January 2014

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TRAVEL
236 January14
buy a box of these colourful pastries.
After years of arduous research, our
family vote is with Pierre Hermé and
the Mogador flavour (passionfruit and
milk chocolate).
Apart from devouring macaroons
in the playground, there is another
child-friendly way to savour French
cuisine – a picnic. While you could
easily fill your basket at the food hall
of department store Bon Marché,
practising your French at fromageries
and flirting with the fruit seller should be
part of the Parisian picnic. But to do this
accompanied with two impatient boys
diminishes the fun factor – even in Paris.
The solution? Do a parents-only
food tour. The Eiffel Tower Food Tour
with the Localers is like shopping with
your local friend; if your Parisian friend
happens to be a very knowledgeable,
well-connected chef who lives in the
glamorous 7th arrondissement near
the Eiffel Tower. Armed with our new
introductions, and our taste buds still
tingling from the samples of the day
before, we were able to return with
the boys, impress them with our quick
purchases and put together a delicious
picnic spread. Everyone happy.
Another way to keep everyone happy
is with an English-speaking babysitter
(see ). She
enabled the boys to have a “rest”
morning with their gadgets at the hotel
while we went on the food tour.
If we had wanted to dine at one of
our favourite restaurants sans enfants,
we could have also used her services.
Instead, we opted for another strategy –
lunch. Fashionable French restaurants
exercise a greater tolerance of kids (and
their iDevices) if you book for lunch. With
its courtyard setting lifted straight from
a villa in Provence, Ralph’s on the Left
Bank is still one of the hottest places
in Paris. But the lunchtime reservation
and menu featuring one of the world’s
best hamburgers gave all the family a
highlight Parisian experience.
Paris is a perfect city for walking
and our long relationship means
that I navigated the family around its
avenues or used the Métro with only
the occasional misfire. More importantly,
I was attuned to the signals from my
younger companions that sometimes it
was necessary to surrender and find a
taxi stand. Like all good relationships, a
city break with kids requires compromise
and consideration of all parties’ needs.
It is a complex chemical equation. If my
grown-up boys want to accompany me
andmy walking stick tomy beloved Paris
in the future, I’ll know I got that magical
equation right.
Recommendations
Musée d’Orsay |
Eiffel Tower |
Parc du Champ de Mars
Colette |
Pierre Herme |
Bon Marche
The Localers
Babysitter |
Ralphs |
Getting There
Singapore Airlines and Air France fly
direct to Paris every day, with flights
departing Changi just before midnight
and arriving between 6am and 7am the
following day.