Jennifer Garner’s Paris trip with her three young children remains one of her happiest family memories, even though the calendar places it in a far more complicated chapter than the anecdote first suggests.
Speaking with Ina Garten on the Nov. 4, 2026, episode of Happy Hour, Garner recalled spending six weeks in Europe while Ben Affleck worked near London. She took Violet, Fin and Samuel out of school, a decision she apparently did not make a habit of repeating.
“When my kids were really little, I went to Paris,” Garner said. “Ben was shooting some Batman-ish movie in London and we went for six weeks. I took them out of school. It was the last time I really took kids out of school, but it was wonderful. It was incredible. It was so fun.”
When did the family trip actually happen?
Garner and Affleck married in 2005, announced their separation in June 2015 and finalized their divorce in 2018. While the trip happened before the divorce, contemporary coverage places it in May 2016, nearly a year after the couple publicly separated.
Entertainment Tonight, Us Weekly and Vanity Fair all reported on the family’s European travels at the time. The children were much younger then: Violet was 10, Fin, who was then publicly known as Seraphina, was 7, and Samuel was 4. In 2026, they are 20, 17 and 14.
A production calendar, rarely the most glamorous supporting character, also clarifies which superhero film Affleck was making. British Cinematographer reported that principal photography on Justice League began near London in April 2016 and continued until October. That makes Justice League, rather than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the production behind Garner’s “Batman-ish” description.
Us Weekly reported that Garner and the children were based with Affleck in Britain, visited Paris in early May and later met him at Venice’s Gritti Palace. The cheerful memory was real. It simply unfolded while the family was already adjusting to a separation.
How Ina Garten turned Paris into a tradition
Affleck’s film schedule provided the location, but Ina Garten supplied the part that lasted. People reported that Garten planned a Paris itinerary for Garner and Violet, including a boat ride along the Seine.
Garner said the family also moved between cities during the six-week stay. “We bopped around,” she recalled. “We went to Venice, we went to Paris.”
The river excursion made such an impression that Garner has repeated it whenever she returns to the French capital.
“I’ve done it now, every time I go,” she told Garten. “Every picture from that night, from that trip, the smile on my kids’ faces, it was such an adventure that you gave us.”
Garten has been a friend of the family for roughly a decade, and her practical travel advice appears to have endured longer than the movie production that made the trip possible. That is a respectable result for one suggested boat ride.
The same podcast conversation also included Garner’s memories of a Thanksgiving attended by Affleck and several former Alias colleagues, according to Parade. Her recollections present a family that continued sharing space and occasions even as the marriage itself was ending.
How Garner describes the separation now
Garner has not treated the broader period as uncomplicated nostalgia. In a January 2026 interview with Marie Claire UK, she said the difficult part was “the actual breaking up of a family,” especially the loss of a partnership and friendship.
That distinction matters. A happy trip can remain happy without turning the surrounding separation into a pleasant experience. Garner’s account focuses on what the children gained from those weeks abroad, not on pretending the family’s circumstances were simple.
She has since described Affleck as an “incredible co-parent.” The former couple, both 54, have continued raising their children together since ending their marriage.
Affleck offered similarly warm comments during an Oct. 11 appearance on Sunday Today with Willie Geist. He called Garner a “spectacular” mother and joked that her parenting sometimes made him feel inadequate.
He said he tells the children he is “doing about 75 percent as good as your mom.” Their response, according to Affleck, is less generous: “Maybe 40 percent.”
“I’m maxing out,” he joked. “Woo, B+!”
More seriously, Affleck said mutual respect has been central to their arrangement. “I respect her,” he said. “I think the most important thing is having that mutual respect, being able to get along with that person.”
The Paris memory fits that larger picture. It was not evidence of a marriage without problems. It was a successful family adventure during a difficult transition, helped along by Garten, a boat and three children who were temporarily excused from school.
