Our Europe Trip: France

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 This is our family's first time in Europe and Mason's first ever travel outside of the country. The first stop that we have chosen was Paris, France. We landed in Belgium and took the train to Paris. 

Our travel from Manila to France took almost 30 hours. Manila to Qatar, 9 hours. Layover, 4 hours. Qatar to Belgium, 8 hrs. Immigration, 2 hours. Brussels to Paris to our Apartment, 6 hours. I didn't feel tired until I have laid in bed when we arrived in France. We slept at around midnight, woke up around 8 am. 

Up to this point, I am not sure if I should be sharing this. But just to let you know, I was not aware of how long the travel to Europe was. Maybe I just didn't do enough research and didn't even look at out flight details. 😅 Honestly, nobody talks about how to get there. Everybody is just talking about being there. Nagulat lang talaga ako, because I didn't prepare for it. The first ever long haul flight that we had took us 26 hours including layover and transfers. But it was different since we only had one baby at the time. Anyway, these are the thing that we did when we were in Paris. 

Day 1. Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower and Seine River Cruise.

We stayed in the whole morning to rest from what felt like forever flight to Europe. We just walked around our apartment and looked for something to eat and the grocery to find rice. Dylan was able to attend some of his class as the school decided to make all week's class online due to heavy rains in Manila at the time. After some resting time, we took off to see the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower, walked around the area. Had dinner in a restaurant near the tower and then had the River Seine Cruise. We were onboard 9pm, Mason fell asleep as we queue, but the view of the Eiffel from the boat was incredible and truly mesmerizing. The cruise was an hour long, I really didn't want to go home yet, but the kids are so tired already. Dylan fell asleep the moment we sat down the bus. We didn't bring the stroller that day, so he got really tired. We only had the carrier for Mason. We didn't bring the stroller because we didn't know what to expect around the city, if it's stroller friendly, turned out, we could've brought it so the kids will not get very tired. Lesson learned. 

 

                                 

Day 2. Louvre, Notre Dame, Puente de Bir Hakeim, and Trocadero 

This day, we still went out in the afternoon, after Dylan's online class and Mason's nap time. We were supposed to do the hop-on, hop-off bus, but the itinerary for that we mostly have done already, the only ones we didn't get to go to was the Louvre and the Notre Dame, so we decided to just DIY our way there. We took the train to Louvre, we didn't get to go inside because the kids, as we know will just wreak havoc there, baka magbayad pa kami ng malaki. haha! After staying a little at the Louvre we decided to walk going to the Notre Dame. The Notre Dame was under construction at the time due to the fire that happened last 2019. Took some photos and we then took the train going to Puente de Bir Hakeim, the bridge were a scene from the movie Inception was shot. Stayed there a while to take photos. It has a great view of the Eiffel Tower. So many people are taking professional photoshoots as well when we were there. After this we walked to Trocadero, on our way there we saw a playground and the kids, as always, have to stay and play. We ate some hotdogs and drank water as it was very hot that day, we ran out of water in our tumbler. After eating and resting, we let them play for a little while and then continued our walk to Trocadero, got some souvenirs and pasalubong then headed back the apartment to rest as we still have a long day tomorrow. 


         

Day 3. Disneyland Paris

We decided to alot this day for Disneyland, DJ and I wanted to add it to our collection. This was our third Disneyland, second for Dylan, and the first one for Mason. The boys had a lot of fun. They didn't seem to get tired and was so happy to watch the parade and the fireworks at the end of the day. Disneyland was an hour away from our apartment, we took the train going there and back. The kids definitely had a magical day. They are already asking on when are we going back, up to this day. 😆


Day 4. Bye Paris, Hello Brussels

This day was our last day in France, we are headed to Belgium. We took the train back to Brussels. The same route as before. Paris, Lille, Brussels. It took us almost 6 hours to arrive in Brussels due to layover in Lille. When we arrived in Brussels, the kids and I got separated with DJ. He was not able to go down the train on time. I do not have internet on my phone. There is no wifi at the train station.



To be continued....


Love, 

K

Location: France

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