Ah, the holidays, the big departures, the preparations... A wonderful memory... for the children? For the parents, it's "When are we going to arrive?" in the car, arguments and shouts in the back, "Peeeee!" even though we've been gone for fifteen minutes, or a train, a baby screaming under the disapproving looks of other passengers...
Now that your suitcases are packed and don't forget your essential , so that your vacation rhymes with relaxation, discovery, warm sand and the happiness of being together , we exchange a few tips …
So that they don't drive us crazy, the enemy to be defeated during the trip is... boredom!
Plan for strategic breaks during car trips, especially in resorts with play areas that we have identified beforehand, for the kids to let off steam, and/or for changing/feeding the baby.
While we're giving them a potty, the older ones, furious after two hours stuck in their car seats, will romp on the rope bridge, or even just fight with other kids (furious for the same reasons)...
THE "The sooner we get there, the better it will be." in Fast and Furious mode is a source of frustration and irritation because we won't be able to avoid pee breaks, changing clothes, etc.
Let us rather trust the famous proverb, Hakuna Matata , we'll arrive when we arrive, let's relax, it's already the holidays...
On the site of On some motorway networks , we discovered while writing this article that there was not only something to anticipate and choose your breaks (Paul, Mac Do or Burger King…?), wifi services, play areas, etc. but even sporting or cultural activities.
Examples: the Jugy area (A6, direction Suuuuud), is very popular with kids, it is the “mushroom” slide area, that of the Garden of Trees (A77, between Dordives and Cosne-sur Loire) offers a route and thematic spaces dedicated to the relationship between trees and humans.
On the area of Sandaucourt in Lorraine, representations of soldiers from Napoleon's army and Mirabellier plantations.
On that of Lavaret on the A43 between Lyon and Chambéry, trampoline and magnificent view of Lake Aiguebelle... The perfect time to get out the living mat and treat yourself to a little contemplative session after two hours of Chantal Goya?
Paris-Rhine-Rhône motorway website: https://voyage.aprr.fr/
From the A1, A2, A3… to… the A837…: https://ulys.vinci-autoroutes.com/
Sites list areas with games or kids friendly .
Ex: mome.net and hello-famille.com
Hobby idea for older children : Eat as many meals as possible in the car during the journey (too bad for the seats, we'll remove the chips, the compote and the crushed Kiri on the floor tomorrow).
It keeps us busy, we share sandwiches, we distribute chips, compotes, bananas, biscuits or even other subversive surprise snacks (neither natural nor zero waste but what if it's twice a year...?)...: there is a whole range of salty or sweet snacks with sticks to dip.
Great concentration guaranteed . A lollipop to punctuate a trip is also a quiet time during... it's up to them to try to keep it as long as possible!
Early years game ideas : As mentioned above, we distil new toys and unusual objects magically emerging from our Ciao Bazar throughout the journey… (Oh, a red ball, oh a shiny piece of paper?)
There is also car games to hang in front of the baby, on the front passenger seat (often a bit ugly, but quite practical...), or rattles to attach to the wrist or foot, which avoid having to turn around and contort yourself to pick up the rattle that falls thirty times... (on sale on Amazon).
NB: There are special mirrors to hang on the back seat, facing the baby to keep an eye on him when his car seat is facing away from the road... and check how long the new surprise toy released does the job...
Games for older children:
- Who I am (guess which person or character you are thinking of)
- Spot the cars or landscape objects of such and such color
- Wave to other cars, and whoever gets the most cuckoos from other passengers in response to their cuckoos wins
- Finding things through the window that we see and which begin with such and such a letter (from CP…)
- Using puppets to create an animation behind your chair... A bit energy-consuming for the parent, but if you have the inspiration and you get some laughs, it's a big reward... (You can even hang an Angel between the two front headrests as a makeshift puppet from which the Wolf will emerge...)
- Neither yes nor no
- The peek-a-boo game : we put an object in an opaque bag, the children must guess what it is, by feeling the object without opening the bag
- The Game of History : the adult begins a story, and everyone takes turns completing the story to end up with a wacky tale. “The awful river witch loved…”
- The memory game : "I'm going to the market and I buy..." Each in turn, we recall the shopping list from before and add an item. "I'm going to the market and I buy a soap..." Then the next passenger "I'm going to the market and I buy a soap and some strawberries..." etc.
- The king of silence ...
To listen to - Participatory jukeboxing: everyone takes turns choosing the music they want to listen to (including parents, which immediately translates to Anne Silvestre/Juliette Armanet/David Bowie/La danse des canards).
Ideas for little ones:
- Anne Sylvestre so and his great fables, Aldebert, Henri Dès, Pakita, Chantal Goya … on Deezer or Spotify, free version with ads or without ads with subscriptions.
- Rockababy on Spotify : classic pop rock music in instrumental and lullaby versions. This is an opportunity for parents to check their classics and quickly recognize that famous Beatles song that we know by heart but whose title is no longer in our heads... and for kids to take a welcome nap...
- The app Radio Pomme d'Api , free, alternates between music for children and some for adults.
Tales, stories, audiobooks and animations, free version:
- Oli OLI (Radio France app, France Inter podcast), stories invented for 5-7 year olds, and told by personalities: a little uneven but sometimes very crazy and funny for adults too
- Fictional concerts for children (Radio France app): The Story of Babar by Francis Poulenc (beware, sensitive souls, remember that it is very sad at first…), Peter and the Wolf, read by François Morel (the classic version by Gérard Philippe is available on Deezer and Spotify), The Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saëns
- Stories in music by Elodie Fondacci (Spotify)
- The Jewels of the Castafiore, The Blue Lotus and other adventures of Tintin (Radio France app, France Culture podcast), read very faithfully to the albums. It's a big thrill for us adults, it lasts a long time, and also for little ones from 7/8 years old, even if, without the pictures, we realize that the plots are sometimes complex...
Read by the actors of the Comédie Française, extremely well performed, especially Captain Haddock and the Castafiore... Be careful (or so much the better!?), it's long: 5 episodes of about 25 minutes for The Castafiore Emerald. https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-aventures-de-tintin
- The Adventures of Little Nicholas , read by Benoît Poolevorde, on YouTube. There is notably the vacation of Little Nicolas, on the theme of the moment…
- Tales from Broca Street , narrated by Pierre Gripari: The Witch of Mouffetard Street, The Tap Fairy, The Story of Lustucru… on YouTube, in audio only or cartoon version
- The Little Prince , read by Pierre Arditi, on YouTube. You just have to show the illustrations at the same time, the one with the open boa and the one with the closed boa, for example, or the one with the sheep in the box...
- The little boats (Radio France podcast): 5 children's questions (and the expert adult's answer!) per episode, such as Why can some insects walk on the ceiling? How did prehistoric humans transform?, etc. (from 6/7 years old)
