Interesting stuff to do in Paris for a difficult to entertain 17 yr old
 

Hello everyone,

My husband and I (we're in our 20's) are taking my brother to Paris in a couple of weeks. None of us have been there so I am not sure what to expect. I would love nothing more than to spend my time in the museums, but my 17-yr brother has already objected going to more than a couple of them.
Any ideas of “cool” places we can enjoy all together. I’ll attempt to talk him into doing all touristy stuff but I have to have back up plans.
One idea I have is to do walking tours in English. Any recommendations?
Also, given the present situation, what public transportation would you recommend we take from CDG?

Thank you.
Hello everyone,

My husband and I (we're in our 20's) are taking my brother to Paris. None of us have been there so I am not sure what to expect. I would love to spend time

When I took my son to Paris, when he was 17, he just wanted to walk and walk and walk, buy a few things, visit Versailles, and talk French to storekeepers, transit workers, etc. So that's what he did all day and had a good time. I just went and did my own thing during the day.

If you want walking tours, try http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pariswalking/
I liked the walking tours I took from there.

For transit, maybe you would like to take a taxi in, given the warnings against taking the RER through suburban areas.

I don't want to sound harsh, but what a brat. If he's old enough to come with you, and you are wonderful enough to bring him along on your vacation with your husband, then maybe he should pick up a few guidebooks and plan some of his own sightseeing to do while you are in museums.

Honestly, if he is so disinterested in travel to a new country that you have to "talk him into" doing touristy stuff, then maybe you or your parents should save the money and leave him at home.

If he has to come along, then get him the Lonely Planet guidebook and tell him to find some cool things for all of you to do. This will also give him a chance to learn about French culture so that he is able to navigate and knows what to expect. Being suddenly immersed in another culture can make some kids really grouchy ( I think this comes from insecurity and fear.) I teach them, so I know how great and how poisonous the same kid can be depending on mood. If he is prepared for the culture shock, he should enjoy himself more.

You are a wonderful sister to do this, and I hope he doesn't ruin your trip by going into surly teenager mode. If all else fails, there are lots of American movies in English showing in Paris, so park him there and go enjoy yourself.

Unless he is a "young" 17 year old, he will find plenty to do and you won't have to entertain him. The metro is easy to use and he can do his own thing some days - you don't need to be connected at the hip 24/7.

I'd do all the museums and touristy things you want and he can accompany you -- or not. Or he can start out w/ you each day and then take off once he is museumed-out.

One thing he will enjoy for sure is one of the Segway tours - but they are expensive.

Unless your brother is the most travelled worldly 17 year old, I think what you are doing by taking him to Paris IS entertaining and interesting.
Just being there will be Cool. Believe me, you will all be interested, find most of it very cool and it will be a great experience.
I suggest the Louvre one day and a few days later, the D'Orsay.
Take a taxi from CDG.
In a few weeks, they might have the ice skating at Hotel deVille..City Hall. See if he wants to do the Sewers of Paris tour..
I agree with janis, I heard that the Segways are $95 a person, but they do sound so fun and perfect for young'uns.
The Christmas markets will be open around town, climb Notre Dame and get up close and personal with the gargoyles, take a bateau mouche ride, before Christmas, they light up the Champs Elysses ..

Oh ... gift your brother with a guide book and let him read and pick out things that appeal to him ..

Have fun !

HIGHLY recommend the Segway tour! But, recommend saving it for your last or next to last day so he'll have that to look forward to the rest of the trip.

Paris-Story may be of interest (we loved it!). The website www.paris-story.com seems to be "broken" at the moment, but you can find out more about this with a web search.

Great fun is Musee Grevin - a wax museum with other features. Celebrities, but also a fabulous "tour" of the history of France.

From CDG, take a taxi. Just head for the queue and the drivers will take care of you and your bags. (Best is to print out a mao of your hotel location ahead of time.)

I can well understand a 17-year old boy not wanting to spend a lot of time in museums.

In addition to the Segway tours, the same company offers bicycle tours - you may want to send him on a day and/or evening tour on his own.

If he's going to be out on his own, just make sure he knows how to keep his valuables secure to avoid any pickpocketing possibilities.

First, I personally would not take him. You are going to pay money to take along someone who will ruin your trip?

If you must take this immature person, I would do what someone else suggeted.
Let him pick his own places to go, give him transit tickets, and let him go on his own. If he gets lost, perhaps it will mature him some.

I just hope he does not do what one idiot female in Paris did. She dropped her passport in the Metro station (Edgar Quinet on Blvd Raspail near Montparnasse) and went off and left it.

Fortunately, the ticket seller saw the passport lying in the tunnel leading to the gates. He retrieved the passpsort and kept it safely behind the window.

Later he saw me and my wife walking by and hailed us in English to ask if the girl was staying at our hotel. She wasn't, but I called the American embassy to report the loss, figuring that if I lost my passport I would have to contact the embassy.

The embassy person I talked to was highly disinterested. (Lot of help our own agency is in time of need!) But that is another story.

I know people talk about rude French, and there are things that happen to me in Paris that don't happen elsewhere, but I have also found people to be helpful on several occasions.

Also, I think it hits at the heart of the silly aspects of these people who ask how to fit in when in Europe.
Well, I don't know the answer because I sure as heck cannot.

Although we dress in decent dark clothes, without jeans or loud shirts or baseball caps, we are so obviously American that just about every Paris resident knows it as soon as they see us.

Perhaps I should let my hair grow over my ears and collar, let my beard grow, and buy a new wardrobe in Paris.
Then if I acted like a mute, I might fool a 3 year old.

it'll be great!
"yes" to getting him a guidebook (lonely planet or rough guide are geared toward students) and have him make a list of things he'd like to do. some you may want to do together, some on his own.
a few thoughts: the catacombs; the cemetary du pere-lachaise where chopin, oscar wilde, jim morrison, gertrude stein & alice b. toklas, and so many other celebrities are buried (you can get a map to where they all are); does he skateboard? there are areas in paris (trododero for one?) where he could skate with a bunch of other kids; he can have wine at restaurants (if it's ok w/you); the army museum at les invalides; pompidou center modern art museum in very cool building; did someone mention bicycle tour.... and if he's anything like most kids, he'll want to spend some time playing games at an internet cafe too. :) no matter what his interests are, there will be lots to intrigue, entertain & enlighten him.
caution: give yourselves 36 - 48 hours for jet lag to wear off. until then, take it really easy and don't have him head off on his own. too easy to get disoriented & lost or ripped off when your head is in a fog. and make sure he (and you) has a money belt, the address to your hotel, a map and metro or cab fare.
what worked for my son & me: went to lots of museums, but never more than 1 1/2 - 2 hours at a time. got a museum pass which made it easy to pop into almost any museum for a quick visit, choose one wing or floor to tour, then out again for coffee or a bite to eat. (since then, i decided that's a great way to do museums even w/out a kid along - i stay much fresher.)
enjoy! what a treat for all of you!

Give him a guidebook and arrange a time and place to eat each evening. Simple.

Engage Michael Osman for a day tour. He will turn him around.

Your brother might think that museums are full of old dusty boring paintings. If you get him into the Louvre be sure that he sees the Napoleon apartments and the decorative arts sections at the d'Orsay; the furniture and "things" might be of more interest to him and painting etc. Good advice above about keeping visitis short and breaking them up with a break for snakc/lunch. An audio guide at the museums might be a good idea too

I'll bet he would enjoy the Invalides and especially the Musee de l'Armee, with its huge collection of military stuff-swords, cannon by the hundreds, all the colorful uniforms (and if I remember correctly, Napoleon's white horse, stuffed.)

Also recommend a day with Michael Osman.

Byrd

Fat Tire Bikes in Paris has already been mentioned for very good reason! They are perfect for the kid or kid at heart. We did the Segway tour (our ages ranged from mid-30's to mid-60's) and we were all delighted! The bikes as mentioned are better on the budget but less novel.

I enjoyed going to the Virgin music store and spent hours listening to French music at the listening stations.

Did anyone mention the Seine boat tours? You see all ages enjoying them. I wouldn't spend the money for the dinner/dancing version though!

We had our teenagers in Paris in June and they LOVED it. Here is my old trip report:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34644730

My kids din't exactly have "run of the town," but we were staying near Rue Mouffetard and they'd wander down there to see what was happening, eat crepes, use the internet cafe.

They enjoyed the museums (it helps if your teen traveler knows a LITTLE about a few pieces of art before he gets there).

I was not able to get them to spend much time pre-trip with travel books. (One was up to his neck in college applications, the other was up to his neck in computer games.) It didn't seem to matter. They had a great time.

The Segway tour was a hit.

I did (amazingly) run into a family with some truly spoiled and whining teenagers in Rome. We were unlucky enough to be eating next to them at a restaurant. The daughter BEGGING for a very expensive designer handbag (she got it). The son "bored" and rude. I wouldn't have taken them to McDonalds much less Rome. Yuk.

What's he interested in?

He might to see the Friday night roller-blade parade. It's dependent on the weather, of course, but the plan is to start at 10pm from outside the Tour Montparnasse. The route is announced each week at http://www.pari-roller.com/parcours.php?pid=0x0a

I don't think there's anything in the original post that made this 17-yr old sound so terrible or like a brat. Basically, shternm made it sound like she talked about wanting to go to museums a lot and every day, and he just said he only wanted to go to a couple. What's wrong with that. I personally don't think a 17-yr old boy is going to be thrilled with Louis XIV apartments and stuff like that, either, and wouldn't recommend tours of human sewage systems as a good use of time in a foreign city.

I think a lot of people that age, or any age who don't like being in museums a lot, just like walking around and looking at things in a foreign city and looking at other tourists, and just seeing the city -- there are plenty of areas to walk around near the center. Kids that age seem to like walking on the Champs-Elysees, around the Latin Qtr on bd St-Michel and in that warren of streets with a lot of tourists near the Seine, along the quais, along bd St-Germain, around Les Halles, the Trocadero, around Sacre Coeur, and places like that.

He might enjoy just hanging out in music stores, Virgin or FNAC stores, and places like that with a lot of other people that age, and you might not want to do that -- although I like browsing in record stores, also -- but you could easily split ways for a bit and agree to meet later on in a few hours at some point.

I do think the Segway tour might be a hit, but it is expensive. There are also some bike tour companies, and they have tours at night when the buildings are lit up -- that might be fun.

Our 3 18 year olds loved anything suggested by Michael Osman (you can find him throughout this website). His tours were great and was anything we wanted. Other than that, they loved a few bars for music, shopping (girls),climbing monuments, high tea at Mariage? Freres?....

Thank you so much for all of your replies.
Not only did it give me ideas of where to go but also put my brother’s attitude in perspective. I think that he doesn’t know what to expect from his first trip so far away from home and his initial reaction is of rejection. That combined with his not quite adult maturity worried me when I wrote initial post.
But I feel better now to handle 5 days/4 nights with him.
My plan in no particular order:
Notre Dame
Invalides/Napoleon’s Tomb
Louvre
Musee d’Orsay
Arc de Triomphe
Catacombs
Sewers of Paris Tour
Versailles
Hopefully that’s not too much. What do you all think?

Questions beg more questions – so here goes……

Michael Ossman tour – I found his website but no prices. Does anyone know how much he charges?

PatrickLondon – rollerblade parade sounds like a lot of fun but the website is in French. Can you help?

Wliwl – why did you find Rick Steve’s book annoying

Thanks again.

P.S. I will get a travel book and accidentally send it to his address.

I think it sounds like an excellent list!
The Invalids is great, you will enjoy it too.
It is close to Rodins home/museum so if you want to show your brother the Gates of Hell :) you can walk over there easily.

shternm -

If you do get a travel book for your brother, you might consider Lonely Planet or Rough Guide for him. You might also direct him to the Lonely Planet website - they have a travel forum called Thorn Tree that might interest him.

I am 32 and can't stand more than about 30 minutes in a museum, so I'm at a loss as to why folks would automatically label your brother as immature or a brat...it's a matter of personal taste and interest. However, as much as I do not enjoy museums, I did really enjoy the exhibit of Egyptian antiquities at the Louvre.

You might also check out www.whatsonwhen.com to determine if there are any other activities that might appeal to your brother.

Have a wonderful trip!