Originally from the United States and France, Julia and Benoit moved to Shanghai in 2012 after living in New York City. After spending their honeymoon in Asia (including a visit to Shanghai), years later they decided that they wanted to call Shanghai home and are now here indefinitely. Their sons Louis (7) and Theodore (2) are enjoying their time here and loving all the different activities living here has to offer. Julia and Benoit pride themselves on giving their children a cultured and educational experience while in Shanghai, particularly by enjoying weekend trips to museums and art galleries.

On a cold Saturday morning, they welcomed us into their home to take a peek at their everyday lives. With Julia’s design background, it was no surprise how beautiful their home is with ample lighting and intriguing artwork. With music filling the apartment from a record turntable, this heart warming family told Urban Family all about their favorite things in Shanghai.

Our Favorite…

Breakfast

Our favourite breakfast place with Mom and the boys on a Saturday is Green & Safe. We order little pastries, milk and coffee.

Brunch/Lunch

We always do brunch as a family and we usually do both days - Saturday and Sunday. We love Nene, which is a beautiful Italian place in a wonderful neighborhood. We do dumplings, of course (everybody likes them), so we go to places like Din Tai Fung. We even do Beef and Liberty because Louis loves hamburgers. But we do like to try different places for brunch every weekend.

Dinner

So, we don’t go out too often for dinner, especially with Theodore. We do like to have pizza from D.O.C. and the boys love it.

Date Night Spot

If we go out, which is rare, we like to go out with friends or even have people over for dinner because we enjoy cooking. We like The Living Room, which has just opened, or we go to Villa le Bec for a very long, nice dinner.

Places to entertain visitors

We really like contemporary art and museums, so we usually hit up those. The Jewish Quarter is really interesting for visitors, and places like Jing’An Temple are pretty and easy to do. We usually like to have a drink at The Peninsula or Kathleen’s Waitan to get the full view of the Bund.

Things to do as a family

We like to ride our bikes around and look at the old lanes and the beautiful old architecture. We actually really like to go to the park at the West Bund by the Long Museum because we can ride our bikes there and take a picnic and kick the ball around. Benoit and Louis like to go to Project Aegis on Taojiang Lu, which is actually a coffee shop and a men’s clothing store. They also have classic video games upstairs which the kids like to play.

Chinese New Year Destination

This year, we are going to Siem Reap in Cambodia but we have had some really great Chinese New Years. We have been to Vietnam and Thailand in the past and we really loved them both.

Unique thing about Shanghai

It is so metropolitan, and so open-minded and integrated compared to the rest of China. Obviously that’s what makes it easy to live here as an expat. Other big cities in China just simply aren’t like Shanghai. Shanghai isn’t about its past, but instead, it’s always about the future. It’s always on the forefront of what’s new and the entrepreneurial spirit here is amazing.

Places for kids to play

Often we do galleries or museums like the Natural History Museum. Louis has started art classes that we do together at J Gallery. The kids get to visit an art gallery and then paint or draw a piece that is based on what they were just shown and he really enjoys it.

Place to relax

We have found this really beautiful bookstore called The Mix Place in these Sinan Mansion-type buildings on Hengshan Lu. They have Chinese and English art books, as well as an amazing selection of obscure art and design magazines. There are beautiful sofas that you can sit on and read while enjoying some natural sunlight from the windows. There’s also a small café downstairs—it’s a great place to get some quiet time.