One of the recently added destinations on our travel wish list has been Morocco. So when one of our previously planned destinations didn’t work out, we decided to make Morocco happen. This year we had an added element of our daughter being in kindergarten 5 days a week. However, when we shared with her teacher that we were headed away for 2 weeks, she was extremely supportive; and our daughter really enjoyed telling her new friends at school about her new adventure once she returned to the classroom.
We took WestJet direct Calgary to Paris flight on Thursday evening, Sept. 26, so she could still attend kindergarten that morning. The flight was relatively uneventful, which is great when you have kids. :-). They watched a little bit of the shows and then we gave them a children’s melatonin to help them get some rest. They eventually both fell asleep, but it was hard for mom and dad to fall asleep and we ended up NOT getting any sleep on the flight. Needless to say, that first afternoon in Paris was a tough one for us.
We arrived in Paris and gathered all our belongings and headed in the city. Originally when making the plans, there was a chance we were going to fly standby so we wanted to make sure that we allowed enough time between the arrival into Paris and the departure to Morocco. However, our flight to Marrakech was out of the northern Paris airport, so we decided to head closer into the city centre to see some sights. It took almost 2 hours to get from Charles De Gaulle Airport to our hotel, with transfers on about 2-3 subways/trains. Unfortunately, our poor daughter I think was so tired and off with her eating from the travel that she got sick on the train....so that was interesting. Once we arrived at our hotel we basically just found a playground to play at for a bit, grabbed a pizza for dinner and then went to bed around 7 p.m.
Rested & Ready to Go
We woke the next morning around 8 a.m., so it was a good 13 hours of sleep and much needed for the kids and us. Clara had been looking forward to seeing the Eiffel Tower, so that was the first destination for the day. It took us about 20 minutes from our hotel to get there, but the kids seemed to enjoy the subway ride more that day.
Strollers in the Subways
While we were out in Paris, we took our 2 umbrella strollers with us, and quickly discovered that the subway system isn’t very friendly for strollers. To be honest, I don’t think a person in a wheelchair would be able to use the subways in Paris. Not only were there the stairs to get down to the ticket level, but then there were stairs to get down to the various tracks. Sometimes people would offer to help us carry the strollers down or up, but a lot of the time, we made the kids get out and walk up/down the stairs, and occasionally we’d carry the stroller down with the child in it. There were a few stations with escalators and when we saw those we were pretty ecstatic.
Eiffel Tower
We had been showing photos of the Eiffel Tower to Clara, so when she saw it she was pretty excited. Connor was pretty excited to see the Eiffel Tower too and wanted his own Eiffel Tower, like we had gotten his sister. Unfortunately, his got lost along the journey back to the airport later that day.
Notre Dame Cathedral - Closed Due to Fire
After the Eiffel Tower we walked around the area and then walked along the Seine River to get to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Connor (almost 3 years old) was pretty excited to hear the sirens of the police cars while we walked, as it seemed like there were quite a few going by. The kids thought it was pretty interesting that they sounded different than back home. With the fire earlier this year, the Notre Dame was definitely interesting to see. The cathedral was fenced off, but from across the river and on the bridge you could get some views of it and see the damage from the fire.
Back to the Airport
In the mid-afternoon we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and then make the journey to the bus to get us to the northern airport. This was another long journey it seemed, especially with the bags and strollers. We took the subway with 2 connections and got to the place where the bus was. We boarded the bus for a 1 hr. 15 minute ride to the airport. All the length of travel between places made you realize how large Paris really is! All in all, it probably took us about 2 hours to get from the hotel to the airport.
Our flight to Marrakech was a late one; it departed just after 9 p.m. and was a 3 hour 10 minute flight. We had dinner at the airport and then boarded our flight. Amazingly the kids were awake for a majority of the flight, except for about the last 45 minutes of it. After they fell asleep it was a bit difficult for them in the Marrakech airport, after being awaken and so tired. But they powered through and did great despite the circumstances....and I can’t blame them for the last couple days they had endured with little sleep We had a driver waiting for us at the airport, so it was great to be able to just get right to the Riad.
We stayed at Riad dar Azul, which was a great accommodation. It was definitely interesting to see all the action happening in Marrakech around midnight when we drove there. It didn’t feel like it was midnight and the kids were excited to see some horse and carts on the roads. The Riad was within the walls of the old city, so the taxi driver dropped us off just outside the walls and then someone greeted us to take us the rest of the way. It was good to get some solid sleep that night, to say the least.
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