Packing for Paris and Barcelona

Catch up with us on our trip!  Girls Trip to Europe Ari of Amen Photography and I are embarking on an international adventure.  Tuesday (the day this post is published) we leave for Paris, France for four days, followed by three days in Barcelona, Spain.

We are packing two carry on bags each, one handbag/backpack and one rolling suitcase.  Air France has a carry on weight limit of 26 lbs total.  TOTAL. Although we were nearly set to do carry on only, we have decided to communally check in one bag.  I was prepared to stuff my shirt with my iPad and Kindle, (for check in, not security) while wearing two sweaters and a jean jacket just to save on weight, but it was just cutting it too close.  This is supposed to be vacation right?

To pack as much as we needed and as little as possible, we outlined an idea of our itenerary and made complete outfits including accessories.  Most of our clothes have been kept to a tight color pallet so items can be switched around as needed.  A couple days ago we got together to photograph our outfits hanging out.  It was funny how unintentionally similar some of them were and in fact we had to make minor adjustments so we weren't too twinsy!

In addition to clothing I am also packing the following items:

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• iPhone (and power cord) loaded with kindle app for Lonely Planet Paris & Barcelona, TripIt app complete with all travel times, confirmation codes and maps for planned destinations, WhatsApp app for texting with wifi, and Viber for international calling/facetime with wifi.
• iPad (and power cord) freshly loaded with movies, and television shows.  I am also double checking that these work in airplane mode (meaning the whole show is actually on the iPad and not just accessible via my home server)
• Kindle (and power cord) with new books
• Head phones
• headphone splitter (so we can watch movies on the flight together)
• Camera card reader iPad connector (Ari will be bringing both her point and shoot and her SLR)

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• Passport with rgif protecting case and 2 photocopies of my passport (one for ari and one for me.  I will carry her extra copy of her passport as well)
• Print outs of all our flight and hotel information including directions and Paris Metro Map
• Boarding Passes

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• Sunglasses and case
• Hat with full brim
• wrist travel wallet from TJ Max also available here: Travel Security Wrist Wallet
  • Empty purse
  • eye drops, chapstick, lipstick, teeth flossers, advil, dramamine, mints,
  • Essential Oils and Travel Case
  • One Visa credit card and an atm including a photocopy of the front and back of the cards (Be sure to call the 1-800 numbers on the back to notify them of your travels)
  • Apparently there are services through AAA and banks where you can order currency through the mail.  So I wish I could say I had a bunch of euros but sadly I don't.  I do have a small handful thanks to my mother in law who just visited the South of France not too long ago.  Thanks Mom!

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I always travel with my Essential Oils

(e-mail me if you want to know more about them)

Most of the above items will be stored in Dan's laptop backpack (thank you Dan).  This item is fantastic and features an RFID blocker, anti theft mesh on front pocket and a zipper that clips to a hook.  They have it on Amazon in fun colors too... Pacsafe Luggage

I love my new travel vitamin/pill case.  I take a pluthera of vitamins, herbs and capsulized essential oils and with this new kit from Lewis & Clark, I can pull out the am or pm vitamin package and take it with me.Lewis N. Clark Am/Pm Pill Organizer

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• Toiletries including make-up, tooth brush, tooth paste, chapstick
• Liquids have been placed in my quart sized plastic bag.  Please note that I moved my hair products from the plastic bag in this picture to our checked bag once I realized I was getting close to going over our weight limit.  I will also have to put my essential oil bag into this plastic bag.
• Tennis Ball to roll out tight muscles

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• an assortment of power bars (which later got demoted to our checked bag)
• Nuts and dried fruit
• water bottle with carbon filter (please note this has to be empty and on the outside of your bag when you go through security)

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Ari and I plan on hitting up flea markets while in Paris.  We printed off information from a couple websites with specific directions.  We all know what happened last time we didn't print out directions...

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• .....and my cute little umbrella just in case. (which got booted to the checked bag)

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As it gets down to the last hours before departure, I'm keeping a note on my bag with items that I know still need to make it into the bag.  Of course I have a list on my phone, too, that I've been adding to for weeks.

Our checked bag contains:

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• clothing that we don't anticipate needing until our trip to Barcelona.  LOVE those eagle creek packing cubes.eBags Packing Cubes
• another body size duffle bag to bring home goodies from our adventure,
• soap, shampoo/conditioner, lotion, sunscreen, scissors, one container of laundry detergent,
• travel hair dryer with defuser attachment (this is for you curly hair girls cuz you know your defuser might not attach to hotel dryers)
• plastic compression travel bags (the kind that suck the extra air out so you can pack home even more goods!)

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I love my Tempurpedic pillow.  They sell a travel pillow that is half the size of the regular one.  I decided to use an old fake Termpurpedic pillow and make one myself.  After Sharpie markering a line in the middle, I used my electric knife to cut it in half.  Voila.  Two travel pillows.

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I decided to upgrade the size of our checked bag when I couldn't get our travel pillows to squeeze into the smaller red one.  With the extra space I added a couple extra items.

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• a black barrett
• oatmeal packets

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Our suitcase WILL be safely waiting for us at the baggage claim in Paris and we will have nothing to worry about.

Ari had a very thoughtful idea to buy Paris stationary (enough for me too) and we plan on writing and mailing letters to our family members while we are waiting at LAX.  (If we mailed them in Paris they wouldn't get them till we returned. Postcards will be mailed from our destination in addition to our 'love letters.')

Dan and I have hired a nanny to help for the week (in addition to adding drop in days at our youngest's preschool).  I completed a spreadsheet with instructions for all activities and meals including maps (and sometimes photos) for all locations.  I do this every time we leave the kids and then I file it away in our "command center" notebook for future use.  We are very busy and I've been told this is quite helpful.

Wish us luck!  I'll let you know what I forgot to pack when I get back!

Catch up with us on our trip! Girls Trip to Europe