17 December 2025
It’s time to tick off an item on my bucket list. This one involves a 10 year old, my grandson,. which makes things a tad more challenging. I have always said that I would love to ignite the adventurer in him. The love to explore. To learn about the beauty out there. To know about places, animals, and wonderous things. And now, it is time.
When I first spoke to him about a potential trip, I asked him what he would like to see. His very quick answer was, almost strangely, Paris. So we figured we would start there.
So – yesterday, we boarded our first flight. A son, an aunt (my other daughter) and a grandmother. Each with their own degree of apprehension, I’m sure. It was only once we managed to pass the first hurdle, that some of the apprehension converted to excitement. You see – taking a child out of the country without his parents, is not always the easiest thing to do. Fortunately, the exit was fairly straightforward. It was the entry into Germany at Frankfurt airport that was slightly more challenging, with a rather miserable polizei that clearly was not appreciating being up at 5 in the morning, to let a bunch of foreigners into his country. We could potentially have won ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ with the amount of questions we had to answer.
In short – we are in Paris. A rather chilly, wintery Paris, but an exceptionally beautiful one, I would have to admit, with all the festive lights and markets. We arrived at around midday, took some time to just shake of the long flight, which, did I mention, was handled quite well by our 10-year old novice. And then we braved the train in search of two things. The Eiffel Tower, of course, but only once we found the bakery that sells the rather large croissants. And, I will put it down to a lack of sleep, when I admit that our equally sleep-deprived 10-year old ended up being the one to successfully navigate us to both these destinations. Like a pro! I’d say we are already seeing good signs of a future adventurer. And his reaction when he eventually saw the Eiffel tower already made the entire trip worth while. I think that I will always remember the very slow and amazed ‘Wow’.
We’re having an early night. Tomorrow is another travel day. And the destination is a very special one! Watch this space!
