rebk

Hi

We're going to Paris in august for 5 days with our teenage daughter

I need help with itinerary for our trip. I would like to make it more about Parisian life and culture then museums, even though major museums is the must.


please, help

travelhorizons

Look at this webpage from a Parisian tour guide: http://parispersonalized.com/charmed.html

It will give you 17 ideas for walking tours of Paris, I think a good starting point for coming up with ideas. Show the page to your daughter, and let her tell you what looks interesting to her.

sandralist

Paris is a modern capital city with many different facets, similar to New York or London or Dehli or Tokyo. People of high ambition settle there, and pursue their professional careers. If your daughter and your family have particular interests then you can find in Paris something that matches that interest. If you want people here to help you find it, you need to say what that interest is.

If your teenager is still developing her own interests, then there is plenty in Paris in August to enjoy and experiment with that isn't about museums: historic bookshops, historic department stores, lovely historic gardens (try the Rodin garden and the Luxembourg), bike tours, boat tours and walking tours -- plus interesting aspects of contemporary life in Paris, like a middle-eastern inflected bathouse and pop music concerts. Again, the more you tell people about your family's interests -- whether you prefer nature-oriented activities or shopping, or whether you are happy strollers or speed demons who would love the metro and the taxi rides, the better help you will get.

mamcalice

Look for some trip reports on this forum from those who have taken their teenagers to Paris. My great niece, 17, just spent a week in Paris with a student group. Her favorite thing was the Louvre. Go figure! Give your daughter some guidebooks to read and get some ideas from her. The Musee D'Orsay, a Seine River cruise on the Vedettes du Pont Neuf, a trip to Ste. Chapelle, the Orangerie, the Tuilleries, and the Unicorn tapestries at the Cluny would be among my favorite things but yours and your daughter's might be entirely different.

Keep looking here for ideas - there are so many.

rebk

Thanks for information

another problem, i was just trying to reserve tickets on line for Eiffel Tower, but everything is sold out for our dates

Any ideas?

Thank you very much in advance

adrienne

Eiffel Tower - Stand in line to buy tickets or climb the first 2 levels. The stair tickets are readily available.

<< I would like to make it more about Parisian life and culture then museums, even though major museums is the must. >>

I think you're short changing Paris museums. Most of them are about life and culture.

There are 3 period houses, costume museum, post office museum, music museum, Carnavalet Museum (history of Paris), Rodin (and at least 3 other sculpture museums), Victor Hugo's house, Deportation Memorial, Conciergerie, Jewish Museum, Doll Museum, sewers, and many others reflecting life and culture.

I've been to Paris several times and recently learned of two museums I was unfamiliar with.

rebk

thanks, Adrienne

I understand that I would be able to buy tickets for stairs and get to the second level?

adrienne

Yes - stair tickets take you to the second level.

nytraveler

Absolutely have your daughter look at all of the info available - esp the Let's Go Student Guide - which will give her info on where kids her age gather in Paris.

When we took out teen DDs they especially loved the Cluny Museum (of medieval life), the Ile St Louis, and exploring the shopping areas and cafes where student hung out. And they adored the opportunity to practice their French - make sure your daughter at least knows the basic greetings and polite phrases if she is not studying French.

giro

I would think Monmarte with all the artists etc on the plaza would be a fun experience. Also, walking along the canal St. Martin is a lot of fun as the cafes and stores are all packed with teens and young adults. If you are free on a Sunday, walking through the Bastille Market and then up to the Canal area is nice.

Lexma90

Have you visited bit cities in the U.S. with your daughter? If so, what did you and she enjoy doing there? That should give you some ideas for Paris.

My teenaged kids (now a 19yo DS and 15yo DD) really like museums, the art museums primarily. DD also likes what I call "house museums" - smaller museums that were formerly homes. Two that we like in Paris are Musee Jacquemart and Musee Marmatton. For some reason, my kids have not liked the Rodin museum, but both liked the Cluny. I think those kinds are kind of personal preference. (And of course the Louvre and d'Orsay.)

For their first evening in Paris, a nighttime cruise on the Seine; we prefer the smaller boats that depart from the Pont Neuf.

Taste-testing macarons at a variety of patisseries. Lots of cafes. Depending on your daughter's age, she may be of age to drink in France. But even without alcohol, time at a cafe is great for people-watching and a rest for legs tired from sight-seeing.

Each of my kids has gone through a phase of liking the Impressionists, so they did like visiting Monmartre. Rick Steves has a good walking tour of the area.

We're big foodies, so Paris is always about lots of great French food, from a picnic lunch with local cheese and bread and a bottle of wine, to a Michelin-starred restaurant. The kids like the variety too.

cmm6797

We just returned from 11 days in Paris with our 10 and 13 year-old daughters. Climbing the Eiffel Tower was one of the highlights for all of us. We arrived there at around 8:30 one evening and there was no line to buy tickets for the stairs. (It had rained earlier so maybe that kept people away?). It took about 5 mins to get to the 1st floor, where we took a bunch of pictures, and another 5 or so minutes to get to the 2nd floor. The stairs are very easy and it's fun for kids, even teens. All in all spent about an hour "in" the tower. We walked back down and bought some snacks in the area and waited for the tower to light up, which it did at 10:00. The kids loved seeing it lit up. I would recommend doing it and not worry at all about not being able to get elevator tickets.

We went to many museums but didn't insist that we stay too long, as our kids don't love museums. Musee L'orangerie was a favorite because it's rather small and manageable. The English audio guide was very helpful. Then you can roam the Tuileries.

Another favorite activity was browsing the street markets. We went to one right outside the Maubert metro stop.

Don't forget to enjoy the many different pastries! You don't need to go to a well known shop and wait in long lines to get delicious desserts. We loved Popelini in the Marais for cream puffs and neighborhood patisseries for all sorts of desserts.

BumbleB6

rebk, Try booking a tour of Paris sights that includes going into the Eiffel Tower. That's what we did when we found individual tickets were all sold out.
We went in March and the lines at the Tower to buy tickets were VERY LONG.
We booked a tour through Viator of Paris at night. It included a cruise on the Seine at dusk, then a bus tour, then climbing, or riding the elevator to the second level of Tour Eiffel, all at night. Of course, you will want to go back to the places you see on the tour and stay longer... But it was a good intro for my teen daughter, who'd never been to Paris.