Day 1
We woke up at 430 in the morning to get presentable and headed to pick up our travel buddies before heading to longterm parking at the Marco Polo Airport. Sanitizing as we went and started our ‘every time you touch something you have to use sanitizer‘ lifestyle. We wiped down everything before we sat down, didn’t touch any rails and had to wear our masks at all times. Employees were very strict about keeping masks up over your nose as well, so we felt pretty good about our first flight since the Pandemic started. We booked our tickets and the middle seats were listed as unavailable but as soon as we boarded found out it was 100% booked and zero distancing was going to be practical. Our pre-packed Lysol wipes came in handy wiping down the seats, belts, tray etc before we sat down. The flight was only 2 hours and we landed before we knew it. Sams bag went missing so she filed a claim as we prayed it would show up. After a while, we decided to get to the Airbnb & shop for clothes later in the day if it hadn’t showed up yet. An hour Uber ride later we arrived at our darling little Airbnb – while cute, it stated it had A/C which turned out to be one little blowing fan and the weather was 100f the entire time so it was a very hot and uncomfortable sweaty few days! The AirBnb would be great during the cooler months, but 100% would not recommend during the heat – here’s the link if you’d like it.
We dropped off our bag, reapplied concealer, grabbed a quick lunch and then grabbed an Uber to visit the Louvre. We had pre-booked tickets and again had to wear masks at all times. While we could have spent days wandering around looking at all the amazing art, we just made our way to see the Mona Lisa since the girls learned about her this past year in school. They were both very underwhelmed but I personally thought it was incredible to see the tiny piece of art in person. Did you know that the Mona Lisa is so popular because it was stolen and the news gave it lots of coverage? Incredible how the media can guide our thinking.
After the Louvre, we were wiped after the craziness of traveling, loosing a bag, sweating our buns off and walking around the Louvre (we did about 9 miles of walking just today!) and so we stopped at a mall to get Sam & Mackayla clothes/essentials for the next day and also picked up a few groceries before heading home to eat at the AirBnb. It was a rough night, we all slept practically naked because it was so hot but we just kept repeating how lucky we were to be traveling, healthy and in PARIS!
Day 2
Woke up (exhausted, but again, thankful to be in Paris), had a quick breakfast at the AirBnb & then walked to our Bicycle Tour getting to pass the Eiffel Tower in route. We saw it from the car ride home last night – but seeing it in person was absolutely magical. I’d been waiting for THIS moment for as long as I can remember. I might have gotten a little teary eyed seeing it. We got to Fat Tire Tours and it was a cluster of a day. Presley fell, then Sam, then Presley had a meltdown and shoved a bike over & the guide helped redirect everyones attention while I disciplined her, then Mackayla fell. My bike tire got a ‘hemorrhoid’ because of the heat & we had to stop to get a replacement. We were the only people to have issues! Yikes. We were a hot mess! It was a fun experience though & the company was amazing.
After spending half the day in the heat on bikes we went home, got cleaned up and just relaxed taking turns in front of the fan for a few hours before walking back to the Eiffel Tower to snap a few photos. During that time frame they said they tried to deliver Sams bag but never actually showed up! Of course, as we were walking to see it it started getting really windy and a lightning storm passed through. Don’t worry though, we sent the girls on a carousal ride, got some photos and then walked home in the rain and ordered UberEats. We ended up pulling the second bedroom mattress into the other room so we could all share the single fan & try to get some rest.
Day 3
Disney day!!!!! Woke up super early after another night of still being miserably hot. We prepped the girls that Disney was going to be a bit different (distancing, no characters, a lot of rides closed, short hours & no parades) but they were excited and Presley had a list of rides she wanted to get to! We purchased tickets for the 2 parks (Disney and Studios) because there were attractions at both that we wanted to do. A shuttle picked us up by the Eiffel Tower and then we headed straight there.
I downloaded the Parks app and was watching the wait times, so I knew that we wanted to stop by Studios first to ride a few rides whose wait times would be over an hour a bit after the park opened. We headed first to Tower of Terror. I took Presley and Mackayla and one of them loved it and the other one absolutely hated it! Then we went over to Toy Story Parachute Drop (a mini Tower of Terror drop ride) and then my favorite ride of the day Crushes Coaster.
At that time, it was around noon (the parks opened at 10am) so we grabbed a quick snack and refilled our giant water bottles and headed over to the Disney Park to ride a few rides there.
We headed to Pirates of the Caribbean first and both the girls didn’t really like it – the dark and spookiness of it freaked them both out; afterwards they were still on the fence about whether they liked it or not. Then we did the TeaCups (barf) and then Presley and I went to Hyperspace Mountain and I thought she would be terrified but she ended up loving that one so we did it a second time a little bit later. We waited in line for Thunder Mountain and Presley loved that, then it was time to head back to the other park for our Dinner Reservation.
As soon as we were planning our trip and the idea of a Disney day came up we knew we wanted to go to the Ratatouille Restaurant Bistro Chez Remy. I called and they had space for us (pre-covid is was recommended to book at least 2 months in advance). It was such an amazing experience feeling like a tiny little rat in this restaurant + plus the food was delicious!
After dinner we did the actual Ratatouille ride which was darling & then we raced back over to Disneyland because we convinced Mackayla to ride Thunder Mountain! Then, it was time to get back to our shuttle for the ride home! On the way home, we got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkling which was hands down the highlight of my entire trip! I almost convinced myself to stay up another hour to see it NOT from a moving bus – but the exhaustion won and we headed home to take turns in the shower before sleeping in the same room again with the single fan.
Day 4
Our last day in Paris!!! We got all packed up (Sams bag was finally delivered late last night – just in time to pack it back up to fly home!!!). We hopped in an Uber to go grab a delicious crepe breakfast, stopped by Shakespeare&Co a bookstore I had wanted to see & then walked around Notre Dame under construction before headed to the Airport to start our journey home.
PHEW. What a trip! SO so so thankful to be able to cross Paris off of my Bucket List. We had originally planned to go back in March with our best friends who currently live in Louisiana and when we had to cancel my heart broke. Feeling super thankful now & now we will have our own little quarantine at home to make sure we are healthy.
Thanks for stopping by, I shared my favorite pictures & TONS of videos on my Instagram highlight reel ‘Paris’ if you want to see even more! XO
Leave a Reply