48 Hours in Paris: A Mother & Daughter Guide to the City of Light (in an impossible heatwave)

I‘d always wanted to go back to Paris, so when my 12-year-old daughter suggested it for our first Mother/Daughter trip, I was delighted. Travelling there with her reminded me that the places we think we know can feel completely new when seen through someoneelse'ss eyes. I'd admired the grand boulevards, elegant cafés and famous landmarks on previous visits, but this weekend wasn't about rediscovering Paris for myself. It was about watching her discover it for the very first time.

Our carefully planned itinerary lasted all of a few hours. We arrived in the middle of a heatwave, with temperatures climbing to an incredible 37°C, and quickly realised that this wasn't going to be the weekend we'd imagined. Instead of racing between museums and monuments, we found ourselves embracing a slower pace, seeking out shady gardens, lingering over long breakfasts, and happily escaping into beautifully air-conditioned shops during the hottest part of the day. Looking back, I'm not sure we could have experienced Paris in a better way.

Where you stay in Paris shapes your whole experience, and we couldn't have chosen a lovelier neighbourhood. Within a few hours, we'd already slipped into a rhythm that made us feel less like visitors and more like temporary locals on ourtucked-awayy street at Hotel Chavanel. Every morning began just across the road at either Le Week End or Épicerie & Associés, where buttery croissants, fresh fruit and excellent coffee set us up for the day ahead. There was never any rush to leave. Watching the city wake up around us while planning the day over breakfast became one of my favourite parts of the trip.

The heat dictated our schedule more than any guidebook. We explored early, rested when the sun was at its fiercest and ventured out again as the city began to cool. One morning, we wandered through the Jardin des Tuileries, carrying iced drinks and croissants as we searched for a shady bench beneath the trees. My daughter was far more interested in feeding pigeons and watching children sail little wooden boats than hurrying towards the next attraction, and somewhere between the gardens and the Louvre,e I realised we'd stopped worrying about seeing everything. Instead, we were simply enjoying being in Paris.

Later that afternoon, we walked towards the Eiffel Tower. We never felt the need to queue to the top. Sitting beneath the shade of the surrounding trees, watching families picnic on the grass while the tower stretched into an impossibly blue sky, felt every bit as special. Sometimes the best way to appreciate an iconic landmark isn't from the viewing platform but from a quiet spot nearby, where you have time to simply look up.

By early afternoon, the heat had become almost impossible to ignore, so we did what any sensible mother and daughter would do—we went shopping. The elegant arcades and galleries around the Louvre offered welcome relief from the soaring temperatures and gave us the perfect excuse to browse Parisian boutiques at a much gentler pace. We admired beautiful shop windows, discovered little treasures we hadn't planned to buy and eventually found ourselves, as many visitors inevitably do, wandering through Sephora.

That spontaneous Sephora visit unexpectedly became one of my favourite memories of the weekend. Armed with sheet masks, lip glosses and far more beauty products than we'd intended to buy, we headed back to the hotel, ordered dinner from across the road and settled in for a girls' night with Emily in Paris. It wasn't part of the itinerary, but after walking miles in the scorching heat,t it felt exactly right. Sometimes the most memorable travel moments aren't spent exploring at all; they're the quiet evenings that remind you why travelling together is so special.

Throughout the weekend, I found myself noticing the city differently because of my daughter. While I admired elegant architecture and beautiful cafés, she was fascinated by flower-filled balconies, ornate doorways and the endless rows of colourful macarons displayed in bakery windows. She insisted on stopping to inspect almost every pâtisserie we passed and somehow managed to spot little details I'd have walked straight by on my own. Children have a remarkable way of slowing you down, and Paris is a city that rewards exactly that.

When people ask me for recommendations for a weekend in Paris, they're often expecting a list of museums, monuments and restaurants. Of course, those places matter, but what I'll remember most isn't a particular attraction. It's breakfast at Le Week End before the city had fully woken up. It's sitting in the Tuileries with cold drinks on one of the hottest days of the year. It's admiring the Eiffel Tower from beneath the trees rather than from the top. It's escaping into cool boutiques around the Louvre, laughing over Sephora purchases and ending the day with face masks and Emily in Paris.

Forty-eight hours was never going to be enough to see everything Paris has to offer, but it was enough to remind me that the best city breaks aren't measured by how many landmarks you tick off. They're measured by the moments that make you smile long after you've returned home. For us, Paris wasn't about conquering an itinerary. It was about sharing an adventure, adapting when the weather had other ideas, and discovering that sometimes the most unexpected weekends become the most memorable of all.

Gina Galvin

Designer Travel

📧 ginagalvin@designertravel.co.uk

📞 07745 456644