Crêpes, ice cream and other treats are everywhere. Your biggest treat will be to find them wherever you are and not drag the boys around town promising them things that perhaps (it is possible) that they won't appreciate.

Go into the nearest patisserie and let them choose what tempts them. Buy ice cream at the nearest stand (little boys are not craving the idea of standing in line at Berthillon or Amorino to try weird flavors when what they want is chocolate or vanilla). Get crêpes at a street corner where you see them being made. And little boys do not want to wait half an hour in line to go to Angelina or Ladurée to get something that they will gobble in two minutes while the adults linger unbearably.

If you want to please yourselves, go ahead and do it and listen to your kids' anecdotes about the endless waiting and boredom in 10 years when you can all laugh about it. Or please your boys by buying quick snacks of medium quality and save your quality food time for other moments.

but the Amorino gelato in the Tulleries Garden was good if you in the area (see photo half way down the blog entry)

http://ukfrey.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/paris.html

all the crepes were good -- no need to look far, just like kerouac said

French fries (frites), croissants that fall into a million flakes and it is possible that your boys might get a kick out of couscous if they have never been to a restaurant that serves it.

Anything flambeed is usually a big hit with kids. I'm sure you can track down a brasserie that flambees dishes. Maybe the would also like the charcuterie type meals with lots of mustard that brasseries serve.

I don't know why they wouldn't like croque monsieurs and other forms of "French toast." I do!

Some of this food is very "touristy" and some of the more kid-entertaining places where it is served may not be the best meal in Paris. But it will still be better than a lot of American fast food, and it might encourage your kids to take a flyer on snails served in snail shells or any other French dish you can think of that is exotic to a child -- not just sweets.

You'll be tripping over good treats no matter where in Paris you are.

Oh -- if they like cold seafood cocktails, one of the fishbowl cafes in Montparnasse that serves a shellfish tower might be a fun night.

I don't like Berthillon ice cream or Angelina's hot chocolate, and I think if you are going to eat gelato, you should come to Italy!

Crepes filled with nutella and bananas was our grandson's favorite treat as well as croissants filled with chocolate chips.

Come to think of it, I don't like Laduree or Hermes macaroons either!

My son always liked tasting what was called then Tunisian pastries but are sold in many bakeries and restaurants run by Middle East folks - they are extremely sweet and very colorful. The Latin Quarter has many of these places with the sweeet treats lovingly displayed in front windows - made for take outs. Yum, yum!

Any sort of crepe with Nutella will be a hit, I'd imagine. I only had to wait five minutes at Laduree, but maybe because I was there in March rather than high season. They were good - very sweet, sweeter than I'd been expecting. However, just going into a boulangerie and picking out something delicious will be a big treat for the boys. It's hard to go wrong!

This boulangerie near Invalides had great baked goods but also has the BEST hot chocolate I've ever had. Ever.

http://www.lebestofparis.com/shhhh/le-boulanger-des-invalides-jocteur

How much you want to give your boys exposure to the risque side of Paris is something to consider.

From a recent travel article in Guardian about strolling in the Marais:

"There are still cake shops along Rue Sainte Croix de la Bretonnerie and Rue des Rosiers, but fewer offer challah and strudel. At the two Legay Choc bakeries, the big sellers are bread rolls and jam tarts shaped like hefty genitalia. And Louise smiles at a sign outside the confectionery Les Paris Gourmandes on Rue des Archives.

"It says they sell coucougnettes."

"So?"

"It means 'testicles'."

Inside, the vendeuse, straight-faced, explains that the fuzzy pink spheroids are a typical confection of the south, made from almond paste moulded around chocolate, and we leave with a glassine bag – just the thing to pass around with coffee at the next dinner party."

Big city.

If this is the risque side of Paris, give me a dish of genuine Italian pasta with exactly the same shape !

junk food snacks don't have to be gourmet, so I wouldn't plan anything special, you'll see plenty around you, just buy what appeals when you see it. I would not spend a minute in expensive places lake Laduree or anything like that. I don't like macarons anyway, myself, but they are super expensive. I don't know if kids would like them, either.

Ice cream is pretty much always good. I like Berthillon okay but I wouldn't make a trip for it or go out of my way to buy it.

Berthillon ice cream on Ile St. Louis. Ignore zeppole on this - you won't be in Italy so get the good treat where you can. And Berthillon is world-famous so you can tick the box on a Paris landmark too. The lines vary from hour to hour (we usually got some as a late treat and the lines were not bad but that was a May trip, not summer).

I didn't say not to go to Berthillon. I said don't go to a gelateria in Paris. Go to one in Italy. It was Christina who said she wouldn't make a special trip there.

The only reason I mentioned I didn't like many famous food "treats" in Paris is to put some perspective on the view that kids should be expected to like all these things. Presumably kids have likes and dislikes when it comes to ice cream or anything they eat. They may not even like French food at all once they taste it -- and that would be okay, right? Why do people all have to like the same things? Especially something as trivial as ice cream? I know more than one person who doesn't like Berthillon ice cream.

By the way, the OP started this thread by saying an important part of the family's travel was food. The kids have got to eat something more than sweets. When I was a kid I loved scallops, mushrooms, berries, potatoes au gratin -- and I didn't grow up in France.

Can't people who've traveled to Paris recently offer some places for kids to get real food not just sugary stuff?

Hot dogs!!! from a street vendor. Seriously, actually these are excellent 'sausages' usually with melted cheese on a small open faced bagette.

Thanks for the suggestion! I was not specific enough....

My kids love sugary stuff, especially ice cream and chocolate, and also good food, sushi for example and to go to fancy restaurants, maybe once in a trip.

So, ice creams will be daily treats, we will try to go to Berthillion, what I get from your comments is that it's famous for ice creams. Great with the nutella crepes, and the croque monsieur. And we will definitely go to street vendors after your comments and to patisseries.

What about chocolates? Not hot chocolate but chocolates like dark chocolate truffles?

Mmm, chocolates. You'll find all manner of them in Paris, not least of which being the famous Maison du Chocolat. There's a little place to which I was first introduced as a student way too many years ago. It's called A la Petite Fabrique, down an odd, deserted-feeling street near the Bastille - I would only go if you're already doing something that brings you to that area. One of the things I love about them is that they make their chocolates on the premises, with a big window through from the shop in front. For many years, an elderly couple ran the place, he making the chocolates and she selling them. And while they do have all sorts of truffles and such, I love the tablettes, each flavor identified by a different color foil wrapping.

That said, I always seem to make it to the area on a day they're closed! And it's been a few years since I was there, so I would definitely call ahead. This site is in French, but is good because it shows both a photo of the storefront and a google map of the location:
http://www.amants-du-chocolat.net/mot/a-la-petite-fabrique

(Plus, a site called "the lovers of chocolate of the Parisian crown" must have more treats in store!)

// The thing about Berthillon that IMO makes it worth it is the intensity of the flavors they get into those tiny jeweled scoops! Yes there's a line, especially in the warmer months, but the location is not far from Notre Dame, so not complicated to combine with other parts of your trip. (We usually take ours back over the bridge to the gardens behind ND - if it lasts that long!)

// I have always been disappointed by sushi in Paris. But (a) I'm spoiled with quality and choice where I live, and (b) because I don't care for it there, I haven't made an attempt to search it out in Paris in quite a while.

// I was thinking about hamburgers in Paris and the local fast food chains that sell them. A google search for the same brought up this funny NY Times article from 2008:
"In Paris, Burgers Turn Chic"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/dining/16paris.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

What about chocolates? Not hot chocolate but chocolates like dark chocolate truffles?

Paves from Michel Chaudun are to die for. However they're expensive and I'm kind of with everyone else wondering if kids would truly appreciate it.

I love Berthillon ice cream!! Not going to fight over suggestions here but I would go. (the salted butter caramel is heaven).

I agree with whoever said let the kids choose what treats appeal to them. I love Gerard Mulot and Un Dimanche a Paris for pastries, macarons and chocolat. At Un Dimanche a Paris, they can see desserts and chocolat being made.

Maybe just good ole steak frites would appeal to them!