I am woefully tardy on this update, but here goes, because late is better than never, right?
So, about Paris. It was grand. But you knew I was going to say that. Because who DOESN’T like Paris? Oh, I’m sure there are a few people out there, but it’s hard NOT to appreciate a city so steeped in both history and beauty. This was Nia’s kind of city. There were:
- museums galore, all with predominant sections dedicated to Greek and Roman Mythology (I can’t tell you how many hours I spent standing in front of paintings or sculptures while she spelled out in great detail which God was featured and what story was being played out),
- pastries and macarons on every corner,
- and eye-catching architecture as far as the eye could see.
Within hours of arrival she declared, “I’m going to live here someday.” And I have no doubt she will. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if she ended up in Athens, Paris or Rome for University studying art, history or archeology.
Her endurance was impressive too. A typical day for us included 1 or 2 museums, a non-museum attraction (like the Eiffel tower or a boat cruise or a cooking class) and anywhere from 15 to 20,000 steps. I realized early on that I was no match for her. I vividly remember begging her to go home at 9 PM on our second-to-last night. We had done a six-hour day trip, come home for a quick dinner, and then had to skedaddle to make our 6:30 PM entry time for the Louvre. By 9 PM (after two and a half hours in) I was wiped and desperately wanted to go home. She wanted to stay all the way until closing at 10 and just do “one more wing”. As if “one more wing” is no big undertaking in a museum with 32,000 pieces of art! I managed to wear her down, but made a mental note of this moment when I was no longer able to keep pace with my own daughter. Her attention span and endurance were notably impressive on this trip.
This was also a milestone trip for me in that it was the first time I’d taken Nia to a foreign country without Nick. Nia and I had previously done a trip by ourselves within India and we’ve made several treks from our foreign homes back to the U.S. But this felt different, and the tension definitely wore on me at times.
Customs was confusing to navigate because of the whole E.U./Schengen thing and we got yelled at in both France and Germany for doing it wrong.
Ground transportation was also bizarrely complicated and required the purchase of a transportation card. There were three kinds of transport—bus, metro and R.E.R. (a regional longer-distance train). You could transfer bus to bus for the cost of one trip. And metro to metro or R.E.R. (in specific zones) would also not cost extra. But if you messed up and did bus to R.E.R. or metro or vice versa, then your trip cost twice as much!
And that doesn’t even factor in the issue that caused me the most grief, which was procuring special “paper” tickets for longer trips to Versailles and the Airport. Even the locals couldn’t seem to help me with that one, so we lost several hours in queues getting tickets from humans.
Additionally, our renovated apartment was in a very old building with its fair share of quirks. It was a new Airbnb, which probably explained how I got a place for under $150 a night in the 4th arrondissement. The first problem was the key—one of those old-fashioned skeleton types—which refused to give no matter how many times I turned or jiggled it. When my arthritic fingers couldn’t hack it anymore, I swallowed my pride and recruited the construction worker next door to help us (all with pantomime, mind you). Thankfully he got us in, but I was terrified to leave again for fear of being locked out. We eventually resolved the issue by getting a different key and a specific tutorial on how the lock worked.
That wasn’t all though. During our one-week stay we had no water at all for several hours, lost hot water for half a day, had a dishwasher that refused to work, a hot-water heater that made the sound of a gas stove lighting every 5-10 minutes, and radiators that, despite being turned down as low as possible, were still pumping out way too much heat. It was frustration after frustration and I had to keep reminding myself that these were the tradeoffs for a good deal in a perfect location. But still. It got old. I also had a revelation regarding how many of these stresses Nick shoulders for us when we travel, and what a burden that must be for him. I definitely need to start sharing that burden more, as it was truly exhausting being the “problem fixer” and he shouldn’t be the one always needing to clean up the messes.
All in all, it was a great mother-daughter bonding trip that stretched our comfort zones and taught us a few lessons that we’ll take with us for future travel.
