If you read our family travel blog, this posting will likely be redundant, but I wanted to add it because we used our trip to Paris as a very enriching afterschooling experience!
The Eiffel Tower at night. Sparkly and amazing!
As Americans living in Europe, we have the benefit of actually seeing sites that many kids can only dream of when they crack open their history books. Unfortunately, JillyBoo, at 5-years-old, isn't at the ideal age for explaining many of the more complicated issues of European history, but we try our best to help her to understand at an age-appropriate level.
Me and JillyBoo, standing in front of one of Paris' main displays of power and narcissism.
For example, how do you explain power, crazed and insane dictators, holocaust, invasions, the overwhelming presence of violence that accompanied religious fervor? Many of the ideas are, of course, way over JillyBoo's head, and likely, she'll never be old enough to visit these sites or really appreciate European history until after we leave Europe.
For now, we look for the opportunity to tie-in her learning to literary references. On a recent trip to Paris over the MLK, Jr. holiday, we were able to connect the stories of the spunky and precocious Madeline to the iconic sites of the City of Lights. JillyBoo is lucky enough to have 3 awesome grandmas, who enrich her life with visits, letters, phone calls and, of course, presents! This year, JillyBoo received an enormous collection of Madeline books, dolls and clothes. Perfect timing for our Paris trip!
We were able to score a cabin for our trip into Paris on the ICE train, a super-fast train that makes minimal stops, therefore allowing you to arrive at your destination in a timely manner. the train was moving, at times, at 300 km/hr!! Yikes! The cabin made it easy for us to listen to a little Jack Johnson on the iPad while working on reading, writing and playing on the table. We also viewed many of the flooded parts of the French/German border, the result of an unbelievably snowy winter.
In our cabin on the ICE train en route to Paris!!A huge bonus of a trip to Paris is the easy-to-use transportation system. Looking at the metro map provided opportunities to discuss mapping, directions, and relative locations. The map is easy enough for even mommy to read, and JillyBoo seemed to get the idea of an underground train-they are underground to save space for vehicle transportation.
On our first day, I was able to pull out our Madeline book on our visit to the Eiffel Tower. What an incredible piece of engineering! We talked a little about the World Fair, about Eiffel, the man, and his persistence and vision. From the Tower, you can see many of the Madeline sites, which have little context from that height unless you have the Madeline book with you. Luckily, Ludwig Bemelmans thought to put a handy listing of the sites featured in the illustrations in the back of the book (thank you, author!). I was able to point out Les Invalides' shiny golden dome, the Tuileries Garden and La Place de la Concorde. For some fun an inexplicable (to me, anyways) reason, there is a room with pink windows on one of the lower levels, so we had to check out Paris in pink!
La Vie en Rose. Live from the pink room on the Eiffel Tower
Besides La Tour Eiffel, we visited the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre and all of its outstanding historical artifacts and Notre Dame cathedral. As much as I'd like to elaborate on those educational sites, a short, blonde JillyBoo is clamboring for my attention!
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