What time is your return flight from Paris? I would not risk not staying in Paris day before return flight - French train strikes for one thing can always pop up.

I’m not sure but thank you for the heads up! If the strikes are an issue, my sister suggested when we land in Paris to go straight to the second destination for x days first, then spend the last half of the trip back Paris where we depart so that way we won’t miss our flight and only have two hotel moves. I’m not crazy about going somewhere mellow then busy though.

Can anyone suggest places to visit in and around Bruges that will be fun and leisurely with a 2 year old?

I wouldn't stay several days in Bruges - 2 days fine for leisurely poking around and are day trips like to nearby Gent or North Sea Coast as recommended above and even Brussels for a day or Antwerp but taking trains with 2 yr-old every day not always fun either.

But good idea ending in Paris - and could land somewhere else and end up in Paris.

We don't mind train rides under an hour if it means getting to explore plenty of places but still sleeping in the same hotel.

How does this itinerary look? I guess If we stay in Paris and Bruges as our 2 home bases that Amsterdam or Swiss cities will be out of the picture as a day trip? Forgive me, I know nothing about Belgium and am just beginning my research!

Day 1 - Land in Paris, Take train to Bruges
Day 2 - Explore Bruges
Day 3 - Explore Bruges
Day 4 - Day trip to Ghent or North Sea Coast or Antwerp or Brussels
Day 5 - Day trip to Ghent or North Sea Coast or Antwerp or Brussels or other suggestion
Day 6 Train to Paris
Day 7 - Paris
Day 8 - Paris
Day 9 - Versailles
Day 10 - Paris
Day 11 - Home

I’d like to throw in Strasbourg, Bordeaux (the town) and Nantes as small, mellow but still interesting enough towns in to the mix.

Thank you, vinoroma!

Bordeaux is not a town. It's a major, major city, enormous, and it's hardly on the outskirts of Paris, though it's easy enough to get to on the TVG now.

I think staying in Gent and doing Brugge as a daytrip is far better than using Brugge as a base.

Or use Antwerp as your base. It's on the Thalys line, so easy travel to Paris, but also to Rotterdam (not to be missed and an hour away) and Brugge and the coast are easily reachable by train. So is Brussels.

When we traveled with our kids at that age we always rented cars outside of the bigger cities. This makes it a lot easier to do day trips especially to locations in the countryside. Would you consider doing that for a few days?

Dijon or Beaune were other destinations I thought of for the part of your trip after Paris.

Take one day from Bruges and do a day trip to Antwerp or WW1 sites like Ypres or Brussels.

We took our kids on a Paris/Rome trip and really appreciated our week in between in lovely Lucca. It was the kids favorite. It's a walled city without many cars. Highly recommend it for kids.

Did you take your kids to Collodi, a hill town perched about Lucca and home to Pinocchio - lots of Pinocchio-themed things there that kids could like. Otherwise an ordinary hill town.

I'm not sure I'd want to land in Paris after an 8+ hour flight with a 2 year old, and immediately take them on a train to Bruges, with all the luggage, lack of sleep, etc? Better to be in Paris for several days, then take a train to your other, quieter, destination such as the Loire Valley for example, where it's easier to plan out sightseeing around a two year old's nap time and which will have a lot less crowds in October.

We heard about it but we weren't able to make it unfortunately.