Traveling Wild: Visiting Champagne

Visiting Champagne!

I've wanted to visit the Champagne region for a while. Sparkling wine is one of my most favorite alcoholic beverages. It's just so tasty! But only sparkling wine made in this region can actually be called champagne--and it's known as the best in the world. So when we had the chance to take a day trip to the area with Stacy and Jason, you better believe we signed on for that. Plus we got to go by train, which is always fun.

Wilder's first train ride

The very beginning of Wilder's love affair with trains. 

Wilder was not yet the train fanatic he is now, but he still thought the train was really cool. More about train travel in another post. This ride on the TGV was short--only 45 minutes--and it was a scenic trip. When we got to Reims, we picked up some croissants (definitely want to carb up before visiting wineries!) and joined our tour guide Cris at the van. We reserved a car seat for Wilder in the van and off we went to the town of Hautvillers.

vineyards

like a painting

learning about champagne

Wilder liked the vaulted ceiling

The bottles have to be turned so precisely, twice a day.

The church in Hautvilliers, where Dom Perignon is buried.

doll baby in the church

little angel

sorry last one. So cute!

beautiful vineyard

Cheesin'

The crew!

We learned about Dom Perignon--a monk that was influential in improving champagne (who knew!?), and we got to see the church where he was buries. We saw the vineyards for Moet & Chandon (my favorite), and we learned about the process of making champagne. There is SO much to the process--it was fascinating! After just a few minutes in the van, we arrived at the first of two champagne houses: Ferrand Lemaire. We tried several brut champagnes, and they were delicious! I was worried about Wilder missing his naps on this day trip, but he napped for 90 minutes while I wore him in my Tula in the morning.

babywearing - handy for nap time!

Next, we went to J.M Gobillard & Fils  and tried a bunch more samples of champagne. It was all good. After that stop, we headed back to the train station and were home in time for Wilder to take his afternoon nap. It was such a pleasant excursion, and we came back with LOTS of delicious champagne to enjoy the rest of the trip.

magnums o' champagne

There are a lot of wineries in the Champagne region - if you get the chance to go, I would definitely recommend our tour guide Cris Event to help you navigate winery tours. He did a great job!

Traveling Wild: Exploring the Paris Market

Marche Presidente Wilson

Today I'm going to talk about one of my favorite parts of traveling: FOOD! Prior to having Wilder, when we traveled, we ate out every meal, unless we saved leftovers or something. But eating out with a baby can be challenging, and we knew going to France and Italy that meals would be much more leisurely. If you have kids, you know that there's an invisible timer that turns on when you arrive at a restaurant, counting down until your child is D.O.N.E. and you will have to leave. Most of the time, Zach and I eat at home with our kids. If we eat restaurant food, it's usually takeout.

When you're traveling, eating out is often your only means of getting food. But if you stay with friends, or in an airBNB flat (more on that in another post) you have the luxury of a kitchen and dining area. We learned on this trip that, just like eating at local restaurants, visiting local markets is an excellent way to get to know the region. In fact, I think I can now say that visiting markets is my favorite way to get to know an area!

From the supermarket, with the variety of food and interesting packaged foods (Nutella!) to small shops where you can grab a pastry and coffee or snacks, to the incredible Marche President Wilson (market) that we visited twice on this trip--each market offered its own special allure. The market we visited in the 16th arrondissement (near Trocadero) was a dazzling experience for the senses: brightly colored flowers, neatly arranged fruits, aromatic herbs, juicy rotisserie chicken with potatoes (a MUST try), tantalizing cooked food from all over the world, fresh meat and seafood, spices and even some clothes and such. If you're a food lover, you really need to visit the market. So many vendors were excited about their wares. We met a salt vendor that told us exactly which salt to use for which dish, when to apply it and how much. I came home with several kinds of salt with a little wooden spoon and I use it in my cooking all the time. It always reminds me of France!

mushrooms!

Here's the salt guy- what a character!

I don't know what this is, but it sure was pretty.

Crepes!

Pretty flowers

Hello fishie!

SCALLOPS OMG

Bass!

The vendors will clean your fish for you. Thank goodness!

I've been told that there is some kind of market just about every morning, all over Paris. I actually went looking online to find the name of the market we went to and discovered dozens, in just the neighborhood where we were staying! Check out this website for a list of markets. I can't recommend visiting a market enough!

I'd say the experience of relaxing in a French flat with friends and family, good food and good wine can rival the stress that eating out with a baby can bring. It's good to do both, but this was really our first trip to cook so much in-house.

Here are some of the meals the four of us cooked at the Gulledge's flat in Paris.

Hazelnut crusted fish with olive oil mashed potatoes and mushrooms Stacy and Jason picked on a mushroom hunt in the country. We also had eclairs and champagne!

Pork loin wrapped with bacon, haricot vert.

Those scallops!

The bass and more haricot vert. We had a sumptuous meal with the scallops as appetizer and more champagne!

Next post I'll talk about our day trip to Champagne!

Traveling Wild: Adjusting to Jet Lag

ZOMG IT'S THE EIFFEL TOWER! This is a few minutes from Stacy and Jason's flat!

Our first day with Wilder in Paris was pretty uneventful. We arrived at Stacy and Jason's flat in Trocadero around noon, had lunch and Wilder went down for a nap. When he got up, we went for a walk in Paris! 

We went to the local market and picked up things for dinner. We went to Passy Plaza and visited a toy store, a Monoprix supermarket and an eclair shop, where we got some of these beautiful goodies.

eclairs like you've never seen!

Not your average cheese selection

We came back, gave Wilder some dinner and he was out like a light! We enjoyed a nice meal at the flat with Stacy and Jason, finished off with the eclairs. After turning in for the night, Zach and I looked forward to finally resting.

Perfect little sleeper...

Ha!

Our usual way of dealing with jet lag going to Europe is as follows: stay up late the night before packing. Turn our clocks to Europe time when we get on the plane and go to sleep when it's night in Europe while on the plane. Wake up on Europe time, be tired for the day (NO NAPS) but stay up till a reasonable bed time. Sleep well, wake up and no jet lag by the second day.

What happens with a baby is completely different. We stayed up late packing, got on the plane and didn't sleep well (if at all) because of the baby. Powered through that first day (though we took a nap, oops!), went to bed at a reasonable hour and... at about midnight, Wilder was up. It's morning back home! He's wide awake. Party time! No sleeping! It took two hours to get him to go back to sleep that first night. I rocked and nursed. Nursed and rocked. My arms wanted to fall off. Eventually he did go back to sleep. I got up early to go to a meeting with Stacy, and I was so tired! Wilder slept in till nearly lunch.

After lunch at the flat we visited the Left Bank. 

We got hot chocolate and did a little window shopping and partook of some STRONG coffee. Thank goodness!

Nectar of the gods

Traveling Wild is so stylin in his baby Ray Bans

The highlight of that second day was visiting Shakespeare & Co. A famous bookstore frequented by such literary greats as J. Fitzgerald Scott and Ernest Hemingway. 

It was crammed full of all kinds of books. I bought A Moveable Feast by Hemingway, just because it seemed fitting. We stopped at two more dessert places (tired parents love sugar!) before heading home. Wilder was so very tired, but he was a little trooper. He went down for a late nap and we made another delicious dinner at the flat.

That evening, again, Wilder was up in the middle of the night for two hours. We shared a room with Wilder for much of the trip, and the one benefit was being able to tag team trying to put him to sleep. The third night in Paris, it took Wilder three hours to go back to sleep in the middle of the night. I wish I was kidding. We tried everything. He napped fine during the day, but his little body was so confused by the time change. 

Luckily, by the fourth night, Wilder seemed to have adjusted to the change. I would like to say it's because of our mad parenting skills, but we didn't do anything. The main point I can share is that jet lag is no joke with kids. NO JOKE. It is hard to get over. Coming back to the US, he had much less trouble. I hear going west is easier. That could also be because he was in his own bed.

I don't have much advice, but here's some things we learned:

Jet Lag is Tough. If you are traveling with kids, be prepared for having a hard time adjusting to the time change. As parents, the whole staying up that first day technique doesn't work well when you might be up in the night. The really nice thing about having kids on a trip is built in down time thanks to naps. I would definitely recommend taking a short nap that first day. But short! Not lots of hours long! Just enough to recharge.

Put your family on the new schedule ASAP. I would also encourage you to do your best to eat at the right times for your new time zone and work on the right bedtime. You can't make a baby sleep when they're not sleepy, but you can encourage going to bed on time. Wilder was more than happy to nap, even in a new place. And if you baby wear or bring a stroller, they can nap. So middle of the night was our only issue.

Domestic travel is a bit easier, but still needs an adjustment. We have only experienced an hour or two time difference when it comes to domestic travel. Going west seemed to be easier than going east. Again, we tried to implement the new bedtime as soon as possible. Going west, we would let Wilder stay up a little later the first day or so since he wasn't tired yet.

Good luck, parents of kids! Actual travel and jet lag were the hardest parts of taking trips with Wilder. The rest was a lot easier to navigate!

Veteran travelers - do you have any tips for conquering jet lag?