We’ll Always Have Paris: Review and Guest Post by Jennifer Coburn

I don’t have too much free time for reading but when I was offered a review copy of We’ll Always Have Paris: A Mother/Daughter Memoir I just knew I’d want to check it out.

One of my all-time favorite trips was a Parisian getaway I went on with my mom where we had so much fun exploring Paris’ fabulous sights, boutiques, amazing restaurants and tourist attractions.  I can still remember our picnic lunches in the park, walking down the streets with flower-shaped gelato cones, eating crepes, croissants and the most amazing Apple Tarte Tatin and a never-ending meal at a fancy schmancy restaurant with more courses than I’ve ever seen.  Did I mention, we’re big foodies??

Globetrotting Mommy “We’ll Always Have Paris”

In the book, Jennifer processes her dad’s death while she navigates her way through motherhood and around Europe with her daughter for eight summers. As a traveler and a mom, I really enjoyed making my way through Jennifer Coburn’s journeys and I hope to do something similar with my daughter some day. Their adventures are full of colorful locals, visits to familiar tourist sights and many unexpected moments.  Jennifer reminds me of one of my funniest friends, the one you always want to sit next to at a dinner party, and her stories warmed my heart.  I especially enjoyed reading as she questioned the challenges of parenting and carefully navigated the line between mom and friend.  You’ll want to buckle up and enjoy the ride as Katie matures and Jennifer learns to go with the flow.

When Jennifer offered to share some of their favorite memories with my readers, I said yes!

Here they are below.  I think its a great idea to chronicle your favorite travel memories before they fade away.  I’m definitely going to start doing that more and more.  It would be cute to include some of these memories into a photo book for a great trip keepsake.

We’ll Always Have Paris…Jennifer and Katie’s Favorite Memories

Trip One—Paris and London (2005)

Jennifer: I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to navigate my way through Paris alone with a child. After a rough first day, Katie and I were sitting at a café near the Eiffel Tower where the menu was very different and dogs sat at their owners’ feet. When the waiter brought Katie’s hamburger, it came with a fried egg on top of it. She shrugged and said, “I guess in Paris, breakfast comes with your lunch.” I knew then that she would do just fine abroad—and in life. I also felt slightly guilty that my eight-year-old was my new role model in life.

Katie: We went to this old-timey bookstore called Shakespeare and Company right across the river from Notre Dame. There were tons of books, cozy places to read, and tucked away were cots where people could sleep if they didn’t have a hotel. I begged my mom to have a sleepover there and she said yes! She didn’t love it as much as I did, but spending the night in a bookstore was my idea of heaven.

Trip Two—Italy (2008)

Jennifer: When Katie and I arrived in Rome, our first interaction was with a taxi driver who promptly swindled me out of fifty euros. Later that evening, we had dinner at a deli near the Spanish Steps, and when the owner heard about our bad luck with the cab driver, he fed us every delicious dish in his place—pizza, grilled eggplant, mozzarella, artichoke salad, you name it. His generosity reminded me that there are always more kind people than crooked ones anywhere you go in the world.

Katie: In Venice my mom and I had just gotten soaked in a rainstorm and all I wanted was to have hot chocolate on our balcony that overlooked the Grand Canal. No one understood that we wanted a drink to carry out, so my mom convinced a restaurant owner to let us take the mug of hot chocolate he’d made for me. He was really upset, but my mom can be pretty persuasive. The taste of hot chocolate and the crazy beautiful view of the water after a storm were perfect together. (And the restaurant guy was super nice when my mom returned the mug.)

Trip Three—Spain (2011)

Jennifer: Finding the secret order of cookie-baking nuns in Madrid was no easy feat, but when we did, it was a great adventure. We rang a buzzer and made our way through the maze of the convent, following signs that read “Dulces” taped next to pictures of Madonna and Child. We arrived at an empty room with a lazy Susan that had a chain thick enough to restrain King Kong. From behind the wall, a nun with a frighteningly stern voice barked at us as we used our junior high school Spanish to buy cookies. Totally worth it! They were the best orange treats we will probably ever eat.

Katie: My mom and I were in the garden of the Alhambra in Granada and I was looking at this patch of yellow flowers. A minute later, I heard singing, so I turned around to see my mom standing in the middle of a group of Korean women and singing—in Korean! She told me that her Korean friend in elementary school taught her the song and she’d heard it so many times, she never forgot it. They all taught me the song (and the hand movements) and we sang it together. My mom can make friends anywhere.

Trip Four—Amsterdam and Paris (2013)

Jennifer: My father wrote a song that was popular in Holland in the ’70s, so when Katie and I went to Amsterdam, we looked for the record in an old vinyl shop called Second Life Music. She found the record immediately, which the store owner offered to play while he looked up the song’s history in his music bible. It was lovely, surreal, and bittersweet, since I can never share this memory with my father.

Katie: Some parents tell their kids not to do drugs, but my mom showed me when she ate a “space-cake” in Amsterdam. I hated to laugh at her since she was obviously feeling really guilty, but there were moments when she was just so silly, we both had to crack up. There were some really funny things that night, but mostly I remember my mom feeling bad because she ate way too much. She pretty much convinced me that this wasn’t something I ever wanted to try.

Have you ever taken a mother/daughter trip?  Mother’s day is coming up and there are few better gifts than a vacation…If not, We’ll Always Have Paris: A Mother/Daughter Memoir would be a great gift.