La Joie! Everyday Joy....: Paris

I am sort of recovered from jet lag. My daughter however, is still wanting to go to bed at 5pm our time (11pm Paris time). Her schedule for eating is all out of whack too, but I'm hoping after a couple of more days, we will both be back to our Minnesota, USA schedule!

I've been getting lots of questions about our trip and how we managed to work in all of the things we did in such a short time. I thought I'd use tonight's blog to answer some of those questions - although the person who should really be answering the questions is my sister. She did all of the planning and coordinating. The way she handled our overseas trip could really work for a domestic trip as well.

The first thing we did was to decide what we wanted to see. Then, my sister got a Paris guidebook which was a great resource. It helped us plan our days based on what was open when and the hours that things were open. The guidebook also gave great advice about how to avoid standing in lines (something that was very important when traveling with two little girls). Another useful tool was it gave us suggestions for when to do a guided tour.

So, here is how my sister planned first day:

Arrival. We knew we would be jet lagged but wanted to keep moving and stay on Paris time so as soon as we arrived at our hotel, we freshened up and headed out. Our hotel choice was based on a recommendation from a friend of my sister's. It was in the city of Paris and close to a transit line which made visiting popular points in the city very easy.

After our brief visit to the hotel, we walked to the Eiffel Tower which was only a short distance from our hotel. We knew that it would be open based on our guide book information. By walking, it gave us a good feel for where our hotel was located and the landmarks nearby. We left the hotel with a map too - just in case.

After visiting the Eiffel Tower, we did take a little down time - just no napping.

Then it was on to the next adventure. Using public transportation is a great way to inexpensively get from one point to another.

In the guidebook, it recommended we buy a book of passes to the METRO instead of buying them on each subway trip. This saved us lots of $$! The stop we took off of the METRO that first night was to L'Opera.