How can our teens meet other teens on our trip to Paris?
 

We're taking 2 teens, a 13 year old boy and his 15 year old sister, to Paris for 6 days this summer. We (parents) have traveled there before, recently, and feel comfortable with all the "usual" things - museums, metro, monuments, etc. I have received a multitude of helpful suggestions through this forum with restaurants (especially the Eiffel Tower!), etc., but I still feel lacking in how to get them to meet others their age (no video arcades, please!). <BR> <BR>I read with interest the excellent notes posted recently by Dianne ("Just returned...") and noticed her teens went to a club (the Rex, which is, coincidently, near our hotel). Would it be safe, advisable, etc. for mine to spend an hour or so there, or at any other club you know? Can someone amplify on the roller blading experience she references on Friday evenings? <BR> <BR>My daughter is taking her third year of French and part of the reason for the trip is to encourage her to use the language a bit. She travels well with my son. Also, both are well-traveled (USA) and responsible (really!) and we trust them to do things on their own together, we just don't want to be stupid about it. <BR> <BR>I reviewed my favorite web sites today in the "traveling with children" categories and found them all pretty much limited to toddler age. There's not much help for us with teens! <BR> <BR>Anyone....?

Just one block south of the Louvre there is a little square, where there is a ton of skateboarding often times. <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Rex

I believe there is a web site on roller blading in Paris. I don't have the address, but maybe another poster does-or do a search on google. From what I read, people just show up around the Eiffel Tower late on a Friday night. But, I think the skating begins at another location.

We took our daughters to Europe aged 14 and 16. About six months before we left home they started writing to other children in France & Germany and developed a penfriendship. This was arranged by the language teacher at school. The European kids were so excited to meet their penpals and they had a great time shopping etc together and the local kids knew where to go, what were safe areas and what were not.

Hi, glad you enjoyed my post. There is a web site on the skating. It is www.pari-roller.com. Click on the English flag. I got the address when I asked a question about the skating on this forum before we left and got a lot of positive feedback. Maybe you can find my past question under France if you do a search! The skaters are police escorted through streets of Paris every Friday night from 10:00pm to 1:00am as long as it doesn't rain. My 17(soon to be 18) year old daughter and her friend really wanted to do this after seeing an article about it in Life magazine. I e-mailed the web site about where to rent roller blades and protective gear in Paris because I didn't want to lug their skates over, and they answered me right away in English and gave me an address in the Latin Quarter of a shop that rented them. Unfortunatly I waited too late to rent the skates and the shop was closed at 7:00pm. I should have rented them in the morning before we went out sightseeing. Depending on how well your teens skate, there is also a milder version every Sunday in the afternoon. We saw this group skate by when we went to Pere-Lachaise Cemetery and they looked like they were having so much fun! <BR> <BR>As far as the Rex Club goes, your teens may be too young but since you are staying near there maybe you could take a look at it and see. It's really for 18 to 28 years old according to Frommer's guide book. My daughter wanted to go when she had heard from a French friend that Prince and Michael Jackson frequented there. <BR> <BR>As far as other places to meet teens - they liked the Latin Quarter(where we stayed) and the Champs-Elysees. We let them shop along the Champs by themselves for a little while, while we waited in a cafe. My daughter has had 4 years of French so this trip was great for her to practice French. Your teens will have a great time. Our only problem was that the European boys tended to be very outgoing and were stopping the girls and flirting too much! If anything, it was good for their egos.

Thanks to Dianne and all who took the time to answer. I feel almost prepared! I've looked at the "pari-roller" website (English translation is down, but using Alta Vista Babelfish worked well). I think we'll skip the club and I'll let the kids decide if they want to skate on Fri or with the younger Sun crowd. Thanks again and au revoir...