My trip to Paris
By Olivia Hope Johnson Simmons
Day One – The Journey
Hi, my name is Olivia and I would like to tell you about my very first trip… to Paris, France. It all started when I decided to give my Daddy a gift certificate for a mini break as a Father’s Day present. Mommy and Daddy did a lot of research on their computers and decided we should go to Paris.
My sister Rachael just graduated from university, so Daddy wanted to give her a present too, so he invited her and her fiancé Ben to join us. This was a very good idea because Rachael is very good at speaking French and Ben is very good at carrying heavy things, such as 18 pound babies, and best of all with a 4:1 adult to baby ratio, more people to play with me.
The morning we left was very busy while Mommy and Daddy were trying to pack. First a lady came who is helping us move our stuff to Seattle, then while she was there more people showed up unannounced to look at the house because the landlord is selling it. This all seemed quite stressful for Mommy and Daddy but didn’t affect me too much because I just played with Rachael while all this was going on.
We took the bus and train to the airport and I rode in my Danish pram there. When we got there, however, there seemed to be a problem with my infant ticket. Mommy and Daddy had to go to another line to get a special ticket for me.
My Daddy travels quite a lot with his job, so he has an SAS gold card. This meant we got to go through a special security with no line up, and then we got to go to the VIP lounge for snacks and refreshments. Everyone enjoyed this perk.
After enjoying the lounge we boarded the plane. Mommy was disappointed that they didn’t pre board families travelling with infants. On the plane, I was seated on Daddy’s lap between Mommy and Rachael. (Ben was upgraded to Business class because he is very tall). The flight attendant brought a mini seatbelt for me, which tied around Daddy’s seatbelt. The flight to Paris was fun and I didn’t cry at all.
To get to the hotel, we took the metro. The public transportation in Paris isn’t like Copenhagen. There aren’t special spaces for bikes and prams, so I had to be carried. I didn’t like the Paris trains so much… it was too hot, and the doors close too fast, we almost lost Daddy. When we got to our stop I was happy to get off the train and back into my pram.
Day Two – The Louvre and the Seine
We all got up quite early so we could get to the meeting point of our walking tour of the Louvre on time. After a breakfast of croissants and baguettes we got on the bus and headed for the Louvre, which is one of the biggest Art Museums in the world.
I started off the tour with Mommy in the ergo carrier, but after a while I got too hot so she had to carry me. Then I got too heavy and Daddy had to carry me. It’s good to have four grown-ups available to carry you around. We saw lots of beautiful statues and paintings, such as the Venus di Milo, the Mona Lisa and sculptures by Michelangelo. There were lots of statues and paintings of cupids which Mommy and Daddy thought looked like me. Everyone really enjoyed the tour. After we were done Mommy, Rachael and Ben went shopping in the bookstore, while I stayed and had coffee with Daddy.
Next we headed down towards the Seine. Our hotel had given us free tickets for the Bateaux Mouche boats. These boats are much larger versions of the smaller flat boat I went on in Copenhagen a few days before. We saw many sites, the Louvre again, Notre Dame Cathedral and of course, the Eifel tower.
After the boat ride we went back to the hotel, to get ready for dinner. Mommy put me in the ergo carrier for the walk to dinner and I fell asleep. I stayed asleep all through dinner and the walk home, and then when we got back they put me in the pram and I slept until 7 the next morning. That is the longest amount of time I have slept in a row in my whole life. Touring around Paris really wore me out.
Day Three - Notre Dame and Home
Again, we started the day with croissants and baguettes, then got on the Metro to Notre Dame which is a huge cathedral. It was very beautiful inside but also very hot. After that, we had lunch in a café, and Mommy bought me a souvenir pink onesie, that said Paris je t’aime.
After that we had to start making our way back to the hotel, then on to the airport. Again I found the metro ride too hot and was happy to get off and into the SAS Gold lounge. On the flight home they let us get on the plane first, and this time I sat on Mommy’s lap and slept the whole way home.
When we got to Copenhagen, we got to ride in a little car through the airport to get our luggage instead of walking. Mommy and Daddy really appreciated this. It was nice to be back in the Danish transit system where I could ride comfortably in my pram. When we got home Daddy realized that he had forgotten his suitcase at the bus stop. He took a taxi back and fortunately, it was still there. That night I slept straight through to 8:00am.
I really enjoyed my trip to Paris and look forward to more travelling in the future.
