A Q&A about our France Trip

Earlier this week, I shared our full France trip itinerary but there were MANY other questions about logistics and other things that they needed their own post! For everything from toiletries to rental cars, here’s everything to know about our France trip!

TRIP PLANNING & ITINERARY

How do you plan a trip like this? Do you use a travel agency?
We’ve never used a travel agency, although I’m not opposed and could see doing it the future. Bart mainly managed the planning of this trip. We started with our goals for the trip (Visit my parents, explore Southern France and enjoy the trip while avoiding running ragged) and then built out from there.

We decided on this trip that our goal was to get a little taste of a bunch of cities rather than spending the bulk of our time in one spot (like we did when we went to Paris a few years ago and spent most of a week in Paris with two day trips out to Versailles and Giverny).

How do you plan multiple city visits without it feeling overwhelming?
This is hard to say because what is overwhelming for one person isn’t overwhelming for someone else. So you have to decide what feels doable for you. For us, this itinerary felt manageable and we knew we wouldn’t see or do everything in each city, but instead get a little feel for each area.

How far in advance do you schedule places to stay and flights?
We booked our flights 5 or 6 months beforehand and then booked our hotels about a month before we left.

How much did you preplan stops on long drive days? How many hours is too much?
We didn’t plan our stops at all on our long driving days – we just figured we’d find a place to stop when we felt like it and it worked out fine. As far as how many hours is too much, it’ll just depend on your family. For us, a 2-4 hour drive was no big deal and one big 10 hour drive day was fine, especially when we had some audiobooks to listen to and a few travel activity books.

How do you plan enough (but not too much) for younger kids?
Our strategy is to always overplan options and then do what feels manageable. I’d rather say “let’s skip that and go back to the hotel” than be wandering around with no idea what to do with the rest of our day.

TRANSPORTATION (DRIVING, TRAINS, GETTING AROUND)

How was renting a car and driving in France?
We’ve rented a car and driven in lots of countries (England, Australia, Costa Rica, etc) and frankly, this was our most difficult by a mile. Our rental car got swiped by a van in Paris in the first hour of our trip (that was a really rough start!) and lots of places have the tiniest, tightest streets and parking, so it wasn’t very fun to drive in some areas. We also got an automated speeding ticket and there are a lot of tolls! Usually, I’d say “driving was no big deal” but it was definitely more of a deal on this trip.

How difficult is it to drive in a foreign country?
It really depends on the country. France was one of the least enjoyable for driving.

Would you feel comfortable driving if you don’t know French?
Yes – the language didn’t have anything to do with how tricky our driving in France was.

Why did you choose driving instead of taking the train?
With six of us, we would have spent WAY more money taking the trains from place to place plus we would have had much less flexibility. I think the train could have been fun (and we loved doing trains in Japan), but I don’t regret that we went the car route, even with the hiccups we had. And if you don’t want to drive, trains would be a great option.

What vehicle did you rent for your family and luggage?
We had a Skoda Kodiaq – it had seven seats but it was a TIGHT fit with our luggage. If we’d been using all seven seats, there is no way we could have fit.

Was it hard to find a car that fits a larger group?
No, there were plenty of rental options that fit 6 people.

Did you have a car to get to Èze, or did you take a train/bus?
We drove our rental car.

ACCOMMODATIONS

How do you find accommodations for your whole family?
We usually look at both hotel and AirBnb options and choose based on price and location. In this case, we ended up doing all hotels (which we booked through Hotels.com) because they were better options for us on this particular trip.

How do you find food?
We had a few planned meals for this trip, but generally we hit up a bakery and fruit stand for breakfast and just search nearby on Google for something that looks good and has high reviews.

What hotel did you stay at in Nice?
We stayed at the Nice Centre Hotel which was very nice – we booked 2 Junior Suites and that was the nicest room we stayed in the whole trip. (There was a mixup with our booking and so they had to downgrade one of the rooms to a triple room which wasn’t nearly as nice).

What should you expect to pay for family lodging?
I’m sure it will vary by season, but we paid around $150-$250 per night, per room (and we had two hotel rooms every night).

BUDGET & AFFORDABILITY

How much did you budget for the trip?
I need to go do a perfect tally now that we’re home, but my back-of-the-napkin estimate is that it was about $8500-$9000.

How affordable is this type of trip?
I think with almost every trip you can make a lot of adjustments that move the price up or down. We could have done cheaper flights but we optimized for direct flights. We could have packed more of our own meals and eaten out less and stayed in cheaper lodgings.

How do you afford travel and get the time off?
One thing to keep in mind is that we’re in both in our 40s and we’ve both been working for 20 years, so our financial situation is significantly different than it was even 5-7 years ago. And travel is our biggest splurge – it’s where we care the most about spending our money.

We also are both self-employed so we have a lot of flexibility for traveling (again, not something we’ve always had!)

What are things you have to pay for that you wouldn’t in the U.S.?
SO many toll roads.

PACKING & CLOTHING

What did you pack? What outfits did you wear?
I just did a full post about what I wore each day on our trip here!

What have you worn over and over?
These chambray pants, this lilac cashmere cardigan, my Nike sneakers, and my beloved Cole Haan sandals (which are long ago discontinued but this pair is very similar).

What size do you wear in the linen J.Crew pants?
Size 0 (my normal size) and in a regular length (I’m just shy of 5’4″)

With limited clothing, how do you wash clothes?
I didn’t feel like I had limited clothing at all – in fact, I came home with a pair of pants I never touched and 2 tops I didn’t wear, plus a couple of extra pairs of underwear and socks. And I could have easily gone another 5 days of outfits with the clothes I did wear, just wearing them in new combinations.

Do you do laundry while traveling?
Sometimes! We didn’t on this trip, but we did on our Australia trip.

Do you stay in hotels with laundry service?
I think most hotels have laundry service but we never use them. We didn’t do laundry at all on this trip and if we had needed to, we would have gone to a laundromat instead which would have been way cheaper.

How do you manage toiletries with only a carry-on?
I didn’t do just a carry-on this time (and we actually checked all our luggage, including the girls’ four carry on suitcases because it was a direct flight, we each had a free checked bag and it felt great not to deal with them going through security). But when I do need a carry-on bag, I just bring small amounts of my toiletries or travel size versions. I actually only had one thing (this body SPF) that couldn’t have gone through in a carry-on.

Did you use the “sudoku” packing method? How did it work?
It helped me think about my clothing choices when I packed, but I didn’t do a true sudoku method. I wanted more clothing options than that, but I did feel like almost everything mixed and matched really well so I could have done many many outfit combinations.

BEAUTY, HAIR & ROUTINE

How do you do your hair while traveling? Did you bring tools?
I do my hair the same as I do at home – I brought my curling iron and my volumizer.

For a red-eye flight, do you wash your face on the plane? Do skincare/makeup after landing?
I did my makeup as normal on Thursday morning and then just left it on for our flight (which left at around 3pm). I didn’t wash my face until we went to bed the following day in Versailles. This makeup setting spray helps everything stay on really well, even with my travel pillow that covers my eyes. I felt like my makeup still looked 90% as good all those hours of travel later.

FOOD & DINING

Do you need reservations at most restaurants?
Mostly no. We made reservations at Brasserie L’Ouest in Lyon (which I don’t think we needed) and for Les Ambassadeurs in Monte Carlo which I think we definitely did. Other than that, we just walked in everywhere else and never got turned away. This might be different in peak season.

Any tips for eating at restaurants with kids?
We try to do a mix of restaurants that are more us oriented and ones that are more kid oriented, with the expectation that we all are accommodating to each other. We often order family style so there are several things to choose from and we usually stop at a grocery store most days to pick up things our kids will like – fruit, yogurt, bread, etc.

Food options for picky eaters?
I think France is pretty easy – grocery stores everywhere with plenty of breads, yogurt, fruit, crackers, chips, cheese, etc. And many places had a kids menu with familiar favorites. I have some more tips for dealing with picky eaters on vacation here.

How do you eat healthy while traveling and not overdo it?
At this point in my life, I feel like my body is very clear that it does not want to be eating a lot of sugar. I ate a few treats that really appealed to me (like an incredibly good rhubarb tart in Avignon) but I didn’t eat very many treats. I had no sweet crepes and no gelato on this trip because I just didn’t feel like eating them. And then I try to pick high protein and fiber options as much as possible.

TRAVELING WITH KIDS

Did the trip feel kid-friendly?
Yes! I think there are lots of variations of what people mean when they say “kid-friendly” but for us, this was a really fun, trip with our kids.

Is traveling in Europe unrealistic with three kids under five?
I haven’t done it with three kids under five, but we traveled all over Europe in 2014 with two kids under five and I was pregnant with our third. And it was so fun!

How do you keep your youngest child entertained?
Our kids are very familiar with our style of traveling, so they’re anticipating lots of walking and lots of exploring. We definitely stop at playgrounds, skip rocks in the water, stop for snacks, and play word or trivia games as we go.

Do your kids get car sickness?
My oldest gets pretty car sick if she looks at a screen too much, but everyone else is generally okay.

How do you help kids on a 13-hour flight?
My kids have always been good on airplanes – I think it’s a pretty fun novel experience to have your own TV, hours to watch shows, snacks and soda brought around, and no expectations. We usually pack audiobooks and Kindles and a small game or two, but mostly they just watch shows or sleep.

LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION

Do you speak French?
Not at all. I know maybe 5 words in French and I’m very self-conscious about my pronunciation. Bart speaks a little French from his high school and college days.

Do you feel like you can get around without knowing French?
100%. So so so many people speak English and with a translate app, you can make do even if they don’t.

What apps or tips help with language barriers?
We like the Google app where you can take a picture of a sign or menu or label and it’ll translate it for you.

Is it hard to order in restaurants without French?
Nope. Easy – just use a translate app to read the menu and then point at what you want.

How difficult was the language barrier overall?
I’d say a 2 out of 10. Maybe a 1? It really was a non-issue.

SAFETY & COMFORT

Have you felt safe, or were there places you felt more cautious?
It all felt quite safe – I never really felt uncomfortable, even very late at night. We are always cautious and alert, but everywhere we went felt safer to me than, say, New York City.

Has Paris changed since you were last there—did you feel safe?
We were last in Paris in 2023 and we only were in Paris for about an hour this time for lunch, so I’m not an expert by any means. It felt pretty much the same to me.

Are French people as rude as people say?
No! I’m sure there are some bad apples (just like there are anywhere – have you ever been ANYWHERE that didn’t have some rude people?) but our experience in France every time has been that people are incredibly kind. For instance, when we went to get gelato in Nice on Sunday night (Easter), the young man working the counter came out to where we were sitting and gave each of us a little chocolate Easter egg and then joked and laughed with us for a few minutes. When we took our boat tour, the name of the boat was one of our daughter’s middle name and when Bart mentioned that to the ticket agent, she gave our daughter a little waterproof bag as a gift. Every single thing instance I can think of – from the hotel clerks to the wait staff at the restaurants to people at the museums or other tourist spots – the French people we interacted with were incredibly gracious and kind.

We also try to be very well-behaved and considerate and recognize that we are visitors in their country and city. I’m sure if you waltz in acting like entitled, arrogant, poorly behaved tourists, you might get some rudeness in return.

HEALTH & INSURANCE

Do you have travel health insurance (especially with kids/ER concerns)?
No, we never have. And even with my 11 year old ending up in the emergency room, I think it probably still was less than it would have been to buy travel insurance.

DAY-TO-DAY TRAVEL LOGISTICS

What daily bag/purse did you use? Did it feel secure?
This is the bag I’ve used on our last several trips and every day on this trip (my affiliate code is JANSSEN) and it is great and feels very secure.

Do you travel with supplements?
I always take my Seed probiotics when I travel (my affiliate code is JANSSEN25 if it’s still active) and I also always keep a bottle of this in my travel backpack.

DESTINATIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

What places were your favorites?
I think Avignon and Nice were my favorites. I also loved Eze!

How did you know to stop in Auxerre?
We just wanted to stop somewhere for dinner, so we looked on Google Maps what was ahead in the next hour or so and it popped up. Just a lucky stop! (SO cute!)

Would love your itinerary and must-see recommendations
I just shared that a few days ago – you can see it here!

MISC / PERSONAL

Are your parents on a mission there?
Yes – they are on a church service mission working as the directors of the Paris Temple Visitor Center.

I feel silly being a tourist—have you always felt comfortable traveling?
I definitely wouldn’t feel silly – people are traveling all the time! So many cities and spots depend on tourists and are built to accommodate them. I feel comfortable traveling because I’ve been traveling since I was a child.

How do you write blog posts while on vacation?
All of my blog posts that went up (and all of my Instagram reels except one) were written or filmed in advance so they could just go live on the correct dates. My goal is always to not have to work very much at all when we’re on vacation as a family!

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