What We Loved:

• Jack loved Paris. After thinking about it, he probably doesn’t remember the last time he visited a European city (2019), so the food and culture might have been totally new to him
• We felt safe everywhere we went.
• The food is amazing, and it is everywhere. We loved the fresh croissants, especially.
• There is so much culture, that we barely scratched the surface.
• Piggybacking onto that, there is great art everywhere.
• Transportation was pretty easy to find.

What We Did Not Love

• It was “unusually warm” and everyone smelled. Most indoor places did not use air conditioning and it was hot and stuffy…and smelly. When I visited in the summer of 2019, it was also “unusually warm”.
• Everything was expensive. A coke was like 6 euros. However, wine was almost the same price.
• The culture around smoking is different. People smoke more and in more places. This is hard because we are not accustomed to it.
• I feel like it is fairly dirty. It seemed like there was trash all over sidewalks.
• Not a lot of public water fountains, which is unusual for European cities I have been to.

Overall, Paris is somewhere I could go to again and again. I love the slowed down, relaxed vibe. We found food easy to find and plentiful. We felt safe. The kids loved it. Everywhere we went we could get what we needed using English. Everytime you travel to a big city, you have to be smart. I wore a belt bag (crossbody) everywhere, so all my vaulables were on the front of my body and easy to keep track of. I would not advise carrying big backpacks on your daily wanderings. If you do, be extra cautious. We had no issues with pickpocketing, and, again, never felt unsafe.