Paris. I’ve been here a few times before. Once I was here by myself before I got married. That was fun. Hostel, no money, lots of wine. Then I was here after I was married and right after my daughter was an infant. My wife wasn’t able to get a visa in time (she wasn’t American yet at that time) and I’d already paid for the flights and hotel for three of us – so I took the trip solo – and had a great time. This trip, I’m here with that same infant now almost 11 years old and it’s a very different experience. Paris is different and also the experience of Paris as a younger single guy or younger married guy on his own – from a 50-year-old dad with his almost 11-year-old awesome daughter – very very different experience. Here’s what we’ve done so far to make the most of our time.
I told Sophia to put together a list of the things she wanted to do while we were in Paris and I would do the best I could. Her list was carefully compiled from watching Youtube videos and looking at websites – plus what she knew of popular culture in France. It was:
- Buy a beret (and maybe something else cute)
- Ride the Paris Ferris Wheel
- Visit the Eiffel Tower and go up it and buy some Eiffel Tower keychains
- See the Monalisa and visit the Louvre
- Go to Paris Disneyland
- Eat delicious Paris food
- Sit in a cafe and drink hot chocolate
Almost making the list were Museum of Natural History, the Paris Catacombs, and a dinner cruise on the Seine – the last one surprised me for some reason and got crossed off the list when she saw how crowded the boats were from the bridge.
The things that had been high on my list in my previous visits were:
- Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde’s graves (and the Paris Graveyards in general)
- The Moulin Rouge and Le Chat Noir
- Drinking wine or beer with friends or strangers in a Brasserie
- Checking out the Paris Jazz Scene
- Le Passe-Muraille – and other odd things
- Checking out the booksellers on the Left Bank
- Falling in love in Paris
- Checking out the places where the Beatnik Poets did shit
- Other degenerate sex, drug, and alcohol past times
I’ve got to admit that while I had a blast going through my list of things to do in Paris – although I never did fall in love in Paris, but maybe just a little bit once – I’ve had a very different and equally satisfying blast working through Sophia’s list with her. We did it all. It was just three days here and we didn’t see lots of things – but we made it through her list.
One thing I’d recommend for anyone considering traveling to Paris is to do sufficient research on accommodation, specifically the location of the accommodation. If you have a list of things you want to do and places you want to see, it is essential for you to choose somewhere central to most of the activities you would like to do. That way, you won’t waste too much time traveling back and forth around Paris but can instead enjoy the things you planned on doing. If you plan on staying at a couple of different places, it might be worthwhile to look up luggage storage providers in Paris, so you can keep your luggage with them for a small fee between the overnight stays.
Here are some of the pictures from our time together here in Paris. I’ll write a separate post with pictures from Disneyland Paris
