nytraveler

I think looking at the Louvre as just a museum with painting is a major issue. No 9 year old is going to want to spend more than a little while looking at paintings. You definitely need to explore some other sections - and possibly take turns taking the child to other departments while the adults look at their favorite paintings.

cynthia_booker

I doubt the art in any museum is the most important aspect of a child's visit. Children can be absorbed in so many things. But them an expensive toy and they are more interested in the box, you know? They may look at the people, the floors, the windows, occasionally the art. If the adults are expected to entertain the child, that is part of the problem. Walk along with her, hold her hand, talk to her about the entire experience, and take frequent breaks.

danon

" children can be absorbed in so many things"

from an early age, my parents took me to major cities in Europe...
I am sure we visited museums, cannot say I remembered a single exhibit.

What stayed with me was the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
It was big and strange, and we climbed up...

AliciaJ

To stretch out your time as much as possible you should check out a scavenger hunt book we found extremely useful on our Paris trip: 'Mission Paris'. It has a detective/spy theme that kids (esp. boys) enjoy & gets them interested in visiting the sites. It bought us extra time at the Louvre as well as the other monuments in the book.

Also, another tried and tested idea for the Louvre (or any other museum) is to go to the gift store before you begin the visit and buy postcards of things to find inside.

HappyTrvlr

My young grandchildren preferred the following to the Louvre: L'Orangerie, Musee d'Orsay, Musee Rodin's sculpture garden outside, and the boy loved the Military museum at or near Les Invalides. In London we had to drag them out of the British Museum. I think we spent an hour at the Louvre.

Gretchen

Take them to the basement to see how the chateau was built.
The post card idea is great--sort of akin to the scavenger hunt. Our museum here has one for kids.
Be aware that not all wings are open every day. We chose one in the Michelin Green Guide and it was closed the day we were there so have a backup.

JenniferCO

WOW! So many replies I can't possibly reply to them all. First of all, we took her to Orlando (Disneyworld, Seaworld, etc) with a day trip to the Dali museum in St Petersburg for me. Guess what she talked about for the next year? It was the Dali museum. And to be fair she did last about 2 hours there, when she was 7. She has spent much of her life in museums so it won't be anything new for her. So I guess knowing we can leave the Louvre anytime is what's important. I was mostly wondering if they had a special guide they give to children, or special children's areas. For instance at Dali they gave her a guide and it had about 20 little images and she had to find those images within the Dali paintings. Then she got a little prize when she had found them all. I never intended to force her to be miserable, I just want ways to help her last longer.

I will look on Amazon and see if they have some sort of kid's guide or book on the Louvre.

Thank you all for your input. I think the postcard idea by Crosscheck is an excellent idea. It reminds me of what they do at The Dali, which worked wonders.

crosscheck

Hi JenniferCo,

My boys were obsessed with the Dali museum in Figueras, Spain when they 11 and 14. Especially this painting:

http://www.familyaffairsandothermatt...06/dalipic.jpg

The Louvre is not as kid friendly, partly because the exhibitions cannot hold a candle to the bizarreness of Dali, and partly because it's so massive, but it sounds as if your daughter is up to the task. Enjoy!

JenniferCO

Crosscheck that made me LAUGH! That is exactly the kind of thing that fascinated my daughter! She just kept staring at paintings, then would finally say, "Why is the (insert bizarre noun) doing (insert bizarre verb)". And of course we had no idea why! LOL. Maybe I am immature for still finding his work so fascinating ha ha.

I do intend to try to make some sort of treasure hunt for her. Even if we just let her "find" the works we want to see the most, that would make her day.

kerouac

I can be a kid, too, sometimes so once I went to the Louvre and basically only looked at the ceilings: http://tinyurl.com/pop59ug

FrenchMystiqueTours

If you missed my earlier reply amid the numerous responses then indeed there is a company that does treasure/scavenger hunts at the Louvre. I only mention it because you specifically said your daughter enjoyed such an activity at another museum and that you wanted to make a treasure hunt for her and this company does exactly that. I've done the tour myself and it is well organized, interesting and fun and there are prizes. Here is the link again:

http://thatlou.com/

janisj

I do notice in the OP you say you want to spend most of the day and that you don't know if you will be back again.

Do the others feel the same way? Are you the only one so focused on the Louvre? If some/all of the others would rather spend less time (or no time) there, let them. No reason all of you need to do what only one wants.

Christina

The Dali museum isn't anything like the Louvre, don't think you can compare from that experience. I think many of the other things in the Louvre (other than paintings) wouldn't be of that much interest to a small child, either, stuff in cases, etc. I get really tired of looking at stuff in cases myself. But the section with the royal jewels and some decorative objects might be interesting, comparatively.

Most French museums do have special tours for children, but they are in French, of course. The Louvre has some for families, but they are only in French as far as I know. They do have some art trail maps for children which you can get from the visitor's desk or print out from online beforehand, you can print it in English. that would be a good idea, this is the website http://www.louvre.fr/en/parcours

here's one example
http://www.louvre.fr/en/routes/lion-hunt

They do have some books for children about the Louvre in English in the giftshop, like this one http://www.boutiquesdemusees.fr/en/s...uvre/6948.html

AlessandraZoe

JenniferCO--

Your daughter IS up to the task. She's a born art museum rat!

So as I said before, use every resource to do the treasure hunt that we created for our little one, and you're good to go.

But I would SERIOUSLY suggest that you go far beyond the Louvre. Both my kids, 4.5 years apart, did well in museums, but the youngest became my art expert.

Her Paris faves beyond the Louvre:

--Musee d'Orsay (I listed the reasons in a prior post)
--Jaquemart-Andrew (this place is a jewel-box of art, especially because our family had really a)toured Florence art and b) done an Opera Garnier tour before we visited the JA.

My two girls also loved the Pompidou AND the Picasso musees, but...
a) the Pompidou has rearranged everything so it has become "hit and miss"
b) the Picasso has been closed so long that I have no idea of their arrangement.

When we first visited the Picasso (3 times!), one started at the top floor and saw a chronological growth.

Then the Powers-that-Be totally destroyed the experience. I am longing to get back to Paris to see what has been done now after so much controversy.

The l'Orangerie was closed for the entirety of our first 7 visits to Paris. Today, we'd go back to l'Orangerie EVERY day of any stay at different hours to see how filtered sunlight impacts those paintings. And yes, we've seen Giverny.

You are closer to the heartbeat of the experience now, right?

Happy planning,
AZ

JenniferCO

kerouac that is hilarious!
FrenchMystique I will get a quote from that tour company, thanks!
janisj yes I know,,but because our kids are 9 years apart we have spent much of their lives splitting up. I would love to be able to stick together amap.
Thanks Christina, that's perfect!
Alessandra we will do the Musee d'Orsay and Rodin, definitely, and fit it whatever else we can. Thanks!

Tabernash2

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/visit...en-102633.html

:Take advantage of a children's tour of the museum. Two audio tours are available for children ages 7 to 11. Each is 90 minutes long and hits the highlights of one section of the museum. Contact the ticket office for current tours."

SueOnTheMove

Sorry, I haven't read all the responses so this may already have been suggested - but why not try taking your child to a local museum to see how she does? That will help you gauge.

Personal anecdote: I took my husband to the Louvre once....15 minutes before close so he could see the Mona Lisa. That's all he wanted to see and that's what we did. We ran through the departing throngs and craned our necks over the dilly dallying tourists in front of her to catch a quick glimpse. He has about the same attention span and my 8 year old son. Actually, less. I had my two children racing around Spain this summer and they both did very well in Museums, but the smaller city ones, not the Prado or Reina Sofia.

Good luck!

daria

I haven't read all of the replies, but I assume others have responded that it depends on the child. I have 8 year old twins, and I think they could stay at a meseum for about 3 or 4 hours, maybe a little longer, if it was broken up by lunch and perhaps a break to run around outside. However, my kids don't watch tv or play video games, so I think they are more focused and have a longer attention span for activities not involving a screen than other kids their age who are permitted a lot of screen time. Also, almost all children will do better in a museum in the morning when they are fresh, rather than in the afternoon when tired.

Underhill

I suspect that a child would enjoy seeing the Egyptian collection, which is most atmospheric in the evening. A 9-year-old might find it pleasantly creepy even.

kerouac

"But wait! We haven't seen that floor yet!" -- That's how my brother and I used to act when our mother was worn out after hours in the Louvre.