When I was appointed editor-in-chief of Marie Claire a long time ago, two things became very clear to me very quickly. 1. I would be in Paris a lot. And 2: I would be in Paris a lot without my children.

Fortunately, the trips were always inspiring and not too long, but besides the best vintage shops, the 'I-need-to-grab-this' at Colette, and the colored butterfly pasta at the Epicerie of Le Bon Marché, I also checked off the number of playgrounds. And there are quite a few.

Moreover, the sidewalks are wide and many busy intersections are fenced off with an iron gate, which keeps ‘oops-there-goes-my-child-onto-the-road’ situations to a minimum. My daughters have known for years that the Eiffel Tower can be found in Paris, that the river is called the Seine, and that you have to say 'confiture' if you want jam on your tartine.

Paris was calling for my girls and they were longing for her. During my last trip to America, I bought three T-shirts with a sequined Eiffel Tower on them in the pre-fun category at J.Crew.

Paris, in short, seemed to us the perfect place to wrap up our road trip. We booked a hotel with two adjoining rooms on Rue de Lille and that was where our first acquaintance with the city began. “What a small room they've given us, mom,” said my middle daughter disappointedly. “Uh, unless you can afford a room at Le Meurice , all the rooms here are ridiculously petite, sweetheart. Get used to it.” She asked me if that was why the Parisiennes were so slim. Then at least those rooms seemed a bit more spacious. Who knows, sweetheart. Who knows.

In our Espace, we drove (with the roof and windows open) along the Avenue Montaigne, past the Seine, we passed the Tuileries and cut through the Place de la Concorde. The Champs-Elysées was decorated. No darling, not for us, the Tour de France riders are coming in tomorrow. It was getting dark and the little ladies fell asleep. I find nothing more enjoyable than driving through Paris, so we plugged in our memory stick and listened to Jamie Cullum. I even found a button that allows the music to be heard only in the front, so your kids can sleep peacefully. Just like the child lock button, so I didn't have to worry that one of the ladies would pull a door open in her sleep.

The evening was long and it was beautiful.

The next day we had breakfast at Les Deux Magots (for a change, next time I'll choose Flore again), I shopped at Maje and parked my girls in the toy department of Le Bon Marché while I drooled over Stella and Isabel. We had moules frites at L’Atlas on Rue de Bucie, watched the sailboats in the pond of Jardin du Luxembourg, and gave our Espace some rest in the most beautiful parking garage located right under Café de Flore. We continued underground in the metro, which couldn't compare to the fair at the Tuileries.

From Paris, it was just a hop to home. Even that trunk, which is as big as an average Parisian hotel room, was packed to the brim, the passenger seat went into business class mode, the cruise control with automatic distance monitoring was on, and before we knew it, we drove into a Dutch downpour. That's also a kind of car wash, just think of it that way.