Thanks! Will look into all these places.

Thank you!

Weather in early November may be quite nice but you never know. If you go to the Loire valley there is a terrific Beauval zoo which is one of the nicest zoos in the world. A nice change of pace from
castles. We enjoyed it as much as Sydney or San Diego.

We took our daughter on her first European trip when she was 10; we visited London, Paris and the Loire Valley on a two-week trip. We included the Loire because we wanted her to experience the European countryside, and she enjoyed it very much. We made sure to visit both "newer" chateaux and some older chateaux that were built as defensive structures, and she appreciated the difference. We had lunch in a restaurant in a cave, visited the Da Vinci site in Amboise, and stayed in a castle hotel.

She also enjoyed Paris. Among the museums (she liked fine art even at that age), we also walked through the bird market on Sunday (don't know if that's on during the winter months), did taste-testing of macarons at a variety of patisseries, and made sure to have crepes from a streetside stand. It is a family joke about me thinking she would like the Rodin museum because there's indoors and outside art; she found it very boring. She did love Notre Dame - we had read the Hunchback of Notre Dame before we went. She also had a fascination with Galileo, so we visited the Panthon (the one in Paris, not Rome), where he is buried.

Definitely take your kids to a good cheese shop to purchase cheese for a picnic lunch or dinner. Especially if they are polite and interested, the staff will give them a great education in selecting cheeses.

Shelemm, I am in total agreement with you about the real treasures of France. And there are gems like this to be found throughout France, even in some small towns. The best ice cream we've ever tasted is in a small town. We were in a restaurant in Alencon and a group at another table said we just spent eight nights in Paris and this is the best meal of the trip.

OP, in Paris your kids might enjoy the museum of fairground arts. The kids on the tour with us had a ball, and that includes a toddler. They got to ride a carousel, play a game called the waiters race, and sing and dance. This is the musee des arts forains. You must reserve in advance.

As Coquelicot said, Musee des Arts Foraine is wonderful. Tours are in French but we had a bilingual guide who was kind enough to also use English.

Thank you! The museum looks wonderful.

I think Lexma90's post should be read twice. If you want to know what your kids will enjoy, you have to talk to them about what you'll see in France that you don't necessarily have at "home" and find out what intrigues them. There are many kid-oriented books about France, Paris and the French language that you could read together... Maybe learn a few words in French!

https://dontjustfly.com/paris-books-kids/