We spent 3 glorious weeks in France, 3 nights total in Paris and a home exchange just outside of Aix en Provence for the rest of our visit. We packed quite light for a family of 4. We knew we would have a lot of city days walking 20-25,000 steps a day. We also would be lounging by the pool and beach and we knew we were walking into a heatwave.
I kept checking the weather before we left and it kept getting hotter! The weather said highs of 36 and lows of 24. It never really went below 30 during waking hours and it went up to 41!! In the end I am happy with how I packed and the outfits I put together but I wish I hadn’t brought any thicker materials or a cardigan. These pieces took up precious space and I never touched them. I wish I brought one more breezy top and a short dress!
Packed
2 Doen Cotton Tops (here and here) (worn multiple times)
1 Sezane T-shirt (not worn, too hot!)
2 Christy Dawn – Dawn Dress (wore both multiple times, best breeziest dresses for me)
1 White Eyelet Puff Sleeve Dress (worn 2-3 times, breezy and dreamy)
1 Jungmaven T-shirt Dress (not worn, too hot!)
1 Striped Shirt Dress (worn as beach/pool cover up and full beach and city day)
1 Base Range Long shorts (worn twice)
1 Muarmus Skirt (worn 2-3 days) ( oh i should say I finally stitch ripped out the liner!)
1 Sezane Crochet top similar (not worn, too hot)
1 Sezane knit tank (worn 1 day)
1 Sezane Thin Cardigan (not worn, too hot!)
1 Amanda Moss linen tank (worn many times)
1 linen black pants (I sewed them myself) (worn on both flight days)
1 Sezane striped long sleeve (worn on both flights)
Shoes/Accessories
1 sandals
1 flats
1 runners (plane days and one day in Paris)
1 hat
1 sunglasses
Bathing Suits
Hunza G Baby Blue Blue (similar style)
Hunza G Black (this red is also so good)
Lounging/Sleeping
Simply Merino High Waisted Underwear
Bike Shorts (for under dresses, lounging and chafing help)
Bought
1 market dress
1 sweater
1 hat
1 T-shirt
1 white pants
Too many bags (favourite versatile bucket bag with cross body)
Pharmacy finds of course!
So in the end, I packed pretty well but brought too many warm clothes. I also brought SOAK so I could hand-wash my clothes in the sink. This time I bought the packets, highly recommend!
Some additional thoughts…
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I wonder if I could have done without the runners entirely, though the few times I wore them my feet were very grateful.
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I would have packed even lighter and bought more clothes. Though I did try to find a short dress and never found one I loved. So the risk of packing lighter is that you don’t find anything to wear.
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we wear our pants and long sleeves and runners on the plane. And then we pack our first days worth of clothes in our carry-on suitcase (including all toiletries) so that if our luggage is delayed we can still enjoy our first day.
We shared one carry-on suitcase, one medium suitcase and packed an ikea bag to fill on the way home (which we fully packed with our clothes on the way home). We used packing cubes to separate our clothes. Each person has 2 cubes. This time I bought striped packing cubes so my clothes were easier to identify. I also packed an extra empty cube for laundry which was helpful!
(Edited) Heatwave Packing
Adding the items that helped us survive a heatwave. While I was carrying around tiny cute bags, Trevor was always carrying a backpack with a 2-3 litre flexible water bottle/bladder (something like this). Then we carried 2 insulated waterbottles (Kinto are our fave) everywhere (when we remembered we filled them with ice first). Even with carrying all this water we still had to refill during the longest and hottest days. We also brought Electrolytes from home. I bought a fan at the Musee de L’orangerie that I brought everywhere with me. We also used an entire bottle of Avene Thermal water spray in 2 days in Paris. When we got to our home swap, they had the re-fillable handheld misters that we took everywhere. And now I wish we had bought one to bring home! Oh and Trevor snuck in a UV umbrella that Mae used on the hottest of days with no shade on long walks.
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