Getting to the Eiffel Tower Together

Plus the best, weirdest things we saw in London and Paris

I suppose this week’s newsletter falls into the category of Life Not Among the Alpacas.

My daughter arrived during the first summer of the pandemic. We lived 1,000 miles from our nearest relatives. We were, in short, alone, the three of us.

Preparing for labor, I learned about the 5P’s of childbirth, one of which is the Passenger. The baby. My girl came into this world through a heavily monitored pregnancy and a somewhat unusual birth, the details of which I won’t get into here. Elements of the process, however, revealed traits of the Passenger, whom I would come to know over the ensuing months and years. At birth, she went from showing signs of distress to sprinting into the world in about 5 hours, which is, I should say, very fast. She wasn’t ready, and then she was, arriving alert and hungry, looking up at me with intense, wolfish eyes. They say you can’t make old friends, but in the early hours of that morning, I felt like I had, like this brand new person was a soul I already knew.

Oh, but she is strong-willed and chatty and full of all that intense energy. She bursts into any room like she did into the world, bringing joy in her wake.

So, when we decided to take a family vacation to Paris and London together, I was excited to have an adventure with her and a little nervous about the practicalities. Julio was already in Europe for business travel, so it was on me to get the barn ready for our absence and our kid and me through a 14-hour travel day before meeting him at our hotel in Paris.

We were in the Toronto airport, and she looked right at a woman sitting across from us and struck up a whole conversation, “Are you from Canada?” I relaxed a little, knowing we would be okay. My bright-eyed, confident little girl was ready for this adventure.

On the other side of a mostly sleepless night crossing the Atlantic, we dropped our bags and went for a walk to the Eiffel Tower. My daughter’s confidence started to waver. Even though I have never done so before, she was convinced that I was going to get us lost. I was kind of figuring out our path to the Eiffel Tower as we went, but I explained that I was making a mental note of every turn as we went, so we could retrace our steps. And, I said, worst-case scenario, I had a map on my phone. We would get back to the hotel. She looked at me out of the corner of her sleepy eyes, unconvinced.

As we arrived at the park at the base of the Eiffel Tower, we sat on a park bench, watching a group of older schoolchildren sit down to eat a picnic lunch. We made it from Denver to Paris, just us two, and as she rested her head on my shoulder, I thought about that wolf-eyed little newborn and how far we’ve come together, how much I love being her mama, and how many adventures I hope we share.

We kept walking, and I spotted another American family, two little girls with Remy stuffies, trying to take a photo of their parents. I offered to take a family photo for them, and they got one of us while my daughter expressed her envy of their toys. She eventually got a Remy of her own, using her saved allowance money, at Gare du Nord before we caught the train to London.

Then, she spotted a playground and darted off to play. She was nervous about how she would play with French children, but there was another American girl at the playground, and they pretended to be cow firefighters (!?).

My daughter was excited to try macarons, so we got a couple on the walk to the hotel, and an Australian woman behind us in line informed me that I’d sat in bird poo. I managed not to get us lost, despite her fears. Her reunion with her dad outside the hotel was joyful to witness. As proud as I am of the things she and I do together, I most love being the three amigos.

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The Best & Weirdest Things We Saw in Paris & London

Julio and I love Paris, a city we first visited together on our honeymoon. It is such a beautiful place and I enjoy looking at the architecture, the names of places, and window displays. Plus, there’s all that great food.

Exploring with a little kid was at a different pace than we have experienced in the past, but we still got to see some fun, strange, and beautiful things, including some that wouldn’t have occurred to us to explore before.

Playgrounds & Carousels

Julio located a playground in the Luxembourg Gardens called Ludo Jardin. It is a beautiful, nature-inspired place that we paid a small fee to enjoy alongside many other families on a sunny Saturday morning. Suddenly, almost two hours had gone by. Outside the playground, there is also the oldest carousel in Paris.

Julio remembered that there are carousels all over Paris, so he kept some Euros in his pocket for our daughter to ride as many as she wanted. It was his secret plan to give her magical memories, and she racked up about 8 rides. We were interested to see how some of the carousels had additional activities along with the ride. At the carousel in Luxembourg Gardens, the operator handed out little jousting wands, and the kids used them to scoop up rings as they passed him. At another carousel in Montmartre, the operator had a Mickey Mouse doll attached to a string, with a tail clipped to his bottom. As he dangled the Mickey around, the kids tried to capture his tail. Our daughter was so laser-focused on getting the tail that we were in hysterics by the time she finally caught it (and won another ride).

Musée Carnavalet - Histoire de Paris

When we went to Paris on our honeymoon in 2016, I wanted to see Musee Carnavalet, but it had just closed for renovations. I was delighted that I got the chance to visit this time. Admission to the museum is free, and inside, visitors can explore the long, storied history of Paris. My favorite part was the room full of old signs from shops in Paris, explaining how some of them became landmarks in the city or famous logos.

We also learned that Medusa is a big symbol in Paris, saw artifacts from Marie Antoinette, looked at an oven shaped like the Bastille (!?), and learned that giraffes were trendy in Paris in the 1820s.

A Note on Getting Around with a Little Kid

We felt really lucky that we just missed the terrible heatwave that hit Europe in June. It was plenty hot as it was, and we found that we got the most out of our days thanks to Julio carrying our daughter when her legs got tired or when the jetlag hit her mid-afternoon. She’d power down for about half an hour and then be ready to go again until bedtime. We also made more use of the Metro or the Tube than we have on past travels. I was more aware of all the smoking and air pollution than I would have been without a little kid with me, and we were both covered in bruises from bonking into each other in crowds all day. In all, though, some planning and a great, strong dad made getting around very doable with a child.

Gerry Judah’s WWI Memorial at St. Paul’s Cathedral

Once in London, we took part in a day-long bus tour around the city. Normally, Julio and I prefer more self-guided options, but the bus seemed like a great way to transport our kiddo to all the sites. Plus, the tour included entry to St. Paul’s, the London Eye, and the Tower of London. It was a great day with a knowledgeable guide and a polite little group of fellow tourists.

I studied in England when I was in college, so I had seen St. Paul’s and once had lunch on the front steps, but I hadn’t actually been inside. I was moved by the American Chapel and curious to see who was in the crypt. I was most interested, however, in these crosses sculpted by Gerry Judah for a World War I memorial. The crosses commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI and draw on the imagery of the white crosses that were placed in war cemeteries around the world, while also evoking cities torn apart by contemporary conflict, particularly that in Syria when they were being constructed. I thought they were really striking.

The London Eye

Our daughter really wanted to go on The London Eye. It was one of only a couple of things she asked to do, so we were going to go on it even if it weren’t included in the tour. I am afraid of heights, so I was not especially looking forward to it. Once we were in the air, much to my surprise, I was the least scared of the three of us. The experience was better than I expected, and the views were cool enough to compensate for some of the gimmicky stuff surrounding it.

Some ravens, views, and a monument to the little pillow Henry VIII had placed under Anne Boleyn's head before she was executed. What a guy.

Brutal History and Ravens at The Tower of London

The Tower of London is full of stuff that I am generally not all that interested in (cannons, armour, etc.), but I was fascinated by the ravens. I had never heard before that King Charles II was told that if the ravens left the Tower, disaster would befall the Kingdom. So, quite reasonably, he ordered that an unkindness of at least six ravens should be kept at the Tower at all times. Today, they are looked after by a Yeoman Warder whose job is their care and keeping. There are little signs here and there warning visitors that ravens might bite.

I have long been interested in the story of the princes of the tower, since I read Richard III in school, but I was surprised (and a little nervous) by how interested my daughter was in the story of the two boys who disappeared and were (maybe) found much later at the tower.

Julio was curious about the role of the Constable of the Tower, a ceremonial role appointed by the King that still retains an exclusive right to direct access to the monarch. He had several questions about who gets appointed and how. So, he was delighted when our tour guide handed us off to a friendly Beefeater who answered his questions.

I was taking notes in a field book dedicated to the trip, and as we left, the Yeoman Warder asked about it, wondering if I was writing something for print or taking personal notes. He told me that one of his retired colleagues kept a personal notebook for 25 years and is working on a memoir about working at the Tower. Ever delighted by people’s notebook practices, I will be looking out for that book.

Much Ado at The Globe & The Paddington Experience

When we decided to travel to London, I looked up what would be playing at The Globe while we were in town. Years ago, I saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream and King Lear there. I felt so lucky that this time, my favorite Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing, would be on. This production, directed by Chesea Walker and starring Pippa Nixon and Ken Nwosu, has such a fun, summery energy; giant animal heads for the masquerade; and hilarious physical comedy. We got tickets for the standing yard, and I explained the plotline to my family before we went. Our daughter did pretty well, considering her age, and it was one of my favorite things we did on the trip.

That morning, to fill her cup before asking her to be so very good in the theater, Julio got us tickets to The Paddington Experience. The interactive experience enlists kids to help the Brown family prepare for a Marmalade Day celebration through puzzles and games. Because school was still in session, our daughter was the only child on our tour and so all the make-believe was directed right to her. It was such a big, magical experience. We had a wonderful time and our girl talked about it for weeks afterward.

Bookish Things: Word on the Water & Kids Lit Statues

On our last day in London, Julio wanted to go see the Prime Meridian and get a photo of him and our daughter with one foot on either side of it. Mission accomplished!

I wanted to visit Word on the Water, a bookshop on an old barge. It was a short walk from Kings Cross Station, so we took the train from seeing the Prime Meridian all the way out in Greenwich to Kings Cross, did the very touristy Harry Potter stop, and walked over to the bookbarge. It was so cute. I picked up an old copy of The Hound of the Baskervilles because our daughter was curious about Sherlock Holmes after we had dinner at a fun pub named after him. If I did not live thousands of miles away, I’d like to join the Word on the Water book club.

One of the reasons why I thought London should be included in this trip is because of how many sites there are related to children’s literature. In addition to the Paddington Experience, we also sought out statues around the city, including:

• Mary Poppins near Covent Garden

• Paddington Bear in Paddington Station under the clock near platform 1

• Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station

• Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

Have you traveled to Paris or London? What was your favorite part? Or the strangest part? Or, what is your favorite kids’ book set in England or France?