also tired her out, which helped her sleep better. We made good use of our time walking to attractions by feeding her in her stroller. As you'll see, we still made lots of mistakes, but we continually monitored how she was doing and adjusted our approach as required, making sure her needs were met first.
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PARIS ATTRACTIONS OUR ITINERARY
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NOTRE-DAME “...it's easy to see why this is one of Paris' most visited attractions.”
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With French gothic architecture, beautiful stained glass windows and bell towers with gargoyles it's easy to see why this is one of Paris' most visited attractions.
EATING NEARBY There are a few establishments on Rue du Cloitre Notre-Dame (the street to the north of the cathedral), but you will find the most dense concentration if you cross the river to the south along Rue de la Cité. The first few blocks hugging the river have a great selection.
EASE OF GETTING THERE Walking The 35 minute walk from Place de la Concorde to NotreDame is a pleasant one along the Seine River. Subway The nearest subway station is Cité on the M4 line. It will take approximately 5 minutes to walk from this station. The nearest RER station is Saint-Michel - Notre-Dame on the RER B and RER C lines. It will take approximately 4 minutes to walk from this station. Ho Ho Big Bus, Foxity and L'Open Tour Green, Blue and Orange lines all stop within a few blocks of Notre-Dame.
STROLLER ACCESSIBILITY You will be able to see approximately two-thirds of the cathedral with your stroller, including the nave, side aisles and transept. There are small steps found on the main level, but nothing that will get in your way. 112
PLACES TO BREASTFEED
OTHER INFORMATION
The cathedral is wrapped by a well treed park to the south and east. There are many park benches within this park, which makes for a nice place to stop and feed your child.
Official Website
INTERESTING FOR INFANT The brightly colored towering stained glass windows will likely capture your baby's attention. The cathedral also contains many sculptures of people and animals; babies will also enjoy looking at the faces on the people and the many different animals will likely interest them.
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Time & Money Savers Visiting the main areas of the cathedral is free. The Paris Pass and Paris Museum Pass discount cards both entitle you to free admission to the towers. Nearby Attractions Sainte-Chapelle, Centre Pompidou, Musée du Cluny and the Louvre.
OUR EXPERIENCE Our original plan for the day was to climb the Eiffel Tower, but our daughter took forever to fall asleep for her first nap of the day and put the prospects of a second nap in jeopardy. As such, we decided to change our plans to visit the Notre-Dame cathedral, which is further away from our apartment. If we were faced with having her awake all afternoon then we figured we'd take advantage and go somewhere a little further away. When you travel with a baby, you always need to be prepared to change your plans at a moment's notice to react to a development or take advantage of a situation. We put our daughter in a baby carrier and headed for the nearby RER station, which we learned on the day we arrived isn't the most stroller friendly place in the world. The RER trains on this line (C) are fun double-decker trains. Once seated, we took our daughter out of the baby carrier and let her play for a while. She always loves to interact with other people on subways and trains. Upon arrival we stopped and took some pictures of the beautiful cathedral and its French gothic architecture. Then, we went to enter the church and were shocked with how long the line was. Dan got in the line while Celine took our daughter to see a bunch of pigeons nearby (she loves pigeons!). The line went remarkably quick and we were inside the church in less than ten minutes.
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OUR EXPERIENCE (cont.) You are able to pay to climb up the bell towers and see the famous gargoyles up close. Normally we love climbing things to see views, but our legs were tired from climbing the Arc de Triomphe the day before, so we decided to spend all of our time on the ground floor. For most of the visit, we had our daughter out of the baby carrier so she could walk (with assistance). This made us very slow and the church was crowded, but no one seemed to mind. There was one carving in particular which had a lion in it, which our daughter loved - it took forever to get her to leave! After our visit was over, we explored the park area on Notre-Dame property and were happy to see there was a little sandbox play area for little children. Our daughter loves playing in the sand, so we stopped to let her play for a while.
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There is a fun little sandbox play area in the park found on Notre-Dame property to the immediate south of the church. If your baby is old enough, this will be a fun reward for being good while visiting the cathedral.
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