"My mother is French and was born in Paris, so both growing up and as an adult I have often travelled to Paris – with family, my husband, honeymooning and also for work, but this time it was extra special to bring Lilou to experience the city.
It was icing on the cake that the weather at the beginning of October was so warm and sunny with up to 29 degrees it felt like summer."
"We stayed in the Marais right across the street from Place des Vosges, where my grandfather has a very charming Parisian apartment that we always stay in.
It was a different trip this time travelling with a 5-year-old. This meant visiting several children's stores such as Bonton, Petit Bateau, and Bonpoint, and small cute children's toy and book stores, as well as playgrounds.
We did pastry stops and take-out during the night, which was all so fun and cosy to do while exploring the city. I’m 6 months pregnant with my third child, so I was also tired like Lilou during the night from all the walking and enjoyed a long bath followed by eating dinner at home in pyjamas and going to bed early."
"It turns out that Paris has a lot of good playgrounds hidden in different parks such as Jardin De Luxembourg, where we found a fun and pretty playground.
We also went on a canal tour starting from Pont Neuf that took an hour. It was a good way to show Lilou all the beautiful historical bridges, buildings, museums and churches, such as Notre Dame, Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Petit Palais, The Eiffel Tower and much more.It is also a good way to get a little break from all the walking.
We picked up coffee and macarons from La Durée for the boat tour."
"We all know that Paris is the city where you can eat so many delicious meals and really indulge in many sweets, so we combined that with also visiting a favourite health café – Wild and The Moon. There, we started the day with a solid and healthy porridge, matcha and juices.
Luckily Lilou loves food and likes to eat out at restaurants, so I can bring her to many places, but I still usually bring some kind of activity for her such as cards, books and drawing pencils."
"A local Marais favourite is getting coffee from White Coffee.
There are also several good ice cream shops, one of them is Amorino, which uses organic ingredients."
