June 24, 2020
Welcome to my first blog at TravelswithMieMie.com.
I am Monica, aka MieMie to four delightful grandchildren. I am also a retired French teacher, and I live with two silly, sweet Boston terriers in a city in the U.S. Midwest. My passion for travel is fueled by the first two facts.
I live to travel to French-speaking areas in the world, and I love to take a couple of my young grandchildren with me when I go. We started our journeys when they each turned five, and by the ages of seven and ten, they have developed into adventuresome, creative little travelers.
I am new to blogging. But I have six years of the best experiences ever when it comes to traveling with my grandkids. I will share stories about how we plan and prepare for awesome travel experiences, and I hope our stories will provide some fun ideas you can adapt for your travels.
The pandemic sucks. Obviously I have no travel plans this summer. The two older grandsons and I canceled the adventure we had hoped to take in June. But we have doubled down on their French lessons to make us feel better about next year. We are optimistic we will be able to resume our travels then.
Since we can’t travel right now, I think it’s a great time to start planning some adventures to be prepared when the opportunity is again available. I hope you are thinking of going on an adventure with some very special young kids in your life sometime soon, and that I can help you make some magical memories. Where do you think you might go? What age are the children who would be taking you?
I often state that I have no problem traveling alone. I can do what I want, when I want: I don’t have to compromise on anything. But I have learned over the past several years that I usually enjoy a trip more if I have a travel companion. And my four young grandchildren have become my favorite travel buddies.
The 11-year-old twins Jackson and Wyatt and their 8-year-old sister Ella, along with 8-year-old cousin Parker have come to expect spontaneous invitations to go with me on a quick trip to somewhere unexpected. Often it’s Paris. But it has also been Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida, to see mermaids and New York for a championship dog agility competition. We also went to Iceland to see the Northern Lights. Fortunately, their parents always agree to let them go. It doesn’t have to be a faraway destination. Is there a museum in your city? Or a stadium that will give tours when the pandemic passes? You can make any activity fun and meaningful with a bit of preparation.
So last fall, as soon as the words, “Who wants to go to Paris with MieMie?” escaped my mouth, four little hands waved immediately with an outburst of “I do. I do. Me too! Uh, ya!”
Jackson immediately dove in for the details, asking what we might do in Paris. That conversation launched the planning for two magical weekends in January and February, just before the pandemic changed our lives. Jackson and Parker chose a Paris Saint Germain (PSG) soccer game. Wyatt and Ella chose a pastry baking class for children.
Four excited children were ready to plan their special weekends.
Now here’s what I find puzzling: Many adults I know would hesitate or even panic at the idea of being responsible for a trip with a seven-year-old and a ten-year-old, not to mention that the trip is a weekend in Paris. These adults seem to lack either confidence or experience, or maybe just the time, when it comes to planning kid-focused travel. And for the grandparents I know, this is an even more intimidating thought. They just draw a blank when trying to plan a trip from the kids’ perspectives, without their parents.
I have found so much joy from my travels with my grandchildren that I want to share as much as I can with others. To that end, I am going to regularly post ideas that as a parent or grandparent, you can consider in your travel planning and be assured of creating a memorable and especially fun and meaningful experience for all. And I promise it’s not hard to do.
Back to those quick weekends in Paris. Here’s how we did it.
I knew the two sports nuts would be thrilled with a soccer game. But that’s only three hours of the weekend. So the three of us brainstormed a while. Parker’s dad had taken him on a tour of the local baseball stadium in our city, so he thought maybe the Paris stadium might provide tours. They did. We went. Having wandered through the dressing rooms, the press room and the ends of the soccer field the day before the game just made the soccer match more exciting. And their team won!
Bravo, Parker! Great idea!
I am so glad I asked for the boys’ help in doing our travel plans. I am pretty sure I would never have thought of touring the stadium before the game. They walked on the outer perimeters of the field. They pretended to kick a ball around on the team logo. They were in soccer fan heaven.
They also both begged to go to the Pablo Picasso museum. Surprising? Not at all. These kids have come to think of museums as playgrounds (subject of a future blog, I promise). They go prepared for a museum visit. We looked up Picasso’s life and high points of his career before going. And it turns out the museum does a great job of engaging kids with a special activity in most of the rooms. The boys ended up each picking a favorite painting to draw (I took a small sketch pad along for each of them) and then they drew a portrait of each other, à la Picasso. Quite talented, wouldn’t you agree?
Add in food of their choosing and shopping at the PSG team store for souvenirs, and we had tons of fun and made lots of lasting memories in three quick days. Oh, did I mention that this was also during the transportation strikes in Paris. Adaptability is another key to traveling with kids. We managed just fine.
Wyatt and Ella likewise planned their own pastry weekend. Two little foodies who love to help MieMie in the kitchen at home were 100 percent in on the baking class idea.
Chef Anthony was great. They used real kitchen equipment and made delicious apple pastries. Two French girls were also in their class, and it was fun to share the experience.
After the baking class, we added a guided walking tour of pâtisseries in the Marais. Can you say éclair! These two experienced a moment in Paris that few people have. All because I listened to what makes these two happy and searched a few ideas online.
In Wyatt’s words, “Pastries in Paris — that’s my idea of heaven!”
Still, we had a whole other day to fill in our weekend. While brainstorming possibilities, Wyatt mentioned his music teacher had shown them “The Phantom of the Opera” movie in school. I explained it was based on stories of the Paris Opera House. We looked it up online, watched the movie again, and when Ella saw the golden staircase and the exhibits of costumes, the Paris Opera House was unanimously added to our agenda.
Thank you, Wyatt, for thinking out of the box when it comes to travel planning. I had never been to the Paris Opera House myself, and I’m sure I would not have thought of it as a fun place to take kids who are totally unfamiliar with the opera.
To prepare for our visit, I downloaded and printed a kids game packet about the palace from its website. We read some history, and they did the search and coloring pages.
When we got there, our tour guide was amazing with Wyatt and Ella. It was pure magic when Ella was able to see a dancer rehearsing in costume on the stage.
And if that weren’t enough, they hung around to watch the stage crew build the set for the next production.
Again, it was Wyatt’s input and our research into the Phantom of the Opera that took us into territory that engaged these two delightful kids in an activity often reserved for much older tourists. May I add that I saw no other children in the opera house that day. Our guide basically dedicated her commentary to these two young children who knew enough basics about the history of the palace to actively engage in her tour. They now have each asked if I would take them to an opera in New York when the pandemic is over. Their sense of adventure regularly widens my horizons as well!
After making a special hot chocolate stop and dining in a quaint little crêperie, the only way to describe this weekend was magically sweet. Lucky kids. Lucky grandma.
If you are interested in picking up a few tips on how to create magical, memorable and fun travel with young children, please subscribe to my blog. I will share stories about our personal travels and tips that can be easily put into practice by any traveler accompanying young children. The destination is not important. It might be a fishing trip to a nearby lake. Or a weekend visit to the home of a favorite sports team or a national landmark. Or Paris! The experience creates memories with the special children in your life and that’s what is important.
In my next post I will discuss how to teach children a second language, or maybe just learn enough words together to make your next trip to Mexico or Italy more meaningful. (I am confident we will all be traveling again next year.)
I love it!
Thank you!
Interesting and helpful information.
Thank you!
This is so useful. I’m going to share it with my grown children who like to travel with their kids. Thank you!
I hope they enjoy it!