July Paris trip w/ 15 yr. old daughter
 

we will be in Paris for 10 days in July 7/9-7/19 for 1st time. We definitely want to see museums but don't know about buying the passes because you have to go consecutive days. How many can one see realistically in 2 days? We are staying in 6th Arron. I have been reading lots on Paris and picked 5 we would be interested in: Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Musee National du Moyen Age hermes de Cluny, Musee Marmottan-Claude Monet, and possibly Musee Picasso and Musee Rodin. I know the Louvre is a must, any others?
Also, my daughter wants to take a day trip to Belgium. Is that possible? We want some of our trip to be planned, and some not. We are not big shoppers but love to explore. Any ideas?
What happens on Bastille Day? Are places closed? Thanks for all your help!

Brussels day trip is totally possible. THe Thaly train takes you there in 1.5 hours from the Gare du Nord. I know many on this board enjoy Brussels and Bruges...so you may want to pose the question about this on a different thread.

thank you gregeva1. When I wrote that we want some of our trip to be planned out and some not, I meant our 10 days in Paris. I realized it looked like I meant our trip to Brussels, sorry about that!

Bastille Day is a major celebration in Paris as we discovered on our first trip there many years ago. I can't remember whether places were closed but there was a big parade down the Champs Elysee with a full display of French military might: tanks, low flying planes, lots of men in uniform and lots of waving flags. Very impressive.

When my children were in their teens their favourite museums in Paris were d'Orsay, Rodin, Picasso and Centre Pompidou. One art museum a day was enough for them to reach the art saturation point.

A day trip to Belgium might be possible but it's not really feasable. Save it for another trip and combine it with Amsterdam rather than Paris. My daughter and I spent a lovely two days in Brugge when she was a teenager. But our favourite trip outside of Paris was Giverny.

We took our two kids last summer - son was 12 and my daughter was 9. I would say that one museum a day is a pretty good guideline. The first part of the trip the kids had jet lag, so we usually didn't get out of our apartment until before lunch - so we would lunch and then hit the musee in the afternoon. That left us time for a nice walk back from the metro station, maybe a stop for some ice cream, and then a nap before heading out to dinner. Dinner is late in Paris - and our day usually ended with a walk around the Champ de Mars around 11:00. It doesn't get dark until 10 so your day will just naturally end later.

Kids also loved the Conciergerie...probably one of their favorites. After that we strolled across the bridge to the Ile St. Louis and stood in line at Berthillon...took our ice cream and walked along the Seine...great day. My son is a war history buff so he loved the Musee de L'Armee at the Hotel des Invalides - that's a neat place because it also contains Napoleon's tomb and a pretty little church Eglise St. Louis - both worth seeing.

We also saw the Musee de Moyen Age - the old roman ruins are really great. Kids loved those. Upstairs wasn't as compelling although my daughter loved the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. We have seen the Musee d'Orsay, on a prior trip without the kids, it is definitely a must-see. My husband loves Monet and really enjoyed the Musee Marmottan, he also really liked the area of the musee. We did see the Louvre with the kids but did the "Louvre light" - just seeing the big guys like Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo,etc. and that was perfect. The Louvre is so big....if you really like art you could easily spend two or three days there!

Don't forget the shopping...my daughter and I spent a couple of nice afternoons at Galerie Lafayette and Bon Marche.

By the way, Paris is a great city to see with kids - so easy to get around on the Metro and very safe. We walkedafter dinner almost every night around 11 or so and always felt safe (we stayed in the 7th, a couple of blocks away from the Eiffel Tower).

Enjoy!

A major new museum will have opened in June 2006 : the Musée du Quai Branly (www.quaibranly.com). It is between the Eiffel Tower and the Orsay.

I believe that neither the Musee Jaquemart-Andre nor the Musee Marmottan is included in the museum pass.

Don't miss Sainte Chapelle.

My 13 yr old daughter and I will also be in Paris then! Wear a Fodors T-shirt so we can spot you...Glad you asked your questions, they were helpful to me too.

so, Ilana25841, what are you planning to do with your daughter while there? We are meeting up with a coworker whose husband is French; consequently, she speaks French and has been to Paris before. She hasn't been to the city in many years but is willing to tag along with whatever we chose and she can be the translator!! My daughter and I are learning French basics but certainly won't be fluent by then. We are really excited!
Thanks for the helpful tips to all of you so far. We may only do 2 days of museums and just plan to come back to see more!! LOL! We are leaving behind my husband and 2 other children so I am sure we'll be back.

Laurenzo- we will be in paris for 3 days then on to Kandersteg (Switzerland) and Venice. Also leaving the DH home with DS!
Museums- either Orsay or Momartan- she is not a museum girl, she says.
Segway Tour at night
Fat bike tour some day
A little flea market shopping and cafe hanging, Notre Dame and the big sites.
We are staying in the 14th.

You could get museum passes for longer, like 5 days. I found it hard to utilize mine in December. We went to the Louvre one day, skipped the next then did Les Invalides and the Louvre on day 3.

It is definitely better to sprinkle the visits out and not overload. All I saw were American children draped on seats flouncing and whining. Couldn't blame 'em either. The Louvre is so huge it's a hike just getting to the exhibit levels.

Ilana25841- where did you find info on segway tour? Where does it go and how much does cost? It sounds like fun. What is a fat bike tour? We plan to see Notre Dame as well as Sainte Chapelle and Basilique du Sacre-Couer. We plan to just walk around exploring too. We want to eat our way through Paris also :) Have you thought of doing afternoon tea? I've read of a few good places and my daughter loves to have tea. There seems to be so much to do.

I did a day trip from Paris to Brussels my last stay and really enjoyed it. Very easy because it's so quick on the Thalys train.

There are lots of great museums, and all the ones you picked are good (I'm not a big Picasso fan, but if you are, that would be a must, I suppose). That's a lot of art museums, but they are my favorites (except Picasso and Marmottan, which I like okay but don't consider it at my personal top). I really enjoyed some things other than art museums -- loved the Music Museum, and I like the Military Museum at Invalides, and I really like the Textile/Fashion museum next to the Louvre, as well as the other one near place de l'Alma which is a fashion museum (Palais Galliera). There are so many good ones.

As for Bastille Day, I've been there several times on that day, and in the last few years, a couple of the museums and monuments have remained open, although most are closed for the holiday. Entrance is free, so it's a good time to go to the Pantheon, say, as it's free and not overcrowded, but not so good to go to the Louvre as it will be wall-to-wall crowds.

Major stores are closed, but plenty of other stuff is open (shops, restaurants, etc.).

Thank you, Christina, for the info. I think we will do the day trip to Brussels. My daughter wants to say she went to France and.... while in Europe! I really think she wants to go for the chocolate :) We won't hit all those art museums this trip-they were just ones that looked interesting to us. We can only do so much in 10 days so we need to narrow down our options. I don't want our trip so busy that we are exhausted coming home. We want to see the major sites and then some not so major. Do you think it would be better to go to Brussels on a weekday vs. weekend? thanks..

Laurenzo-

http://www.fattirebiketoursparis.com/

is the site for the bike tours (just plain old touring kind of bikes) and there's a link on their site to the Segway tours. I've read lots of good stuff about them and my daughter thinks it is the coolest thing to do so far.

Laurenzo, I don't know which would be better for Brussels. I think I went weekday, but the main thing I checked was just to be sure things were open the day I went. There were a couple museums I wanted to see (they have a superb music museum in Brussels that I had to see) and so I had to find out about that. Museums are usually closed Mon or Tuesday in most places.

Other than that, I imagine weekdays will always be a little quieter at things than weekends, but I don't know. I had some great chocolate I bought at a shop in the Grand Place -- which is the main place to go from the train station and see things around there, although I went to the music museum first and walked over from there, which is near the palace.

Ilana25841, thanks for the link. I checked it out and I know my daughter would love the segway tour.
Christina, could you tell me about the music museum in Brussels? It sounds interesting. Thank you both, Laurenzo

I just found a thread on the music museum-it sounds neat. I also read to eat to eat at the roof top restaurant. I assume they mean at the museum. I read, too, about the weekend flea markets... so many choices...

A 15yo will love the Pompidou, its lots of fun with very surrealistic and room-sized art. The Rodin is a great one with a lovely outdoor cafe, great for breakfast.
The D'Orsay is wonderful, smallish and it has a reasonably priced buffet in the most elegant room.

We will be in Paris in a few weeks (can NOT wait!) with a pair of 15 year olds and a pair of 10 year olds, all boys. I'm thinking one site/event/place in the morning and 1 in the afternoon, with strolling in between. Hope that's not too much, since as all have said, down time just to experience the city is equally important.