Given only four days to work with, I would definitely skip Versailles -- especially since you're doing other daytrips. It will be hot, and although it's not difficult to get to, it would suck up most of a whole day. Museums might be a good way to get inside when it's hot. The nighttime boat tour of the Seine is fun, too.

missypie; my 12-year old read the Da Vinci Code, and is now excited about visiting the Louvre and St Sulpice. She thought it was a great book.

We arrived on a Saturday morning and left on a Sunday morning...we had 7 non-travel days, plus the Saturday. We spent 2 days at Disneyland Paris, giving us 5 days for touring Paris.

Arrival day was a problem and I don't have any advice. Everyone was very very tired. We stocked the flat with food, ate lunch, then went to St. Chapelle and a few other places. I'd always heard to never take a nap on the first day, so I didn't let anyone. I would have done fine with just going to bed early, but the kids were totally wiped out. I have a picture of the three kids and my husbgand totally asleep on the Seine River cruise!

Tulips, just a reminder that the final "clue" in DaVinci Code is in the shopping mall under and to the west of the Louvre (entrance on southside of rue Rivoli), not in the Louvre museum itself. It was fun to see the parquet floor in the Louvre, the line in the floor of St. Sulpice and the obelisk to which it leads, and the inverted pyramid in the mall.

My 16 and 13 year old are girls, youngest (10) is a boy. The oldest wanted to go to Versailles, as she'd studied some of that history, and she enjoyed the inside rooms. The younger two weren't very interested, but all liked the gardens and the chance they provided to run, zip up a different staircase etc. We rode so often on the Metro that the trip to Versailles was fun because we saw some scenery above ground, since we took a bus there. But it isn't essential, and might work better with older kids.

A friend does this with her kids when she wants to visit art museums.

First, they go to the museum store and find postcards of the art on display. The kids can pick the postcards they like (limit the number).

Next, they take a museum map and the kids have to find the art and direct the family to it. It's kind of like a puzzle and gets the kids really involved. The kicker is you get to choose some postcards too so if there's something you really want to see, be sure to get a postcard of it.

It's kind of a museum scavenger hunt.((@))

Thanks for the museum tip. I have come across the postcard game before and was thinking of using it. Good to hear about another experience with it.

At the Museum of Natural History, ,near
Austerlitz station, there is an exposition about the mammouth which is terrific-good for doers and lookers...
All the others given options are good, specially Eiffel tower-but arrive early if you want the lift(by feet, there is no time to wait...),
Parc de la Villette and there is an exposition about the sun and the climatic changes(interactive expositi-
ons).
The Palais de la Découverte, near the Grand Palais is a good experience(the exposition about the predators will be out, but the one about the animal way of communication will be still active, also interactive and from here, you can go to the arc de triomphe...).
For all the family a lunch at the restaurant of the centre pompidou is a good experience, less crowdy than at night, not too expensive and view is terrific and the feminin personal a must for the teens...It's closed as the museum at tuesday...
Finally a nice small museum and so not
too....much for the teens is the Marmottan museum about the Monet's painting very interesting.
Finally at the musée du Luxembourg, there is an exposition about the self-portrait which is very nice and not too long.
Try also the "passages"-there is a poster in Fodors european forum about them and you can have an half day exploring this interesting "covered streets" of Paris-but ...beware, there are a lot of small shops...so, can be dangerous for the budget...(not too because prices aren't too high..).
Erik.