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Baby CanTravelTM

PARIS

A TRAVEL GUIDE MADE FOR PARENTSBy Celine and Dan Brewer

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Baby Can Travel: New York City

Baby Can Travel: Barcelona

Baby Can Travel: London

Baby Can Travel: Anywhere

OTHER BABY CAN TRAVEL EBOOKS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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PLANNINGYOUR TRIP

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One of the great things about travelling with an infant isthat you can pick the destination based on what youwant to see and do. Your baby will not have an opinionabout seeing the Empire State Building vs. the EiffelTower - they just want to be with you! That said, thereare still important things to consider for your infantwhen picking your destination:

þ Is it safe?þ Does it have access to good health care?þ Is the weather appropriate for your baby's health

(e.g., not too hot or too cold to be outside)?þ Does it have good transportation options?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 fortravelling 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 youleave home.

þ The weather in spring and fall is warm, but not toohot. 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.

There are still a few potential downsides to consider:

þ Petty theft can be troublesome (pickpockets, etc.).þ Local meal times may not coincide with nap/bed

times for older babies.

PARIS IS A GREAT CHOICE

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The first step in planning your trip is to think about theneeds of all the travellers, including both the baby andthe parents. Having a solid idea of each of your needswill help you make thoughtful decisions about your trip.

It is fascinating to watch infants grow as their skills andpersonalities change so rapidly. For these reasons, youneed to spend a bit of time anticipating what your childwill be like on the date you travel, as they will certainly

change from the time you book your trip. Will they beeating solid food? How long will they nap each day?Will they be crawling?

The table below provides guidance on what your childmay be like at the age of travel. Every baby develops attheir own pace, so treat these as guidelines only.

PREDICTING YOUR BABY'S NEEDS

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By considering what your child may be like at theproposed time of your trip, you can plan accordingly.The key elements to consider are sleeping and feeding:

Amount & Location of SleepYour baby's need for sleep will be one of the biggestfactors in how much time you will have sightseeing atyour destination. Very young babies tend to have themost naps, but are generally able to fall asleepanywhere and anytime. As they become older, theybecome more aware of the world around them and mayhave more difficulty falling asleep on-the-go, especiallyif your destination is very stimulating. As they get evenolder, their need for multiple naps dwindles andbecomes less of a factor in your daily planning.

Feeding MethodVery young babies are easy to travel with as you canfeed them on-the-go either by breastfeeding or bybottle. As your child transitions to solid food, feedingthem takes up more of your day. The months after theystart eating solids are especially slow going as they arejust 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 takesgenerally decreases and will become less of a factor inyour daily planning.

When planning your trip, factor this time into yoursightseeing aspirations. How will you feed them? Whatwill you feed them? Where will you feed them? Andhow long will this all take?

Generically speaking, the most challenging age to travelwith an infant is between 6-11 months. They typicallyneed two naps per day and may have difficulty sleepingon-the-go due to the exciting world around them. Theirnewfound appreciation for, but lack of skills to eat solidfood may also slow you down.

TIP

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Paris is a world-class tourist destination. When planningto take your infant there, you need to factor in two mainthings:

► It is very easy to get around Paris, but it is big andtakes time to get places. For example, it will takeapproximately one hour to walk from Notre-Dame tothe Eiffel Tower. The same trip will take youapproximately twenty minutes by subway or tenminutes by taxi.

► Paris is one of the most exciting cities in the world andas a result can be very stimulating for your baby. Ifyour baby is just starting to become aware of theworld around them, taking them from their familiarhome to Paris puts you at risk of overstimulatingthem.

Despite some of the potential challenges you may face,you can take a baby of any age to Paris and have awonderful time. Just start with a clear set of expectationsto avoid being frustrated during your trip.

HOW DOES PARIS FIT INTO THIS?

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OUR EXPERIENCEOur daughter was 14 months old when we brought her to Paris. Before leaving for Paris she was sleepingaround eleven hours per night at home and was taking two naps per day (around three hours total induration). 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-the-go and then we'd go back to the apartment early afternoon for her second nap of the day. It took us a fewdays to catch on that she was not sleeping easily or very well for her first nap of the day. Paris is veryinteresting for a baby her age.

She was also taking 30-45 minutes to properly eat solid food. The combination of needing to be in theapartment 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 wouldfeed 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, feedher 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 Cityfour months prior and had a much more enjoyable time. We made sure she had time to play every day whichis not only important for her development, but it also tired her out, which helped her sleep better. We madegood use of our time walking to attractions by feeding her in her stroller. As you'll see, we still made lots ofmistakes, but we continually monitored how she was doing and adjusted our approach as required, makingsure 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 visitedattractions.”

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With French gothic architecture, beautiful stained glasswindows and bell towers with gargoyles it's easy to seewhy this is one of Paris' most visited attractions.

EASE OF GETTING THERE

WalkingThe 35 minute walk from Place de la Concorde to Notre-Dame is a pleasant one along the Seine River.

SubwayThe nearest subway station is Cite on the M4 line.  It willtake approximately 5 minutes to walk from this station.The nearest RER station is Saint-Michel - Notre-Dame onthe RER B and RER C lines. It will take approximately 4minutes to walk from this station.

Ho HoBig Bus, Foxity and L'Open Tour Green, Blue and Orangelines all stop within a few blocks of Notre-Dame.

STROLLER ACCESSIBILITY

You will be able to see approximately two-thirds of thecathedral with your stroller, including the nave, sideaisles and transept. There are small steps found on themain level, but nothing that will get in your way.

EATING NEARBY

There are a few establishments on Rue du CloitreNotre-Dame (the street to the north of the cathedral),but you will find the most dense concentration if youcross the river to the south along Rue de la Cite.  Thefirst few blocks hugging the river have a great selection.

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PLACES TO BREASTFEED

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 anice place to stop and feed your child.

INTERESTING FOR INFANT

The brightly colored towering stained glass windows will likelycapture your baby's attention. The cathedral also contains manysculptures of people and animals; babies will also enjoy looking atthe faces on the people and the many different animals will likelyinterest them.

OTHER INFORMATION

Official Website

Time & Money SaversVisiting the main areas of thecathedral is free.

The Paris Pass and Paris MuseumPass discount cards both entitleyou to free admission to thetowers.

Nearby AttractionsSainte-Chapelle, CentrePompidou, Musee du Cluny andthe Louvre.

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OUR EXPERIENCEOur original plan for the day was to climb the Eiffel Tower, but our daughter took forever to fall asleep forher first nap of the day and put the prospects of a second nap in jeopardy. As such, we decided to changeour plans to visit the Notre-Dame cathedral, which is further away from our apartment. If we were facedwith having her awake all afternoon then we figured we'd take advantage and go somewhere a littlefurther away. When you travel with a baby, you always need to be prepared to change your plans at amoment'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 theday we arrived isn't the most stroller friendly place in the world. The RER trains on this line (C) are fundouble-decker trains. Once seated, we took our daughter out of the baby carrier and let her play for awhile. 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 gothicarchitecture. Then, we went to enter the church and were shocked with how long the line was. Dan gotin the line while Celine took our daughter to see a bunch of pigeons nearby (she loves pigeons!). The linewent 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 loveclimbing 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 daughterout of the baby carrier so she could walk (with assistance). This made us very slow and the church wascrowded, but no one seemed to mind. There was one carving in particular which had a lion in it, whichour 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 therewas a little sandbox play area for little children. Our daughter loves playing in the sand, so we stoppedto let her play for a while.

TIPThere is a fun little sandbox play area in thepark found on Notre-Dame property to theimmediate south of the church. If your baby isold enough, this will be a fun reward for beinggood while visiting the cathedral.