Travel Dispatch - Paris for a 7th Birthday

A mother-daughter trip for my Bougie Bunny

Travelers -

A brief note on this publication. Travel Dispatch will be a new series you can opt into. The Upgrade includes three publications:

1) The Upgrade | Weekly. Everybody gets this. It’s free and arrives on Tuesdays in your inbox. Hospitality hot takes, industry deep dives, the Room Report of hotels worth a stay, and the Lobby Bar with hospitality industry tea and news.

2) Travel Dispatch. You’ll receive your first post for free this weekend. Going forward, they will be available for a paid subscription. These are personal travel essays, destination guides, and real itineraries I’ve built for myself and clients over 18 years in the luxury travel industry. This weekend - you’ll receive my mother-daughter trip to Paris with my bougie bunny. These are not weekly - they will come out once or twice per month.

3) Hotel History. My father, Richard Kelley, wrote a weekly newsletter about the history of our family company, Outrigger Hotels, for 40 years. Paid subscribers will receive occasional editions of my father’s archived Saturday Briefing articles. I want him to live on through his work now that he’s gone.

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Happy travels,

Anne Marie

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A Mother-Daughter Trip to Paris

My daughter is, undoubtedly, the luckiest kid I know. Last fall, she turned 7, and I let her choose a trip with me as her birthday present.

My Bougie Bunny chose Paris, (because of course she did).

Insane 7th birthday present? Absolutely. Do I regret it? Not for a second. I’m decently certain that my 7th birthday involved a Lisa Frank theme and Chuck-E-Cheese. But, my daughter went to Paris.

I’m a luxury travel planner, and honestly, if I can flex my planning skills anywhere, it should be on designing the quintessential Princess Paris trip for my offspring.

Malia loves the “Claris Goes to Paris” books, which feature a little mouse with expensive taste who wants to be a fashion designer, and proceeds to adventure around France name dropping Pucci, Chanel, and Dior. Malia also loves princesses, sweet things, and being the center of attention. She also complimented a woman in an elevator on her bag, saying “I just love your Chanel!” Yes, I know I’m in trouble.

I knew I needed to anchor the trip around fashion, food, and Marie Antoinette.

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Where we stayed:

I chose Relais Christine both for its location near the Luxembourg Gardens (and their epic playground), and for its ornate decor.

Our room was fit for a princess, and the staff made sure to sing Malia happy birthday the first morning of the trip over a breakfast filled with hot chocolate and croissants.

The Relais Christine

What we did:

• A mother-daughter massage at the Cheval Blanc Dior spa

• A boat ride down the Seine blasting music so we could have a dance party

• A tour of the Dior museum to brush up on her fashion history

• A chocolate and macarons tasting tour

• A guided tour of Versailles after watching the Marie Antoinette movie

• A photoshoot in front of the Eiffel Tower

• A private shopping experience at https://www.lileauxfees.com/

Where we ate:

• Vagenende - art deco style French restaurant where Malia devoured escargot

• Huguette - sweet little restaurant with piano music and amazing clam dish

• Giraffe - fancy brunch with views of the Eiffel Tower

• The Ritz - afternoon tea

Macarons, Escargot, Spa Day, Boat Ride Down the Seine, Dior Museum, Palais Garnier

We watched movies on my laptop in bed and had pillow fights in our pajamas. We ordered room service. We skipped through the streets of Saint-Germaine-des-Pres. We ate our weight in croissants. We got custom perfume made, and shopped too much, and ate too much, and had an absolute blast together.

I am lucky enough that I’ve been to Paris several times in my life, but I’d never seen the city like this - at a slower pace, through her eyes. Everything felt magical, from watching the Eiffel Tower light up to riding the carousel at the Luxembourg Gardens together.

7 is special. She’s still such a little girl who loves dolls and Disney movies, who believes in fairies, twirls in dresses, and doesn’t quite understand what happened at the end of the Marie Antoinette movie. My daughter is also now able to travel as an excellent companion. She never complained about the long flight or distances we walked on winding streets. When it rained, she was thrilled to have a chance to carry an umbrella and sing in the rain. She charmed the pants off of just about every server and front desk person we encountered. I quite honestly had one of the best trips of my life with her.

I hope she’ll remember this trip, but even if she doesn’t, I will. And I pay the bills.

Celebrating my daughter’s birthday was as much a celebration of my day of giving birth, and our bond together, as it was her moment. Let’s face it, motherhood is hard, and after seven years of it, I deserved to reap a bit of what I’d sowed.

Traveling with our kids gives us the brief gift of concentrated time together, focused on memory making and story sharing. There are no “just a second while I respond to this emails” while you’re walking through the Versailles gardens. There is a brief respite from endless navigation of soccer games, ballet recitals, birthday parties, and theater performances. Routine gives way to “yes” moments where you eat gelato at 10am because you are in Paris.

I am so excited to raise a traveler, and can’t wait for the adventures ahead with my wonderfully spoiled Bougie Bunny.

-Anne Marie, The Upgrade Weekly