“Paris? With three kids?”

Over the last year the children have started to learn French. We have also tried to learn something of France: some geography, history, art and culture.  We have enjoyed some wonderful picture books and fiction set in France.  I love good books! So this summer we spent three nights introducing them to this beautiful city.

Our days were kept simple with one thing in the morning and another in the afternoon, leaving room for some downtime back at our Airbnb flat in between. In the evenings we read The Phantom of the Opera adapted by Catherine Washbourne set in the Opera House and The Mystery of the Mona Lisa by Pat Hutchins, which added to the fun.

In our short time we enjoyed a stroll up the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, crêpes, a tourist bus tour with earphone commentary, pains au chocolat, the outside of the Louvre, inside the Musée d’Orsay, the Jardins de Tuilleries, the Eiffel Tower and of course daily trips to the boulangerie on our street.  Our lessons came alive to them.

Their journey with this beautiful language and country has begun.

It was a magical time!

Books set in Paris that we have enjoyed:

Ludwig Bemelmans, Madeline

Miroslav Sasek, This is Paris

Isabelle Pellegrini, Marie de Paris

Catherine Washbourne, The Phantom of the Opera

Pat Hutchins, The Mystery of the Mona Lisa

Beatrice Allemagne, A Lion in Paris

Eve Titus, Anatole

Susanna Reich, Minette’s Feast