Day 1: Jet Lag Day in Paris

In the next few blog posts, I plan to break down a 7 day itinerary for our trip in Paris. I actually had a hard time finding a seven day version- as most were 1, 2, 3, or 4 days. We obviously did not see and do everything in Paris, and since the weather was quite cold and rainy, we did not get to experience the parks and picnics that a summer visit would allow. However, I believe that the crowds were significantly reduced, thanks to the timing of our visit- which was March 4-11. Keep in mind, that I'm writing this for the traveler who is newer to these experiences, and might be stating the obvious to experienced travelers.

Day 1- Jet Lag Day

               We landed in Paris at CDG at around 9:20ish am, which felt like about 2:20am our time. We do not sleep well on planes, and this part is a bit of a beating. Thank goodness Martin had booked a driver recommended by our VRBO.com rental agent, to pick us up at the airport. We had learned from our London experience that this is money well spent. There is nothing worse than trying to manipulate a foreign city, metro or subway system, while dragging 4 suitcases, 4 carryon bags, and 2 kids behind you; all while in a jet lagged fog. Our driver spoke great English, loaded our suitcases, and saved us loads of time and walking; much less the agony of processing French and a subway system in a foggy state of mind. Also, the stairwell of the apartment was extremely narrow, and about three flights, so it was nice to have another guy to help haul up luggage; elevators are scarce in European buildings. I highly recommend asking your rental company for a driver recommendation if you’re traveling abroad. He was also a fun and willing guinea pig for our French skills. 😉

               We headed to our apartment- which was booked through VRBO.com. It was listing #139630. This rental apartment was a 2 bedroom with 1.5 bathrooms (2 showers, 2 sinks, 1 toilet closet), a living room, and a small kitchen that was equipped with all modern conveniences except an oven. We made do without the oven, just fine. It was perfectly located in the 6^th arrondissement of central Paris on the Rue Saint Germain des Pres. This is a main street in Paris, but that afforded us the convenience of plenty of shops, a grocery store, and a metro stop just a couple blocks away. The double pane windows helped buffer the street noise, and if you’re going in the winter, this would be something to check for. If you’re going in summer, most units do not have AC, so you will have to open the windows to the street traffic. Security was good- even though our apartment was literally on a main street between a restaurant and a boutique- we felt very safe because we had to use a key remote to get in the first door, and use it again to get into the second door in the hallway before climbing the stairs to our apartment. 

If you are going to “travel like a local” then you really do need to take care in researching the location of your rental for safety, as well as walking distance grocery stores. Nothing is worse than carrying bags of groceries for blocks. Except of course, the aforementioned 8 bags coming from the airport with kids in tow. We were able to secure a better rate on this rental because of some work that was being done on the façade of the building. We were pre-advised by the owner that this was going to be the case. We quickly learned that the French work day started promptly at 7:50-8am, but also ended just as promptly sometime around or before 5 (we were not always there to know). Since most of our day was spent sight-seeing, it was not an issue, but it is something to consider if there will be construction going on near or at your rental (which seemed to be the case in a lot of Paris). They did work on Saturday morning, as well.

Tip: To get an idea of your rental’s safety, convenience, and even the construction situation- jump over to google earth and plug in the address for your rental and take a look around the nearby streets. You may have to contact the rental company or owner to get the address as VRBO does not provide that information on the website until after it is booked.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a box of Julhes Parisian chocolates and a bottle of wine greeting us at the apartment; as well as a booklet to familiarize ourselves with the idiosyncrasies of the rental, instructions on how to work equipment, and wi-fi instructions and troubleshooting (which we did end up needing as this was our only challenge). We also found that this rental was well stocked with paper towels, toilet paper, soap, even laundry detergent, fabric softener, and dish detergents- this was a nice surprise since some rentals we've stayed in do not provide all of that beyond the initial start up supply. We really did feel that Ala Carte rentals thought of everything we would need. 

There was a grocery store about two blocks away- the Monoprix, which you will find all over Paris. These stores have everything from women’s clothing, children’s clothing, a Starbucks, a bakery, toiletries, all in addition to a well-stocked market and grocery area. They do have rotisserie chickens, an extensive meat and cheese counter, and sushi as well. We found that the produce tended to be less expensive than the US, while the meats- poultry, lunch meats, etc. were more expensive. We did bring some things from home, and packed in our suitcases- based on our experiences in London. We brought pre-packaged almonds and cashews, kids snacks (if it will smoosh, then put in hard plastic school boxes), paper plates and napkins (short supply and really expensive in Europe), plastic cutlery for potential picnics (our weather did not comply- but good to know for summer); as well as a cooler bag, Ziploc bags in sandwich, snack, and gallon size; and a collapsible grocery bag- as almost no one uses store bags in Europe. I would say the ziplocs bags and the grocery bags received the most use on our trip. I carried the collapsible zipped up grocery bag in my cross body purse each day, and we used it almost every single day. 

For lunch the first day, we picked up some prepared foods from the Monoprix- pasta salad, olives, wraps and sandwiches. This allowed us all to eat at our leisure- before or after our naps; C did not make it very long and napped first. That night for dinner- we ventured back and since we were feeling more refreshed- we picked up chicken, pasta, pesto sauce, cheese, salad and bread to make an actual meal.

This is all we did the first day. If you are traveling internationally with children, and there is a significant time change, I do not recommend planning anything for your first day- if you can help it. We’ve done this on all three international trips we’ve taken across the pond, and it has worked well in all cases. We usually land, head to our location, eat, and then nap and then take the rest of the day easy until the proper bed time. I find this is the best way to avoid grumpy, tired "family drama". If we feel good and want to go out after our nap, then we do- but we keep the expectations at zero so that no one is grumpy or disappointed.

Additional jet lag tips- drink lots and lots of water; pop a vitamin C/Zinc supplement to combat anything that might haunt you from the recycled air on the plane.

Experienced travelers, what do you do your first day to combat jet lag? I look forward to sharing Day 2 with you tomorrow, and we'll get into even more details about the sites we visited, with tips and tricks for when you go!