famtrav12

Getting close to our trip in a few weeks and still struggling with a reasonable itinerary for our 1st trip to Paris, 2 adults and 3 kids, age 8, 10, 10. Want to mix culture with outdoor fun for the kids. Our kids appreciate good food and are adventurous eaters and know how to behave in restaurants. Please give thoughts or suggestions. I'd also appreciate any restaurant recommendations. The only set plans are tickets I booked for a tour of the Eiffel tower and the bunker underneath it on Wed evening. Tickets were sold out for the lifts, so this seemed like the best way to get to the 2nd level and the tour sounded interesting. Also booked a bike tour/train trip to Giverny for our last full day

SUNDAY
We arrive in the afternoon on a Sunday and will check into our hotel in the 7th Arondisement. It would be nice to stroll around, get aquainted and take in the general feel of Paris. Would like to have dinner is a nice but family friendly restaurant and then go on a cruise of the Siene, probably Vedettes du Pont Neuf. Any reccommendation and where to stroll those first few hours and specific dinner reccomendations? The hotel appears to be close to Les Invalides, Musse Rodin and Champs De Mars. Should we head there before dinner?

MONDAY
Do our own walking tour: Ile de la Cite, Notre Dame, Ile St.Louis (stop for Gelato at Amorino). For the 2nd part of the day I'm considering Left bank, St Severin, St Michel, Latin Quarter, St Chapelle. Does it make sense to group these on 1 day?

TUESDAY
Musee D'Orsay, the Marias and Jewish Quarter, Montmare and Sacre Coure

Would it make sense and fit to go to Champs Elysees and climb the Arc du Triomphe on Monday or Tuesday?

WEDNESDAY
Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries, Palais Royal, Jardin Luxemborg, Pantheon

THURSDAY
Bike tour to Monets Garden. Any dinner reccomendations near St Lazare station after we return from biking?

I've tried putting this together with guide books but with no personla knowledge feel a bit lost. I'd appreciate any guidance, changes reccomended to itinerary or grouping of places, dining reccomendations, etc.

Thanks

StCirq

Do you have a good map? Tuesday, you're all over the place. I never thought climbing the Arc de Triomphe was that big a deal - sure, it's fun to watch the cars below trying to get into and out of the Etoile, but apart from that, not that interesting.

I'd throw in some more kid-oriented things - Deyrolles, the Cité de Science...that sort of thing.

My kids had all kinds of favorite restaurants in the 7ème: Le Florimond, Auberge de Bressanne, Punjab, the Thai place on Avenue Duquesne...but their favorite was always Pizza Tina.

jgg

I agree that you need to look at a map. I suggest the Streetwise maps (those are my favorite). You have things put together that aren't near each other. For example Jardin Luxemborg & Pantheon are in/near the Latin Quarter so do them that day, not with the Louvre/Palais Royal. On Tuesday you are really all over the city - and I have to say the metro in Paris is great, but not quite as extensive as the subways in NYC or tube in London, so some walking is often inevitable.

I think the bike ride in Giverny sounds like a great idea. We did not do one in Paris, but have done bike rides in other cities and always really love it!

We were in Paris for a week when our kids were 10 and 13. Here is a link to my trip report which includes where we ate, what we did each day as well as pictures. You may find it helpful:
http://www.fromhometoroam.com/2012/05/a-week-in-paris/

Just FYI - our kids have always been good eaters and can enjoy a meal in any restaurant so these are not necessarily just "kid friendly" places.

Lexma90

Sainte Chapelle is on Ile de la Cite, so you should group that for Mon morning, along with Notre Dame, etc. That day makes sense, except that it will be a lot of walking.

Wed, Jardin Luxembourg and the Pantheon are not near the other places you mentioned, but easy enough to get to by Metro, as already mentioned. I thought the Pantheon was "ok;" we went there primarily because Victor Hugo is buried there, and our son is a big fan. If you do go to the Pantheon, the food market on nearby rue Mouffetard can be fun. Though interestingly, when we visited when our son was 10, he thought it was boring, but when we went to a different French market 2 years later, he thought it was great!

On Sundays, there's a bird and small animal market on Ile de la Cite; kids usually like that (our 10yo son did).

Go to Champs Elysees and the Arc du Triomphe on whatever day it fits in; if you have time on Sunday, go there then.

On Sunday, the Champs de Mars is the big open area next to the Eiffel Tower, so if you want to go for great views of the Eiffel Tower, that would be good. Musee Rodin is a great small museum, so if you and your family are interested in Rodin's sculptures, that would be a good intro to culture for your first day. And we've never been to Les Invalides, so I can't comment there.

There were quite a few restaurant recommendations given in response to your earlier thread. What do you mean by "family friendly restaurants?" Noisy? Casual? Kids menus? All of the restaurants that I mentioned on your earlier thread, other than those that I said we'd never been to, are restaurants we've taken our kids to, at the ages or 10 or 11yo.

amamax2

My boys at 9 & 11 LOVED the Musee de l'Armee (Les Invalides), but I'm not sure you will have time to do more than a quick cruise through on Sunday, depending upon what time you get settled into the hotel. We easily spent half a day there - make sure to go to the section with the dioramas (I'm sorry, I can't think of the name.)

A good plan for Sunday would be Rodin Museum (even just the sculpture garden), wander through the Champs du Mars and see the Eiffel Tower, then a nice dinner, and end with the Seine Cruise. Or as Lexma suggested, Champs Elysee and Arc de Triomphe since you will see Champs du Mars on your Eiffel Tower day.

Since you are staying close to Les Invalides, I would save that for a different day - I *think* they are open late on Tuesdays? Maybe do that Tues night after dinner since then you could go straight back to the hotel and crash.

Luxembourg Garden on Wed is good as the playground is open. My kids loved playing on equipment unlike any in the our town and interacting with the French kids.

famtrav12

Thanks for the advice. I bought my kids a Paris guidebook for kids and now they're begging me to go on the Sewer tour. They read about it and are intrigued. With such limited amount of time, I doubt this is worthwhile. Any thoughts?

famtrav12

Sorry, I know my itinerary is all over the place. My difficulty is figuring out how much walking is feasible and how easy it into cross the Siene. I've edited the itinerary after studying the map and your comments.

SUNDAY
Arrive at hotel 3pm, go to Musee Rodin and Champ de Mars. Dinner and then a cruise on the Siene. If we have dinner near Champ de Mars, is there a closer cruise to take? We were planning on Vedettes Pont Nuef but that is far away.

MONDAY
Do our own walking tour: Ile de la Cite, Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle,Ile St.Louis (stop for Gelato at Amorino).
For the 2nd part of the day: instead of Left bank, St Severin, St Michel, and Latin Quarter, what if we went to the Louvre, Palais Royal and Jardin des Tuileries instead? Is that too much for one day? Since we will be near Pont Neuf we could do the cruise that night instead of Sunday. Does this make more sense?

TUESDAY
Musee d'Orsay after breakfast, then take the metro to SacreCour and Montmartre after lunch. Go back to hotel area for dinner and go to nearby Les Invaildes (open till 9pm), . Would it be reasonable to walk the champs élysées and arc de triumphe after Orsay and then take a metro to Sacre Cour?


WEDNESDAY
Latin Quarter, Jardin Luxemborg, Marais and Jewish quarter (can we walk from Latin Quarter is should we take Metro?). Then a metro back to Eiffel for 5pm tour.

Does this itinerary make more sense?

THURSDAY
Bike tour to Monets Garden.

Again, sorry for my lousy map skills

adrienne

The sewer tour is pretty interesting. There are board displays telling about the Paris sewers and audios available. In Les Miserables, Jean Val Jean escaped through the sewers. Perhaps you could find a Juvenile version of the book and read it together.

The Paris pneumatic postal system ran predominantly through the sewer system. They might be interested to know about the pheumatic tubes delivering mail.

As an adult, the sewers were among the first thing I wanted to visit, mostly because of reading Les Miserables.

You can go to the sewers and if they are disinterested after a short while you can leave and go on to something else.

http://en.parismuseumpass.com/musee-...e-paris-23.htm

Monday afternoon is fine. The Palais Royal and Tuileries are just looking around and you can spend as little or as much time as you want. You don't have to walk the entire Tuileries.

If you swapped Tuesday afternoon for Wednesday morning you could take a 2 hour walking tour of Montmartre and learn some history of the area. You begin at metro Abbesses and end at Sacre Coeur.

http://www.paris-walks.com/summer-walks.html

It's very walkable from the Latin Quarter to the Marais. It would probably be a pain to take the metro.

Put post it flags on your map for the places you want to visit. It helps to locate everything and then see what makes sense geographically.

Digbydog

We visited the Louvre with our children as soon as it opened. It gets quite busy as the day goes on, and as a result, more overwhelming. Also, I believe Ste. Chappelle is better viewed in the afternoon when the sun is shining through the stained glass. So I think I would switch Monday around.