Basic Holiday Pack List - Carry On

I thought I would do a general post on what I pan to pack in mine and Ben's carry on and then do a post later on, to show you everything we're taking. Steve will have his own and sort it out himself, haha!

So this is what I plan on taking, and will split it between mine and Ben's bags:

Tablet & charger
Phone (can use my tablet charger to charge this up)
Kindle & charger
Camera & charger
Ipod, earphones & charger
Magazines (for me)
Purse
Sunglasses
A few make-up bits, calpol, teetha sachets
Snacks
Ben's activity pack - books, sticker books, activity book, crayons, cars, flash cards & pack of cards for him to play with (he loves cards)

I also hope to do a post after we get back on what we found helpful. I also may add a few extras to Ben's activity pack between now and when we go.

Tips for staying in France with a toddler

Whilst we were in France this year I discovered a few little things that may be helpful to you.

1. Supermarket trolleys don't have straps on. So if you have a toddler/baby that won't sit still it's best to bring along their pushchair or have them in a carrier strapped to you.

2. Proper high chairs seem to be few and far between in restaurants. And if they did have one it may not have straps. Quite a few restaurants seemed to have booster seats but there was no strap to be seen not even one to attach the booster seat to the chair. I was so glad I took our Totseat with us, I would definitely recommend taking one or something similar with you.

3. If you're going to be purchasing nappies, Pampers are SO expensive so go for a cheaper brand. The first time we travelled we purchased Carrefour own brand, these worked very well. This year we purchased Pommette, these weren't so good.

4. Food wise, the selection of baby food in the supermarkets were amazing (and looked rather good), there was loads of fruit purees as well as main meals. There was just not any baby snacks, and I couldn't even find any little packs of raisins. As I didn't know what there would be I did take loads of toddler snacks for Ben like Carrot Stick crisps and some little fruit snacks, so I was prepared.

5. The milk colours are different in France, whole milk is red. And we couldn't find any whole milk in any of the service stations on the way down, or on the P&O Ferry crossing either. We didn't even bother looking on the journey home!

Travelling with a 5 Month Old

When we went to France with Ben for the first time last year, he was around 5 months old. So I thought I would do a post on our experience, and I will be doing the same when we get back this year.

Firstly, if you can try and travel some part of the journey overnight. We actually stay in Steve's parents house that they own, and travel by car with them. They always like to leave at around 3am every time they go and stay there anyway, so it works out perfectly. You can just transfer them from their bed to carseat. The car movement helps them to drift back to sleep easily.

Also best to feed them some milk and change their nappy before setting off.

If they have a favourite toy make sure you have that with you as well, and we also took Bens blanket to keep him covered in the car, and have something else familiar for him. We actually took a number of soft toys, Ben didn't really have a favourite.

Make sure you try to time stops for when they're due for a feed. Ben was still feeding every 3/4 hours at 5 months. And that timed perfectly with our only stop until we got to the ferry port. Steve's parents like to stop every 2/3 hours anyway for a drink/food/leg stretch/toilet break. So I just made sure I fed him every time we stopped.

Sit next to your child, or have someone they know well sitting next to them, so if they do get frustrated you can amuse them.

And don't forget the essentials, nappies, wipes, a couple of changes of clothes, formula and bottles.