Our 7 Day Trip to the South of France
Ever since my parents left on a church mission to France last year, we knew we wanted to go visit them while they were there.
They live just outside of Paris, but since we’d spent a full week in Paris and hit most of the major sites just a few years ago, we weren’t interested in doing another big Paris trip.
Instead, we decided this would be a great chance to try out the South of France. Even better, my parents were available to go with us to several of the cities.
Here’s what our itinerary looked like.
Day 1: We flew out in the afternoon, catching a direct flight to Paris from Salt Lake City. The girls had school and Bart and I worked in the morning and then we packed and headed out after lunch.
The flight wasn’t bad but because it was early afternoon, none of us were very tired and didn’t sleep much on the flight.
We landed around 9 a.m. in Paris (after midnight to our bodies) and decided we were going to just power through the day if we could. We picked up our rental car and headed into Paris to get a little lunch before we went out to Versailles to meet up with my parents.
While we were in a double left turn lane, the van to our right trying to turn swiped our car which was a very unpleasant start to the trip. We were barely moving – maybe a foot every minute – and there was bumper to bumper traffic and this van just wouldn’t seem to believe there was no room. Bart said “they are going to hit our car!” and indeed, seconds later there was a terrible scraping sound. We pulled over and took photos and exchanged information and then tried to shake off this bad beginning.
We went to a little noodle house for lunch which was quite fun and then drove into Versailles and checked into our hotel. After we’d gotten settled, we texted my parents and drove over to meet them. My dad showed us where to park and then we walked over to my parents’ apartment.
My mom came out of the front door to the building as we walked up and I teared up seeing her – this is the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing my parents!
They gave us a little tour of their apartment and then my mom and Ani walked to the store to grab a few things while the other girls laid down to take a quick nap and Bart and my dad and I chatted. After about 45 minutes, I woke everyone up and we walked through the Versailles forest to help keep everyone awake.
It was a little chilly (we all borrowed sweaters from my mom!) and after a beautiful walk, we came back and my mom made dinner. It was so nice to be back together and we enjoyed chatting until we were all getting too tired to keep our eyes open. My parents walked us back to our car and we returned to the hotel, got ready for bed and were all asleep by about 9 p.m.
Day 2: I woke up around 5:45 but everyone else was still sleeping so I quietly worked on my phone and laptop for about 30 minutes until I could tell I was getting sleepy again and then I got back in bed and slept for another hour.
The girls and I were ready faster than Bart, so we wandered down to a little bakery and then a street market and picked up pastries and some fresh fruit before heading back to the hotel where Bart had the car all loaded up ready to go. We ate our breakfast in the dining room and then headed out to Lyon.
We stopped for lunch at a little car park and had a beautiful crepe and baguette sandwich lunch in the sunshine.
When we arrived in Lyon, we met up with Bart’s cousin’s daughter who is serving a mission in Lyon. We got some gelato and walked around the town square and handed off the retainers we’d brought her from her mom.
After we parted ways, we headed to our hotel and checked in. We’d planned to go out and explore a bit more, but everyone was tired and we ended up just playing some card games for a bit before our dinner reservation.
We wanted to do a nice French dinner with the girls while we were in France and our friends had recommended Brasserie L’Ouest so we had a reservation for 7 p.m. It was a beautiful restaurant and we had a great dinner. In typical French fashion, the meal took about 2.5 hours and we had a great time laughing and chatting, although I was VERY tired by the end. We headed back to our hotel, parked in the underground lot nearby and walked a couple of blocks back to the hotel before quickly falling asleep.
Day 3: Everyone slept through the night and Bart got up a bit early to go to the hotel gym. We all got ready, packed up and dropped our bags in the car before walking up to the train station to have a quick breakfast.
While we were eating, my 11 year old started complaining about her stomach hurting. By the time we were done, she was crying from pain. Bart and I gave each other worried parent eyes and we both quietly wondered if it could be appendicitis. We walked down to the street level and I sat with Star while Bart looked up an urgent care. There was one a few blocks away, so we hopped in the car and drove over. When we arrived, we were quickly informed this was for adults only and we’d need to take her to the children’s hospital about 25 minutes away.
On the way over, she was suddenly laughing and chatting in the back seat with her sisters so we pulled over and had her walk around for a few minutes to see if the pain came back. All clear!
We decided to skip the hospital and go the Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourvière as planned and keep an eye on her. We parked and walked up to take in the incredible view and then went inside (this place is STUNNING). Within a few minutes, though, the pain started back up so we wrapped up our visit and headed back to the car.
On the walk, we saw the Teatro Galo-Romano one street away, so Ella and I walked over to take a look before we got in the car and drove to the hospital. We checked in and since only one parent was allowed to go back with her, Bart (who speaks better French than I do – a low bar to clear) took her while the other girls and I went to the hospital lobby to get a little food and hang out.
Bart kept us updated by text and things were moving very slowly.
Over the next six hours, she had an ultrasound that showed her appendix looked fine and her lymph nodes were enlarged, which was almost certainly was causing that pain.
In the meantime, the other girls and I walked to a nearby park and then walked down to a main street with fun little shops and explored a bit to pass the time.
When Star was finally discharged, we reunited and headed to a little pizza place nearby where we had dinner before driving as planned to Avignon. We arrived at our hotel and quickly went to bed.
Day 4: We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning (and the jet lag seemed fully behind us now) and crossed the street into the old city. The streets were so cute and we kept saying “now this feels like a real Bradshaw family trip!” and we stopped in Les Halles d’Avignon to get breakfast. We picked out a bunch of delicious pastries and some incredible fresh fruit and juice and went outside to sit in the square. It was the most beautiful day and after all the incidents of the past few days, it felt amazing. We walked through the tiny streets to the Palais des Papes and admired that before ducking into the chapel to catch the Easter Mass (all in French, of course).
Afterward, we walked out into the gardens, the little girls checked out the playground and we looked out over the Pont Saint-Bénézet. The bells on the church started to peal and it was just the most perfect Sunday morning. I couldn’t get enough of this cute little town.
We walked back through the town, picked up some lunch at the grocery store and then picked up our car and drove down to Nice where we were meeting my parents.
We arrived and checked into our hotel (there was a little mixup where they only had us down for 1 room despite the fact we’d clearly booked and paid for two – we had the email confirmation saying so!) so my parents came down to meet us in the lobby while that got sorted out.
Once we had our rooms, we stopped by the spectacular Basilique Notre-Dame de l’Assomption and then walked down to the water. The weather was beautiful – sunny but cool – and we spent a lot of time at the beach skipping rocks.
Eventually we wandered up to the open air market and a couple of the girls bought some jewelry with their Good Traveler Budget and then we sat down for dinner at a cute little place that served crepes (my girls’ highest priority) along with some other excellent dishes.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel for jackets and then the girls wanted the gelato they’d been promised, so we headed back out. The kids got their gelato and we sat outside and visited for at least an hour. It was so delightful to be with my parents again!
Finally time to head to bed.
Day 5: Bart got up and went to a gym around the corner and the girls and I got ready and went to a nearby bakery for some pastries and stopped at a grocery store for some fruit. We brought it back to the hotel and ate it in the lobby and then my parents and Bart joined us and we all walked down to the water to catch our boat tour.
I love being out on the water and it was spectacularly beautiful. It was the perfect length and when we got back, we walked up to the hotel (with a quick stop for snacks) and picked up our car to drive to Eze for lunch.
Eze was SO darling and we climbed high up into the city walls and ate lunch at Deli’. We had to split up between a few tables with a group of 8, but the food was great and the weather was lovely.
We stopped in lots of fun little shops in our way up and down and I bought a hand-carved bird ornament and Ella bought a bracelet and Tally bought an owl whistle.
Afterward, we drove into Monaco and went to the The Cars Collection of H.S.H. the Prince of Monaco. The girls were unsure if they’d like it, but we all had a great time (we spent about 40 minutes there).
That night was our adults-only very fancy dinner at Les Ambassadeurs by Christophe Cussac. We’d only ever been to one other Michelin starred restaurant (Alinea in Chicago for our 19th anniversary) and it was so fun to go to this one with my parents.
The food was amazing, the service impeccable (we met the director of service who had just won the Michelin service award a few weeks early, something that was meaningful to me after having just read Unreasonable Hospitality), and the whole restaurant was gorgeous. It was such a memorable and special evening with my parents.
Day 6: We said goodbye to my parents and headed out for a very long day of driving (about 10 hours) to Chartres. The drive actually wasn’t bad and we stopped for dinner in the cutest little town of Auxerre – it was like It’s a Small World come to life! (We ate at this restaurant). If we’d had more time, I would have walked around for hours!
We arrived in Chartres, checked into our hotel and went to bed!
Day 7: We woke up, packed and dropped our bags in the car, then picked up some fruit at a street stand (best mango of my life – it was so sweet and ripe we ate the peel too, since we didn’t have anything to peel it with). We got pastries from La Boulangerie De Marlène and sat in the sunshine eating breakfast.
After we were finished, we walked over to the cathedral and spent about an hour walking through it and around it. It’s just so stunning! Tally had been itching for a playground, so we looked one up and walked about 15 minutes over to it. The girls played and Bart and I sat on a nearby bench chatting and enjoying the beautiful surrondings.
Finally, we were all hungry enough for lunch so we walked back to the main center of town and had lunch at a little Mexican restaurant (the nachos were the best thing by far) and then stopped in the square across from our hotel so the girls could ride the carousel (we can’t have a trip to France without a carousel ride).
We grabbed our car and drove about 45 minutes to Versailles, checked into the same hotel we’d stayed at a week ago and then walked over to the Paris Temple to meet my parents who were working at the visitor center. They gave us a little tour of where they spend most of their time, told us some great stories, and we took some photos and then we walked over to a little sushi restaurant they like for a last dinner together. It was such a delightful time and really hard to hug them goodbye at the corner where we parted ways, knowing I likely won’t see them again until next year.
We all got ready for bed, set our alarms for an early morning and went to bed.
Day 8: We woke up early, got ready and packed up, and headed to the airport. We dropped off our rental car (never been so happy to say goodbye to a rental car!) and checked our bags.
The passport check line for families was moving incredibly slow and finally, after more than an hour, Bart flagged down an employee and told him we were probably going to miss our flight (I was getting really panicky at this point – I’m not nervous about catching flights, but this was looking really bad). He put us in a faster line and we got through, sprinted to the tram to take us to the right part of the terminal, and got to security finally.
The line was short but two of the girls’ backpacks got flagged. While they were checking them, I told Bart to take the other two girls and get to the gate and it was a good thing they did because they were closing the gates when they arrived and when Bart told them we had 3 more people coming, they said “I don’t know about them. . . .” The girls and I RAN full speed to the gate and we got on by the skin of our teeth. I’ve never been so happy to be in a coach seat in my life!
The flight home was uneventful and not very full, so I got a row of four seats to myself and stretched out for a nap. After an hour I woke up and then, thanks to inflight Wifi, I worked the entire way home.
We got home, unpacked, and went for a long walk to stay awake before having dinner and going to bed around 9:00. So good to be home!
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