panucci

We will be in London 5 days, Paris 2. My 14 and 16 year old girls are just now beginning to appreciate (tolerate) museums so I don't want to over do it. We will probably skip the Louvre (?) because I am sure they will go in their future travels and since we are only in Paris 2 days I don't want to spend 4 hours in line. I have read that the d'Orsay is great and lunch there is a must. As for London right now I am thinking the Science museum and the war rooms (for my husband). What do you think?

ira

Hi Pan,

With only 2 days in Paris, I would skip all of the museums and see the city.

On your first day, I suggest that you do the full loop of the Batobus and then get off at a place of interest.

www.batobus.com

djkbooks

I'm with ira...

Though, for Paris, I'd recommend the two day l'Opentour. This goes around to all the major sights and attractions, with sensational scenery all along the way from the open air upper deck seats (likewise, the Original Tour in London).

If you want to go to Musee d'Orsay, there is no charge for admission for under 18. For the adults, you can purchase tickets ahead of time at the FNAC nearest your hotel and skip the ticket line.

In London, the girls would likely adore Madame Tussaud's (get advance tickets at a tube station to skip the lines there), Victoria & Albert...

Highly recommend a day trip to Windsor Castle and a visit to the Tower of London (get there in time for a guided tour).

You haven't mentioned when you're going, but if it's in the nice weather, you may wish to book Tower of London tickets online.

jody

Girls might like the fashion exhibits at Kensington Palace..Diana's wedding dress ,etc, or the fashion exhibits at the V&A. The war rooms are great and even the Iimperial War Museum can be fun..even for the girls! Good cafe there too!

flanneruk

I've never met anyone - least of all an adolescent - who was either into, or allergic to, "museums". People who can get highly excited by London's Science Museum, for example, are very often bored rigid by our major art galleries.

With adolescents, it's really important not to kill any potential interest in humanity's greatest achievements by exposing them to stuff that can just swamp them. I have an exceptionally intelligent and intellectually curious god-daughter who won't step into a gallery as a result of a crass mother who dragged her round some of Europe's dullest places at a sensitive age.

So you're absolutely right to avoid the Louvre (I'd limit museum visiting in Paris to the Musee de Cluny at this age). I'd add to the exclusion list the British Museum and the V+A, unless you're so familiar with them you can shepherd your daughters through an edited, no more than 90 mins, highlights tour. All three of these will be wonderful places for them to have on their doorstep when they live here for a year or two and pop in to visit. But a glance at the crocodiles of resentful Euroteens being dragged round them shows you how compulsory museum visiting is as educationally destructive as compulsory Shakespeare.

The key to London's extraordinary museums and art galleries is that they're mostly free. <b> So popping into several not only costs no money, but means there are no ticket queues. And they'll still be there in a hundred years' time. Don't treat them like a shrine: treat them like a city centre park, that you just slip into for a couple of minutes </b>

In London, take them to the Science Museum if and only if they're interested in technology (which is what it's really a museum of). The Natural History Museum is terrific for people interested in dinosaurs.

The Wallace Collection - if and only if they're interested in paintings - is precisely the right size for a museum (just like the Frick). The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) and the Museum of London are great if they're showing an interest in Britain's history. The Museum of London should be avoided if they're not, but some adolescents - especially girls - can get quite excited by the NPG, as the huge variety of different portraiture types can be as entrancing as one's first voluntary reading of Jane Austen. I'd take children this age up to the top floor of the NPG for its views over Trafalgar Square and Westminster (and possibly a quick sit down for a cup of tea), planning to take no more than 15-20 minutes. If any of the paintings going up or down attract curiosity, stop for no more than is necessary.

Tate Modern has a so-so collection of 20th century stuff. But it's pretty comprehensive (and like all the London places I've mentioned, free) and is architecturally interesting, as well as being slap bang in the middle of a great riverside walk and having some super views over the Thames from its upper floors. It's the ideal place to take children still iffy about museums for a gentle meander. It's up to your family whether to spend 5 mins looking at the art or 90: just walk through the extraordinary great hall, go to one of the upper floor bars for a drink (and gawp at the river), marvel at just how appalling the 1960s buildings directly opposite are, and pick and choose how much high culture you want to take in on the way.

Mme Tussauds is a museum of the ingenuity with which corporations can remove the gullible of their wealth. It's the kind of thing they generally do better in Las Vegas. There are millions of better ways to spend your time in London.

Above all, in London, be spontaneous. There are loads of free museums with extraordinary possessions along every tourist trail. There's no law forcing you to spend more than 10 minutes inside any of them.

MargrietVanderBanck

My daughter, then 14, loved the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden, perhaps because she volunteered for the makeup demonstration and had half her face made up as a perfect 18th-century lady--powdered wig and beauty patch included. Here's a link to the family activities page, which will give you an idea of what might be on offer when you're there: http://theatremuseum.org/whatson/activities.php.

panucci

Sorry my computer was down for a few days. Thanks for the info. Good idea Ira. I think I'll leave the museums for London and walk, walk, walk around Paris. The Paris part is just a taste. Hopefully we will return for a longer stay next year.

susieq22

If you think your girls would be interested in Egyptian, Greek &amp; Roman artifacts, but you don't want to get bogged down trying to figure out the British Museum, give London Walks a try. It is a great introduction and lasts only 2 hours (including the walk from the tube station). It is usally offered twice in one week. They offer some other museum walks too. I have not tried them yet, but will next time.

I echo flanneruk--go in for a few minutes and pick a floor to visit or a specific gallery or even a specific painting or exhibit and then move on.

Enjoy!!

Keith

The British Museum provides a variety of tours through out the day. The one that I took was every bit as good as London Walks tours I have taken (though I haven't done the London Walsk tour of the BA).

Keith