Europe Holiday Imminent

Goodness.  This has really snuck up on me.  Next week, we're off on a holiday for three weeks, to Netherlands, France and a two-day stop in Kuala Lumpur on the way.

The Daddy's best friend Chris is Dutch, and has just had his first baby with his lovely partner Cyrelle.  Their little girl Neala was born in February, and we planned our visit even before she was born.  Then, we thought, if we are going to take the children on a plane trip all the way to Europe, we want to go somewhere else as well, but somewhere fairly laid back, so we added a week in Aix-en-Provence to the trip.  Then, we realised we would need to leave from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for the trip home, so we may as well spend a few days in Paris as well.  Then, after chatting to some friends who travel to Europe with children quite often, we decided to add a couple of days in KL on the way over, to break up the long flight and to help the kids adjust with the jet lag - and to catch up with friends of ours, who are popping over to visit from Singapore.  Coming home at the end, we elected not to stop over, merely spending 5 hours in KL, as we prefer to just 'push on' and collapse in a heap in the comfort of our own house at the end!

So, the trip is as follows:

Two days in KL, a week in Netherlands (in a small-ish town where our friends live), then fly down to Aix-en-Provence for a week, then catch the fast train up to Paris for three nights, then home.  Total of exactly three weeks, including travel time.

The weather will be lovely - mid 20s to mid 30s between NL and Aix - and our schedule is incredibly relaxed.  In the Netherlands, our plan is just to mooch around and enjoy spending time with our friends and their new baby, and Chris's three siblings and their total of ten children under six (yes, you read that right!).  Plenty of time for Tabitha to play with all the children, a good week to adjust to Euro time, and lots of Dutch food.

Once we are in Aix, we have similarly low-key plans.  We spent a little time in Aix on our honeymoon, and adored the town (it's a very pretty university town in the Provence region in the South of France).  Mostly, we will spend our week just wandering, eating and people-watching, though we are also hiring a car for a few days, to allow for day-trips to some of the local areas (considering St Tropez and / or Monaco via Nice).  My darling friend Shalini, who currently lives in London, is also coming down to Aix to stay with us for a few days, which will be fabulous!  Our apartment in Aix is right overlooking the old town square, where a divine farmers market is held a few times a week.  I cannot wait!

Up in Paris, we have an apartment in the 8th, walking distance from most of the things we want to do, so we will hopefully have a relatively calm few days in Paris.  A little shopping, some macarons, a trip up the Eiffel Tower at dusk.  Then home, with five hours in KL on the way back through (not too terrible, as we are flying Malaysia Airlines, and their gorgeous flagship Golden Lounge is in KL, so we can hopefully have some quiet time there, and it also has a wonderful kids corner with comfy chairs, art supplies, movies etc.)

What am I looking forward to?  Spending quality time with the family, especially The Daddy, seeing our friends' new baby, buying some gorgeous boys' clothes for Zach in Paris (no one does boys' clothing like the French!), strolling around the food markets in Aix, watching the children splash around in the waters of St Tropez.

What am I dreading?  The packing (I've been working on our packing list for months and I'm still tweaking it!), having the children on several long flights (mostly night flights, praying hard that they sleep), the possible jetlag leading the 4am wakeups for everyone for the first week.

If you follow the 'travel' tags on this blog, you'll find some of my musings after our month-long American trip when Tabitha was 10-11 months old, including packing lists.  I'll write some similar posts after this trip, including our experience of travel with two children this time.  

We are not taking my beloved Bugaboo Donkey pram, sadly - we decided it was too large to lug around, considering we are moving around a fair bit - opting instead for a lightweight Maclaren umbrella stroller with a scooter-board.  So, Zach can be in the stroller with Tabitha riding along on the scooter, or Zach can be in the wrap or Manduca carrier with Tabitha in the stroller.

On our US trip when Tabitha was small, most days our days went as follows:  Awake, go for an early walk (with breakfast, coffee, a quick play in a park), then come home for the morning nap.  We would then go out for the rest of the day, letting Tabitha have her afternoon naps in the carrier.  This meant we could go out for lunch, do an activity in the afternoon, have an early dinner, then be home in time for bed.  We found this worked really well - her morning nap was time for her to properly rest, and for The Daddy and I to rest, and plan our days.  We then had ample time to get out for the rest of the day.  Honestly, it was probably much more relaxing and sensible that cramming so much into every day, as we were inclined to do when we travelled before kids!  Spending time each day at local parks is also a lovely feature of travel with kids - you get to meet local families, as well as 'stopping to smell the roses', so to speak.  Also, it was on one of our early-morning park trips in New York with Tabitha that we got to play with Hugh Jackman's beautiful French Bulldog Peaches!

Any questions or requests?  Advice?  Warnings?!