The kids had been demanding to see Disney; my husband and I didn't want to.
But finally we came up with a compromise. We'd go to France for a week, spend three days in Paris, two days at Disneyland Paris, and one day in Provence.
I don't care what the corporate bean-counters at Euro Disney say about profitability; we had a great time–grown-ups included.
And the kids even liked Paris. The little one, then 4 and still demanding to be carried on occasion, gleefully ran up all the steps at the Eiffel Tower. And when we asked him why he thought the Mona Lisa was smiling, he said, "Because she knows she's special." Our plan of making everyone in the family happy was working.
We spent our first two nights in Paris with friends who live there, and when we told them of the third component of our trip–spending a day in Provence–they thought we were out of our minds. After all, spending just one day in Provence while you're vacationing in Paris is like traveling to Washington for a day if you're vacationing in Boston.
The difference, from our point of view, was the speed of the trains. Thanks to the TGV–Train a Grande Vitesse or high-speed–train, you can get up at the crack of dawn, be in Provence by late morning, spend the day there and be back in Paris before midnight.
But it was the response of our friends' teenage son that we found the most puzzling. "Ils sont comme les Japonais!" he said derisively about us, after learning of our proposed day trip–"They are like the Japanese!"
We didn't dwell on what that might mean, but went ahead with our plans. The train sped through the countryside so fast that the scenery was literally a blur. We arrived in a small town with cobblestone streets, a charming carousel in the public square and a cafe across from the station where we feasted on fish soup and bread. We walked to a coliseum built by the Romans that is still used for bullfights, and then headed to our other must-see–an ancient aqueduct called the Pont du Gard, in Nimes, considered an engineering marvel.
We took a local bus, taking in the lovely scenery–fields of olive trees and sunflowers, right out of a Van Gogh painting–along our route, then walked a short distance from the bus stop to the magnificent stone structure we'd come to see.
We'd been feeling rather proud of ourselves for finding our way here–making the trip from Paris on the train, and then on the bus, and then on foot. But as the Pont du Gard came into view, so did something else. There was a crowd of several dozen camera-wielding Japanese tourists.
Our friend's teenager was right. "It's true," my son said, "we are just like the Japanese. But how did he know they would be here?"
I shrugged. Then, in a gesture of solidarity with our newfound brethren, I took out my camera and started taking pictures.
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This week's advice: If you're planning a trip to see museums, historic sites and other places that may not be particularly appealing to children, make sure to create an itinerary with something special for them. Seek out playgrounds near museums. Let them run around on the grounds of public spaces. Make a game of running up stairs. Promise them ice cream or hot chocolate after a guided tour of an old house, or play "I Spy," looking for gargoyles or other unusual architectural features. And if you can set aside one day of your trip for an amusement park or other child-friendly destination, the vacation will be remembered as a lot of fun by everyone.
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