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Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel
Let us pull back the curtain and show you how you can maximize money you're already spending to earn enough credit card points and miles to travel with your family for nearly free.
We've used credit card points and miles to take our family of 5 on trips to places like Costa Rica, San Diego, Disneyland, Oceanside, NYC, Washington DC, Hawaii, and next year we have already booked Paris, Spain and Japan!
Using credit card points and miles (often called travel hacking) doesn't have to be overwhelming or take a ton of time, and we can show you how.
Can you earn a lot of points and miles without opening up multiple credit cards? Only if you have a really high amount of spend each month. For people with larger families, opening new cards is the easiest and fastest way to earn enough points and miles to take a couple of really low cost (but not low budget) family vacations every year!
If you want to learn ways to help you and your family travel more affordably using credit card points, this show is for you.
Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel
Paris on Points as a Family of 5!
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!
If you've been wanting to take your family to Paris on points, we are sharing exactly how we did that for our family of five. In today's episode, we're going to tell you exactly where we stayed, what we did and even a few places that we ate with kids. So listen in. Hi, I'm Raya. And I'm Dwayne, and we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.
Speaker 2:We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.
Speaker 1:So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.
Speaker 2:So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip. Hey guys, welcome back.
Speaker 1:Hello friends, we are fresh off of our two-week European adventure. We just got home yesterday.
Speaker 2:Yes, so fresh. We still have jet lag.
Speaker 1:Yes, everyone is a little bit tired. Everyone was up very early this morning but today we are going to share all the details about the first part of our trip, which is our time in Paris. Patty, so this was Dwayne's first time visiting Paris, and so before we jump into all the details of, like the hotel and all the stuff we did, I'm just curious like what did you think and was it what you expected?
Speaker 2:Oh, we, we. Yeah, it was. I thought it was great. I think the next time we go we need to experience outside of Paris, like other parts of France, I feel like we didn't get the whole French experience.
Speaker 1: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 down through the entire country and then like even into spain, but and like like kind of explore all the little french towns along the way.
Speaker 2:That is yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know if I would do that with kids, but but overall it was a great time.
Speaker 2:Paris is, you know. Unfortunately, it rained most of the time we were there.
Speaker 1:Yes, and it was cold and it was cold, so we didn't have overall for the whole trip we didn't have super great weather, but there's nothing we can do about it.
Speaker 2:We made the best of what we were given yes, okay. Sorry, go ahead. Oh no, I was just going to say overall it was a great time.
Speaker 1:Did it live up to your expectations that you had? Yes, yes, yeah, okay, let's talk about the hotel. So before we dive into the details, we're not going to spend a ton of time on, like, how we booked it, because I just did a whole episode about that that came out last week. So if you want to know exactly how we booked it, where we stayed, flights, all that that is in last week's episode, so pop over and listen to that. But for Paris specifically, we did stay at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile Etoile means star in French.
Speaker 2:I had no idea.
Speaker 1:It does yes.
Speaker 2:Stayed there. I had no idea.
Speaker 1:This was my second time staying there. Actually, I stayed there last year with my mom and sister and I knew that it would be the perfect place to have a family of five, because I knew that we could get two rooms. We could put two in one room, three in the other and they could be connecting, because that's exactly how we had it last year and that's like, literally, the setup that we had this time was exactly the same. So it's called when you book it, you would book two separate rooms, or sometimes it's available for points, it's called the Regency Family Suite and it's literally just two connecting rooms.
Speaker 2:And first of all we had to book that because, unlike the States, the rooms there are very small.
Speaker 1:Yeah, normal occupancy for a European hotel is two, sometimes three. Occupancy for a European hotel is two, sometimes three, and so if you're like just starting to plan a trip to Europe, you need to keep that in mind. First and foremost, this hotel is great for families. It is not in like the city center of Paris, though.
Speaker 2:It is not.
Speaker 1:However, I didn't find that to be a detriment to us at all.
Speaker 2:No, not at all.
Speaker 1:We took the Metro pretty much every everywhere we went. So we flew on air France straight from Chicago to Paris. 85,000 points for all five of us to fly. Those were um miles that I transferred from somewhere to flying blue. All four banks transfer. I can't remember where they came from at the time, but that's a smoking deal and I guess we can talk about the flight, because obviously I didn't talk about that in last week's episode because we hadn't taken it yet. So Air France economy overnight flight first time for our kids flying on a red eye like that, overnight too, and longest flight for them, I think everyone did really well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what was that? I forget that was what.
Speaker 1:Eight and a half hours, yes, roughly yeah um, and so we, we took off around five o'clock chicago time and we landed at 8 am paris time. And I mean I can't remember.
Speaker 2:Did the kids sleep on?
Speaker 1:that a little bit, but like not a lot. Our daughter slept the most, probably because she's the tiniest and she could easily like she just laid on Dwayne's lap and she slept. The boys, they slept a little bit and I slept again a little bit because I was in the same row with them and Dwayne and our daughter were in the middle row. Did you sleep at all?
Speaker 2:No, not really A cat nap here and there, but that was about it.
Speaker 1: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 meat option, the chicken option, so all they had was a vegetarian option, and I'm not very picky and it was not good it was very bad actually.
Speaker 1:Fortunately for the kids. Well, for our two younger kids, I had pre-ordered a kid's meal. That came out well before our meal and it was good. It came out before everybody's meal and it was good, yep. So our two youngest had like pasta and, I don't know, it was fine for kids. They enjoyed it. Unfortunately, our oldest did not. I don't know, for I think I just didn't pre-order for him because he's the most adventurous eater of the three and I thought he'll be fine with whatever it is, but I did not plan for them running out of the um the chicken, so I mean, and they ran out like fairly early.
Speaker 1:It's because they like were going in weird sections and they like started in the back. Then they moved up closer towards the front of economy and so we were. Even though we were in the middle in economy, we were still served. Last Like, it was at least a full hour after our kids got their meals that we got ours. Yeah, it was not good food, so that was disappointing. But the rest of the flight was fine. I mean, I got everyone turtleneck pillows and I think I'm the only one that used mine.
Speaker 2:Really, Well, what's funny is I tried to use mine, but this is while our daughter was laying on me, I couldn't figure it out and there was like this thing you had to remove from the Velcro, and I didn't realize that.
Speaker 1:Oh, so it wouldn't stick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wouldn't stick. I was like what's going on here? And then finally I figured it out and Aria was up and I was like oh, whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I normally can sleep fairly decently on an economy flight overnight, but having all the kids there did add an extra element to it, because I have to be aware of them also and you know they're like mom, mom, mom, mom, like they don't acknowledge that I'm trying to sleep, like they don't care. So everyone was pretty tired when we landed. We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel. As a side note, there are guys standing there as you're walking towards the taxis, trying to get you to take a taxi. Ignore them and, just because they're not licensed taxi drivers, and just go to like the taxi line and there will be licensed taxi drivers there waiting.
Speaker 2:Yes, there's like a dedicated person there that calls taxis for you.
Speaker 1:They'll ask you how many people. We were able to easily get one that fit all five of us and our luggage, no problem. And it's also a set fee. So it depends whether you're going to the right bank or the left bank, but they should charge you a set fee and no more. I think we did pay a small surcharge because we were a larger family. Was that a scam? I don't know. We didn't pay it on the way back, so I have no idea.
Speaker 2:But I don't. I thought it was just what 50 euros.
Speaker 1: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, was that like I mean, should we have paid that? It's really hard to tell sometimes if you're being taken advantage of, if you're a tourist, and I think it just happens sometimes. So, yeah, whatever we got to the hotel, totally worth it. The taxi is worth it. You can take the metro. It is possible. We did not want to do that just because of all the kids and all the bags after an eight and a half hour flight.
Speaker 1:No, yeah so taxi is is how we did it. And yeah, um, obviously, if you're on a super budget, you can take the metro. It is not that difficult. We took the Metro everywhere else we went. We bought passes, navigo cards for each of us there's a discounted one you can get for kids and so that's what we did, and we just reloaded them using my phone when they ran low. Super easy to use.
Speaker 1:Yes, if you've never used the Metro, like abroad, or even in new york city, like all you do is type in where you want to go in apple maps or google maps we I'm partial to apple, but whatever floats your boat and then you, it will you choose the public transportation option and it will tell you what train to take and it will say, like, take the M1 train towards whatever and get off at after four stops, at whatever stop, and it is literally idiot proof. So just a little tangent there for you. But okay, so we get to the hotel. 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:Regency Check-in's not until four.
Speaker 1:Yeah, three or four and our room was not ready. Our rooms were not ready, I should say and so we went up to the club. We did have club access. I have globalist status, so that automatically gives me club access, and I had gifted Duane a club access award. So we went up to the club. However, I think even if we didn't, they would have given us 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 you don't have it, they will likely give it to you for the day if you arrive super early.
Speaker 1:So we went up to the club. They were still serving breakfast, actually, so we had some breakfast, we had some coffee. Most importantly, I let the kids have Coke because I wanted them to stay awake and have the caffeine, and we hung out there for a bit. We ended up leaving our bags and going for a walk. We stumbled upon something on our walk that we weren't really intending to. What was that? The Arc, yeah, the Arc de Triomphe, triomphe. Yes, it's about a 10 minute walk from the hotel and there was maybe 10 lanes of cars zooming around it in a circle.
Speaker 2:Yes, it was pretty busy. Would you have wanted to drive in that, I mean, would I? No, can I?
Speaker 1:Of course, we were also trying to get outside and get in the sunlight so that that helps your body adjust to the jet lag easier too.
Speaker 2: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:Yeah, the weather wasn't too bad that day. It wasn't too bad.
Speaker 2: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 was pretty nice.
Speaker 1:I mean again, it was busy when we were driving into the uh, leaving the airport and driving to the hotel, the taxi driver kept saying things to Dwayne and he was speaking in English, but I know Dwayne was having a hard time understanding him and at one point the taxi driver pointed out something. What was it? A plane or something?
Speaker 2:It was the Concorde, the supersonic jet, that used to fly.
Speaker 1:And it's just like park stationary right. Yes, they have it on display by the airport. And Dwayne just said oh, but he made his like. Instead of saying oh, he was like oh and I was like told him later that that was his French way of saying oh. When in France you know, oh, I just I've never heard him make that sound before.
Speaker 2:Anyways, our room was not ready until literally three or four yeah, I mean, we had quite a bit of time to kill they had someone in the room they said that had a late checkout, until two, so they had to turn it quickly.
Speaker 1:So I mean it's fine like there's no issue. Check-in is check-in. You know we were early so it is what it is, but yeah anyway, back to the club.
Speaker 2:What did you think of the club?
Speaker 1:I think it's a fantastic club, especially when you compare it to like a domestic club, like the Grand Hyatt Choir or something I, or like the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale. I think there's so many more options than.
Speaker 2:I thought it was a pretty good club as well. The best thing about the club was the view.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, the view of the Eiffel Tower is wonderful. The food?
Speaker 2:was okay.
Speaker 1:I mean they have a lot of charcuterie stuff and bread and meat and cheese.
Speaker 2:Croissants and all that.
Speaker 1:Croissants.
Speaker 2:Croissant Coffee machines and beer they have, I even think I had a beer at 10 am that day they have wine on tap oh, they have wine on tap.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, and so that's cool.
Speaker 2:You just push a button and it fills your glass yes, so the club is like on the whatever floor, top floor, was it the top floor?
Speaker 1:it might be the top floor. It was like 34.
Speaker 2:Anyway, views were great. Food was okay. Um, we ate there every day for breakfast yes because it was free. Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: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 more meat with his breakfast and he wants like a giant meal that is all his calories for the whole day, and that's not how they eat in Europe. So, sorry to disappoint you, I will say the food is. It's like it's fine, like it's not bad food. The quality is way better food.
Speaker 2:The quality is way better than here in the US the quality is way better, but the options are not.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's just, the options are limited and like they have like chicken sausage, right? Well, my like Dwayne, and the kids like pork sausage. So it's just, you know it's very American of you Chickens just need to stick to being chickens.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh my gosh. We're 15 minutes in. All we've talked about is the club and the hotel. We haven't even gotten in our room yet. Okay, so we check into our room. It's exactly as I expected it to be, but what did you think about it? Because you had no frame of reference.
Speaker 2:The rooms. I think they were fine. They were again small.
Speaker 1:Yes, but I mean doable. Totally doable. Our kids were pumped that they had their own room. They never get their own room.
Speaker 2:And again, like the club, we had a great view, we had Eiffel.
Speaker 1:Tower views. Yeah, they had set up the kids' room with three beds, so normally there's two twin beds in there, and they had converted the sofa into the third bed, which was perfect. Our daughter slept there and the kids were so excited to have their own room, their own bathroom. It's really nice to have two bathrooms when you have a big family. Yeah, and it was great. It was honestly fantastic. The rooms were not the biggest, but it was plenty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, plenty for us For sure it worked out great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the service at the hotel in general I find very good.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1: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 a category five hotel, and so you won't be able to use free night certificates there anymore and the points cost per night is going to go up slightly. I still think this is the best value for families wanting to use points for like Hyatt in Paris. Use points for like Hyatt in Paris. I would 100% stay here again. The other thing that's cool about the hotel is it's it's attached to like a mall kind of. It's called um, what is it called? Plastic?
Speaker 2:congress. I don't remember what it's called, but I mean it's not like a mall in.
Speaker 1:America, though no, it's not when I was here. When I was there last year, it was not finished at all, like there was still a lot of construction and walking through it felt weird. It was much more finished this year, but still not completely done. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, we walked through that mall Every day, every day, and there were stores in there that I didn't see one customer in.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was not a very busy mall. There's also a pharmacy there that's open 24 hours a day that you can get to without ever stepping foot outside, so that's great. I actually got some skincare from there before we left.
Speaker 2:There's also a Starbucks in that mall that didn't open up until like 8am, which I thought was crazy.
Speaker 1:Yes, welcome to Europe. It's crazy for Americans, but it's not crazy for Europeans. So, um, the reason we would walk through the mall, too, is that was the way to the closest Metro stop, which is the M1. Um Port, port de Mayo, is the name of the stop on the M1 train line, and so that's where we started and stopped most most times we took the Metro. Let's talk about a few of the things that we did in Paris.
Speaker 2:Let's start with so the second day, our first full day. Well, I guess second day because we got there at 10 am. Anyway, the second day we were there, we partook in a photo shoot that we had booked.
Speaker 1:Yes, we booked a photo shoot with flightographer. Let me give some some color to this, because we so. We got in at like what 8am. We got to the hotel at 10. We made the kids stay up until like 738 PM and then they and they did, and they fell asleep. And I am thinking, perfect, they're going to sleep through the night and they are going to wake up. You know a regular time and we're going to all be on the time zone and we're going to be ready to go. But that is not what happened.
Speaker 2:Not the case at all.
Speaker 1:They woke up at one o'clock in the morning every single one of them and they were wide awake. There was no getting them back to bed and we had a photo shoot booked at. We're supposed to meet her at seven, I think 7.15 something, and so there's nothing I can do. She pushed it back a little because of the rain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'll get there. So the kids are just up, we let them watch TV, their iPads, whatever, and then we start getting ready to go to the photo. Yeah, yeah, I'll get there. So the kids are just up, we let them watch TV, their iPads, whatever, and then we start getting 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 the photographer saying you know, hey, it looks like it's raining, are you seeing that? And I was like, oh, it doesn't really look like it's raining from here. But again we're on like the. What floor were we on?
Speaker 2:30, uh 19, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So it's like kind of hard to tell. So I'm like, oh, I don't, I don't really know. I'm like I think we should just go over with kind of a thing. So we go and we meet the photographer. It's cold, it's it is raining and, um, it's, it's early, and my kids have been awake for like seven hours already and it's not even 8 am, so everyone's a little cranky. Uh, my poor daughter is freezing because she has on a dress. I couldn't find any tights that didn't look weird on her cause she's so teeny, and so it was.
Speaker 1:I was not sure the photos were going to turn out, because it was a lot of bribing, a lot of like I'll give you 10 pieces of candy if you can just smile for one second. But they did turn out. Actually, they came out quite good. I thought they were great. Yeah, they were really good. So after we tortured our children with a photo shoot, we didn't have any plans for the rest of the day, so we just kind of spent the day wandering around Paris. We spent most of our time in Le Marais. No, that's not how you say it, le Marais, that's how you say it in French.
Speaker 2:Did we go back to the?
Speaker 1:hotel first. Oh yeah, we did, because we had to change and everything. That's the day we went to Notre Dame too. We went to Notre Dame. We did not buy tickets in advance for Notre Dame because we were not planning to go inside, but the line for no tickets seemed to be moving fairly quickly and duane wanted to go in. So we did get in the line and it did move fairly quickly. I think stop moving. I think we waited maybe seven minutes. It wasn't long at all. So we went in notre dame. That was free and so that was nice. Our kids little candle in there said a little prayer. Duane had some sneaker shops he wanted to look at, so so we went to a few of those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I went to a Stussy store, got a Paris exclusive shirt.
Speaker 1:Ooh, la la.
Speaker 2:Yes, oui, oui, mon chéri.
Speaker 1:We popped into a chocolate shop and got the kids each a little piece of chocolate. We went to a Portuguese bakery and got some pasta de nata.
Speaker 2:I saw a Banksy art. Banksy Banksy art. Yes, someone had vandalized it, though, which was pretty shitty.
Speaker 1:It kind of rained on and off but we just had a nice day kind of wandering the streets of Paris. We got a falafel at La Du Falafel, which is a place I went to when I was in Paris 12 years ago and I still remember it. What I remember eating had a lot more sauce than the one we got, but it was good. Our kids all had more than one bite. That's how I know that it was a win. I mean there was a long line. There was a long line. Yeah, it's very popular and I mean if it's been in business 12 years, you know it's got to be good, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like that's not that long ago. Was it only two, did it just open when you went.
Speaker 1:I have no idea it could have been longer. I have no idea, I just know at least 12 years In the restaurant world that's a long time. Anyways, okay.
Speaker 2:Not in Spain.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, that'll be the next episode. Some other things that we did in Paris. I scheduled us a tour with the Petit Guide, which is the small guide.
Speaker 1:That's what it means. Petit means small, I guess. Technically. In French Her name is Zoe Zoe.
Speaker 1:I've followed on Instagram for quite a few years now and I was so excited to be able to take one of her tours with the kids. So, for a little background, she's on Instagram at thepetiteguide. I will link it in the show notes. But her name is Zoe. It is her, um, like her business.
Speaker 1:I do think that sometimes she has other people doing tours for her, but our tour was booked with her and it is tours specifically geared towards kids and you can choose kind of the areas that you want to tour. So, uh, montmartre is a popular one, that's the one that we did. She also does like a get to know 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 to know your neighborhood kind of a tour. So if you're staying in an area, you know she'll tour you around that area and she has a few other ones, so you can find her on Instagram and check her out. But I would highly recommend she was one of the best tour guides I think we had on the trip.
Speaker 2:Yes, very informative.
Speaker 1:She explained everything about kind of the Montmartre neighborhood, what it used to be compared to what it is now. Um, we talked a lot about the art and, like the history, the kids got to see where picasso used to live. She brought notebooks and pencils so they could draw and we took like a little break and had the kids, you know, draw something. It was really good, yeah, our kids really enjoyed it, yeah, and she brought bubbles for the kids. We stopped at her favorite bakery and got to get a snack. It was very good. It was very good, yeah. The other thing that I thought was so cool is we walked by a school, like a regular school, and they have their lunch menu posted outside, and so she talked about that with our kids and they read through the lunch menu together and I just thought it was really fun for our kids to get to see.
Speaker 2:What I thought was most interesting is she said that kids are not allowed to bring their own lunch to school oh, yeah, she did say that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we talked a lot about like what it's like to be a kid in france, and that's the kind of stuff that really engages kids, you know, because it it affects them and they can think like, oh, like that would be crazy. You know, um, there was a lot of vegetables on the lunch menu, I think the kids were like whoa, yeah, and then the Montmartre tour specifically ends at Sacre Coeur and so you kind of hike up the steps and you get the really beautiful views of Paris. It was a little bit foggy and cloudy the day we were there, but really would highly recommend her.
Speaker 2:I'm sure, any tour that she does is great. Yeah, very knowledgeable.
Speaker 1:She also had some really good recommendations for us, and some of them we did, so we'll talk about those here shortly. But the other thing that I had booked was a macaroon class.
Speaker 2:Macaroon.
Speaker 1:Macaroon, and this class was specifically geared towards kids. Maca roll, and this was this class was specifically geared towards kids. I wanted to do a croissant class, but I couldn't find one that I felt like would let the kids help. Yeah, because, again, our youngest is five and, like a lot of them, had age limits of like seven or eight, and so this macaroon class was really good. Actually, it was in a small cafe called the april cafe. The only thing I would say is it's not in a part of paris that you're probably going to go to like it wasn't. I never felt unsafe, but it just was in a totally different area to us than all the touristy stuff you know, yeah, definitely a different part of paris, but yeah, still totally fine to go to.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we just again put the address into the GPS. It told us the trains to take and we took them and we found it no problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, getting around is super easy.
Speaker 1:That was one of the things that you liked the most about Europe. Right was the transportation.
Speaker 1:Yes, and the character architect architecture Dwayne took approximately 1000 pictures of random streets in every city that we went to. It was pretty cute. So the macaroon class though the kids did most of it. They mixed the, they sifted, they mixed the batter, they added the coloring, they stirred it in, they piped them out, they filled them and I mean we helped too, but the kids really got to have a hand in every piece and it was. It was good. It was literally in the back of this tiny cafe, so people could be coming in and ordering like a cappuccino and you're just like literally right there doing it. So I would recommend that. I would recommend it, though I will 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 that I hadn't booked um was the Louvre, and that was because you wanted to do it and I didn't. Um was the Louvre, and that was because you wanted to do it and I didn't.
Speaker 2:I didn't know you wanted to do that. So yeah, and I mean, that place was crazy.
Speaker 1:It was very packed, very packed so we ended up booking tickets the day before we wanted to go, that same day that we were talking about going, but they didn't have any tickets available so we couldn't book it. So we ended up booking it for the next day.
Speaker 2:And just heads up if you're looking to spend or to look at everything in Louvre, I mean you're going to have to Days. Yeah, it's going to be a whole day worth at least, and then some.
Speaker 1:It was incredibly crowded when we were there.
Speaker 2:it was hot inside, like I mean, the place is enormous yeah, so we really did two things.
Speaker 1:We looked at the mona lisa because duane wanted to see it, us and about 100 other people. What did you think of the mona lisa?
Speaker 2:I thought it was great. Everyone keep, keep, kept it was small. But I think it was small just because you couldn't get super close to it. I mean it was a normal size painting. But when everyone kept telling me it was small, I thought it was just like a little tiny, like picture.
Speaker 1:I mean it's like eight by 10.
Speaker 2:It's bigger than that. It looks like that because you're so far away.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've seen it up close. It's bigger than that. It's like that People can't see what you're pointing at.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm just saying I'm talking to you because you said it was an 8x10.
Speaker 1:He's pointing to something that's maybe like 10x20. Yeah, I don't think it's that big. The other thing that we wanted to see in the Louvre was Napoleon's apartments, and that was pretty cool. I have not seen that before, and even our kids were kind of like wait, this was an apartment Like this is huge, it's so opulent, like there's just so much gold, and it was pretty big and crazy. What did you think of it?
Speaker 2:I just want to say I love his ice cream. Oh, that's Neapolitan, not Napoleon, I mean.
Speaker 1:I thought it was great.
Speaker 2:I mean, oh God, you knew it wasn't, it was very I don't even know the word Like.
Speaker 1:I think opulent is a good word. That is a good word. You knew it wasn't Neapol, I mean napoleon.
Speaker 2:Right, you knew right because I mean, do we need it to get a divorce? I thought it was a guy that impacted, oh bless your heart.
Speaker 1:You did not, oh my god. Okay, the other thing we did that the kids really liked and this was a recommendation from zo, again at the Petite Guide and, as a side note, we paid full price for her tour, so not sponsored in any way. I just really thought she does. I think she does a good job and I just want to recommend her. But she also had some really good recommendations, and one of the things she recommended was to visit the tooleries and let the kids play on the playground. There's a playground in the tooleries and the tooleries is right by the louvre, so what is toolery?
Speaker 1:that those are the gardens that we went, and that's what it's called the tooleries, and there's a metro stop right by there so you could take the metro right there. It's really close to the louvre, so what you could do is let the kids play and get all their energy out, then go to the lube. That was our original plan, but the tickets were sold out, so we ended up just spending some time in the in the gardens and letting the kids run amok and doing the lube a different day. But there's a playground there which is obviously it's free they had a carousel there's a carousel near the playground which is not free.
Speaker 2:Not free, but not it was like it was fine, yeah, two dollars, two euros per kid for one uh little jaunt around.
Speaker 1:It was fine. And then they also have trampolines that you have to know to look for them. They're not free. You have to know to look for them because they're not free. You have to know to look for them because they're not super visible. But we also paid for the kids to jump on them for seven minutes and again it wasn't. I mean, was it expensive for seven minutes?
Speaker 2:Probably, but we needed them to get their energy out because what's funny is there was an American family there when we got there and she's like it's not free and it's only seven minutes.
Speaker 1:In the Tuileries we also met another American family who ironically was also from our same town in Arizona and they live probably seven minutes from us, so you could definitely tell it was spring break time for arizona.
Speaker 2:Oh, at the tooleries we got probably the best hot chocolate of our trip there. Yes, it was super good, super thick, with two c's, and I mean it was delicious.
Speaker 1:Well, you were also telling me. You were like I didn't realize that Paris was known for hot chocolate. I mean, I didn't, I just but yeah, I mean they are when I think of.
Speaker 2:Paris. I don't think of hot chocolate.
Speaker 1: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 play and have a nice hot drink and just kind of relax. I think that's very Paris and so that was great. Okay, let's talk about a couple of restaurants. We didn't. We didn't do like paris fine dining on this trip. I'll just tell you that right now I don't know how you would do that with with kids at least not the age of our kids, and our kids are not picky by any means, but we did.
Speaker 2:The tour guide did recommend one place which we went to which was kind of fine dining. They of fact threw us in a corner where no one else was sitting, Because we were not dressed appropriately, probably, and fun fact.
Speaker 1:So the restaurant that she recommended again Zoe recommended was the Brasserie de Louvre Perfect spot to have lunch before you go to the Louvre 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 points right next to the Louvre.
Speaker 2:What category is it?
Speaker 1:Six maybe, I think.
Speaker 2:It looked pretty fancy.
Speaker 1:Yes and the restaurant is definitely a little fancier. They did stick us in a corner, we were not dressed appropriately, but they served us and everything was fine and I do think also we had no reservations. But again, we were kind of visiting in the off season. I think if you were to go in the summer you would want to make a reservation for sure. The food was good. It was, I would say, traditional French food. Zoe had said that it's her kids's favorite kid's menu is at that restaurant and they did have a good kid's menu. Our daughter got salmon, Our son got. They called it steak, but I feel like it was a hamburger patty, kind of Like it wasn't a steak, it was like ground beef that was shaped into a patty.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to remember what it looked like.
Speaker 1:And then our older son got he orders off the adult menu, sadly for our wallets, but him and Dwayne actually got the same thing, which was also steak, and I got some sea bass and it was like the fish came with a lemon squeezer and Dwayne and the kids were like this is the fanciest lemon squeezer I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 2:I've never seen a lemon squeezer like that. Yes, and I also got the onion soup.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, french onion soup, yeah.
Speaker 2:We're in France, so they just call it onion soup.
Speaker 1:Oh, I see, I see, I see what you did there. The soup was not as savory as I thought it was going to be. It was okay.
Speaker 2:It was sweet.
Speaker 1:It was more sweet. Yeah, the bread and butter was 10 out of 10. Like butter in Paris is French butter in general is just chef's kiss so much better than anything we have here in America. The other restaurant that we went to I talked about on the last Paris episode is the famous steak frites restaurant. It is called I'm going to butcher this, but Le Relais de L'Entrecôte. Again, forgive me, my French accent is pas bien, but they only serve one thing, and it is steak and french fries. The only question that you need to tell them is how you like your steak, and everyone gets the same thing it's the steak, it's the green sauce and it's the french fries. It is delicious. Duane is gonna tell you that it was okay, but he's wrong.
Speaker 2:it's delicious it was okay, wasn't delicious to me, it wasn't bad, but just wasn't something to write home about, you know. So would I be mad if I never went there again?
Speaker 1: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 they give you a smaller portion and then they come around again. And Dwayne was even like this is it? This is it. And I was like no, they're going to come around again and give you a second portion. And they did.
Speaker 2:I mean they did.
Speaker 1:They gave me a hefty second portion. Second, it was more than the first portion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I couldn't finish all mine, but I. It's also right next to the hyatt regency. Also, keep in mind that people line 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 line but by the time it opened, like how long?
Speaker 2:I mean there was probably 40-50 people on the line. Yeah, yeah, but again you, they sit you down and you know they ask you how you like your meat and boom, it comes out fairly quickly. Yes, because they only got one freaking thing on the menu.
Speaker 1:And they serve everyone at the same time. Oh, there's also a salad that they bring out which has, like a very mustardy dressing, which seems to be a very French thing, and I also really enjoy the salad.
Speaker 2:I mean, I thought the salad was probably the best part. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, the yeah so highly would recommend. It is right next to the Hyatt and you can walk there, so there's also a McDonald's right there that you can also walk to, and we did eat there once, Cause the kids were curious what do they have at McDonald's in France? I got some chicken nuggets and they were good.
Speaker 2:You had a French thing. What was it? It was like a peanut wrap or something.
Speaker 1:It was a goat cheese chicken wrap. It was okay, it was fine. I didn't finish it, I only took one or two bites. I just was curious to try it, you know, because they don't have that here.
Speaker 2:I stayed American and got a Big Mac.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, I feel like we've covered most of the highlights. Am I leaving anything out?
Speaker 2:I don't think so. I mean, if you take anything from this episode, just know that it's super easy to travel around Paris, especially with kids. I mean, like you said earlier, it's idiot proof.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, especially with the Metro. I wouldn't be scared of using the Metro. I think there's a lot of fear around it. There are obviously pickpockets, that's you know, in every city. I think as long as you're smart about it, then you're going to be fine. We didn't have any issues. In fact, my uh, one of the pockets on my bag was unzipped at one point and another girl told me, as like she was getting off the train and I was getting on, and she was like oh, like she said it in French. I forget what she said, but I knew what she was talking about and I was like oh, mercy, you know what? There's one more thing that I want to talk about really quick, because kind of on that same note, so that that French girl was like, hey, your bag's open, I was like, oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Uh, we, the first day that we were there, the kids were really tired and we were on the metro and our two youngest were sitting together on one side of the of the car and we were on the other side and it was a pretty full car, so there were people standing between us so we couldn't really see them and all of a sudden we realized they're both sleeping and you know their head in one chair, yeah, like together, yeah, and so their head. You know they're sleeping and the train is moving and their heads are kind of like nodding forward, as you do when you're sleeping, sitting up. But duane and I couldn't get to them because there are literally people standing like between us and rush hour yeah, and so like strangers were like helping to keep the kids heads up so that they didn't fall, and I just thought that was like a really sweet moment yes, it was definitely a very sweet moment.
Speaker 2:Um matter of fact, I think the people that were helping her were Japanese. That were also tourists yeah, yeah, yeah they.
Speaker 1:It was just yeah. It's like no one knows one another, but here they are looking out for my kids because I can't. So I feel like that's a metaphor for one of the reasons that we like to travel and what I hope our kids learn from travel is that people are good. For the most part, people are good.
Speaker 1:Most people are yeah, so I will. We will leave you with that message of positivity today and we will be back next week for a recap of Barcelona, which is our next stop on this trip. Yes, so thank you so much for listening. Again, I will put everything that we booked in the show notes, so if you have questions, you can check there, and then I also should have a Paris highlight on Instagram. If you want to go, check that out, if you want to see the hotel or see some of the photos and videos from the tours and the classes that we took, that will all live on Instagram. So come say hi. We are on Instagram at Travel Party of Five. And, yes, send me a message. I love it. We've been getting a lot more messages lately and I love it so much, so come say hi to me.
Speaker 2:We appreciate you. Tell your friends about us.
Speaker 1:Yes, share it with a friend and we will catch you next week.
Speaker 2:Bye, have a good one.