Need help scheduling Paris activities with a 10 year old
 

Trying to figure out the logistics for our upcoming short break to Paris, which is not always my strong suit...

Not being a parent, and with my brother not having traveled much, we are in a bit of a pickle trying to guess how things will turn out with my neice. I'm not really sure how much stamina she'll have, how unbearable she'll be when we are doing things that don't interest her, how quickly her feet will start to hurt....? But I do know that she's a trooper, and she's really excited about this trip.

So, we have 3 full days, and one day where we are leaving on a train at around 5 pm so we hve about half a day. THAT day happens to be bastille day. The night before the first full day is when they arrive, so i'm guessing the morning will be pretty much shot on day 1.

Day 1 (Wednesday 11 June)
Day 4 (Saturday 14 June)

Here is the "Must do" list

Climb the Eiffel tower
Visit the catacombs
Take a boat ride
See Arc de Triomphe
See Notre Dame
See Crypts at Notre Dame
Climb tower at Notre Dame
Louvre

Things that have been put on the "I'd like to do that' list are

Cluny museum
Park, sailboats etc
Fat Tire bike tour, both daytime and night time tour
Walk down Champs Elysees
Versailles (just the gardens and Marie Antoinette's farm :))
Saint Chapelle
Tour Montparnasse
See the Pompidou center (the building) and fountains

Things i know need to be factored in:

- Bastille day, both the activities on that day, possibly the night before? and the increased crowds it will bring with it on Friday

- The Louvre is open until 9:30 on Wednesday and Friday nights, and I've heard that's a good time to go to avoid the worst of the crowds. (I'm sure the highlights are all accessible...is the Egypt section accessible as well?)

- Our hotel is the Hotel Monge, near Rue Mouffetard (a Fodorite rec!)

- The Catacombs have weird hours: only open from 2-4 Tues-Friday; on Saturday they appear to also be open 9-11? But are also closed on "Bank Holidays"

- The Cluny museum is also closed on "Bank Holidays". Open til 5:45

- Planning on being pretty economical with food, so just street food, grocery stores, and a bistro or 2

-Only need a few hrs for the Louvre, to see the "biggies," and visit the Egyptian area

Help me help me! :)
Would love to hear any ideas of how to make this work, what things we should write off entirely from the "would like to do" list, etc.

thanks in advance
Carrie

Hi LS,

How much of your list is what the niece wants to do?

If you are staying at a hotel, what sort of grocery shopping will you be doing? Are you planning on eating in your room?

>...how unbearable she'll be when we are doing things that don't interest her,...<

Depends on the kid. I think that you want to schedule something for you and something for her each day.

If you are going to see the Arch, you might as well stroll down the Champs Elysee to the Tuileries.

Your hotel isn't far from one of the www.batobus.com stops.

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

PS,

Are you sure that you can;t arranhe your trip so that you are in Paris the night of the 14th?

They do put on a good show.

((I))

I spent a few days in Paris with my children. Their favorite memories were eating crepes from the street vendors; a fabulous elderly man sitting on a bench outside the Louvre feeding the birds out of his hands and encouraged them to join in; and all the entertainment on the street... a unicyclist, human statues, musicians; and getting their pictures taken posing like the many statues at the museums. Kids are easy to entertain... and it is fun to see it through their eyes. Relax and let it unfold and just do what you are doing...create some must sees and a general itinerary mixing museums with activity and you'll be magnifique!

thanks for your replies:

Ira:
I'm getting the "must do list" from my brother, who has been doing the looking and planning with my niece. She's excited about all of the stuff on the Must do list as far as i can tell, but HER choices I think, that I know she'll be sad if we miss, are the catacombs, climbing the eiffel tower, and seeing the egypt stuff at the Louvre. Oh and food (ice cream, macarons, pain au chocolat, etc :))

Personally i think that she'd really like the Opera house, as she's gotten into theater lately. She is also really into the bike tour idea.

When I said grocery store, i mean buy some salami and cheese and baguette and eat a picnic in the park.

We could reschedule their train tickets but mine is nonexchangable so i'd have to buy another one. And do you think we might have a bit of a hard time finding a hotel room at this point? :)

I know what you mean ab out the memories, Sabina. which is why I'm trying so hard to get these highlights scheduled in a way that we aren't spending all of the rest of our time trekking through ugly areas or walking the same long stretches over and over again (which seems to have been a problem for me on past trips to Paris), unless they're cool. I want to have the "must dos" spaced out in a way that makes sense logistically and crowd-wise that will leave us with plenty of time in between to do all the "real Paris" stuff. And that's what I'm mostly asking for assistance doing. Does that make sense?

Do the bike ride! I took my children on it three years ago (11 and 15 then) and they loved it! We will do the ride in Berlin and a similar one in Munich this summer!

If you're concerned about your nieces stamina, you might want to consider taking the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower, rather than climbing (it's ALOT of stairs). You won't have the elevator option at the Arc de Triomphe or Notre Dame tower, as they are stairs only!

It's a great idea to go to the Louvre on Wed. night; we were there a few weeks ago with our 11 year old son on a Friday night and he was able to get a close look at the "biggies" (Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, etc. In fact, once we were away from the Italian paintings the place was practically empty. We were just about the only visitors in the Egypt section. Paris is great with kids, have fun!

You sound like you're going to be real busy with that schedule. My only advice would be to plan it all out, but once there, go with the flow. I planned everything out, but with lost luggage and tired kids, things can and often will change.

My DD, who was 12 at the time really enjoyed the free fashion show at Galeries Lafayette. Also, one of the places we weren't able to see was the Opera Garnier. The last day we went but there was a show and we couldn't go in to see it, unless of course, you actually go to the show.

I've been in Paris several times on that holiday, and there are a lot of crowds because a lot of people go to Paris just for the holiday (as well as locals having the day off work). So museums, etc. are crowded. I wouldn't go to the trouble of trying to cancel train tickets, book a hotel, etc., just to stay there one more night, but I'm not big on those national day fireworks things in any country.

I don't know where you are getting your info, but the Catacombs are open more than that, they used to have and halftime hours some years ago, but they are open longer now, and their website says so. They are open Tues-Sundays 10 am to 5 pm (but admission closes at 4 pm). They are closed on July 14th. They are actually owned by the Caranavalet museum (which is owned by the city of Paris) and their official website is carnavalet.paris.fr

But I think it's down now anyway, but I read a cache on google, and there is more accurate information anyway on the Paris Tourist Office website, which you should look at if you haven't, as they have lots of good information on there -- about all the museums and monuments, and it usually tells you which ones are open on major upcoming holidays.

Having said that, I sure wouldn't call that a must-see, and would mark that off my list. Are you aware of what this is? It's an ossuary. Why do you think that is such an important thing to see? You have several things on your maybe list that are far superior to that (like parks, bike rides, etc.) for the average tourist (and especially with children). If you and your brother are archeologists or urban planners or something, I can see why you might want to see it for historical reasons.

The Montparnasse Tower does have an amazing view from the top, and you don't waste a lot of time standing in line like at the Eiffel Tower, but I probably wouldn't make that a must-see, either. It's not cheap, either.

SALAMI? In Paris? Whew!

And I agree the catacombs aren't maybe what you are thinking they are - it's basically a mile or so walk through floor-to-ceiling piles of bones/skulls.I'm guessing she'd have a better time at Deyrolle.

And wait a minute! You don't have hotel reservations yet? Major eye roll! Um, you'd better get on that before you worry about what the neice will like and dislike!

Of course we have hotel reservations :) My comment was to Ira who suggested that we change our plans and stay one more night.

What kind of meat do YOU buy at the grocery store and eat with your cheese and french bread?

Re: The Catacombs: I have absolutely no idea why it's on the list. I only know that it is, and that it's mentioned every single time I talk to my brother, so obviously either he or his daugher think it sounds really really cool. This is my 4th time to Paris and I've never been tempted to do it!

As a family, I guess we tend to be more enthused by the uniqueness of the experience maybe? They don't have tunnels full of skeletons in south Texas! :)

Thanks for the info on the catacombs opening hours. I had googled it and come across 2 websites mentioning the limited hours and didn't see an official website. so thank you for the link! That makes things simpler.

All 4 of my kids were interested in the Catacombs. It's a kid thing! :) It certainly is different.