Taking the kids to Paris for Spring Break
 

Yes we are taking our 3 kids AW (14 year old girl), WW (12 year old boy) and KW (10 year old girl) to Paris over spring break. For us this is April 2-10 2010. This is our first European family vacation. My wife speaks fluent Spanish and none of us speak any French so why Paris? Because I wanted too?? We do have a friend in Paris.

While I have this as a trip report we have not left yet. I hope this will encourage me to write a full report in the replies.

We live in upstate NY but found the best flight out of Montreal through Amsterdam on KLM. We leave Friday April 2 at 7pm, Arriving April 3rd at 11am. The plan is to call the apartment owner (Vacation in Paris rental (no hotel rooms for 5 people) # 143 rue du Tresor) then take a taxi to the apartment. Unlike most Vacation in Paris rentals they did not send the keys for this one. I decided to get a global phone so making this call should be no problem. We have a full day of activity planned but we shall see how that works out. It will depend on how much sleep the kids get -- I don't sleep on planes well.

My plan is to get some Euros in Montreal but will mostly use my Debit card to pull cash at ATMs in France.

The weather forecast is not optimistic. It will be sunny in the 70s in NY but it is suppose to be rainy in the 50s in Paris.

Great age to bring kids there.

Yes, cash from ATMs is a good way to access euros.

It looks like a good location, dead end street, just off rue Vieille du Temple, easy walk to Seine, Ile St Louis, falafel place around corner. St Paul Metro abouut 4 blocks away

Looking forward to a 'live' trip report. Feel free to add LOTS of details :)

I'm taking my three kids to Paris in October and I'm in the middle of the apartment search. #143 is on my short-list, so I'd love to get your opinion of the apartment and location.

Have a great trip! And I agree, details are good.

~M

We took our 3 kids to Paris for Thanksgiving Week 2006. They were 16,19, and 22 and they loved every minute of it. Our daughter graduates in May from college and we are going to take her in the next year or so because she really wants to go back. We just got back from 17 days in Italy and Paris is still my favorite!

I had to do the phone call deal with my Vacation in Paris rental as it was a new one and it worked fine.

Have a good trip!

Paris started filling up like a bowl today, as Good Friday is a holiday in a lot of Europe (it is a work day in France, but we get Monday off). The British school groups are already marauding up and down the Champs Elysées. Yikes!

Today's temperature is 4° in spite of the sun.

Have a wonderful time!! The weather is gorgeous & hot today here in southern Spain, so hopefully it will warm up in Paris soon.

You might want to look at our website with lots of info about what we did as a family in Paris.

http://www.soultravelers3.com/france/page/4/

We were there for over two weeks and will go back this summer before we head to Asia. Paris is a great place for kids and families!

Wow! Imagine having to freeze your butt off while gazing at the Eiffel Tower or hanging around the Place des Vosges...what a hardship <G>!!!!

Taking the kids to Paris is wonderful! We took ours when they were 7, 9 and 12 and they loved every minute of it. Don't mind the weather. If it got too hot the kids wouldn't want to do much. We had an apartment (Paris Perfect - for MEBE) that overlooked the ET and it was worth every penny. There were days when we would be out for hours and at night only one or two of the kids would want to go back out and wander. One of my best memories is sitting on the balcony with a glass of wine and using water color paints with my daughter to capture the view. Anyhow, having an apartment is so much better - it's nice to have some meals in when you want and space to move around. Kids on a trip like this really force you to get into the "slow travel" mode and that's a huge plus. If you can't stop and smell the roses in Paris then where can you?? We had days when my son would want to stay on at a museum and the girls did not so one of us would bring them to the playground or a park in general. When you are with kids you don't just get to see the Louvre you remember sitting outside of it and renting the little boat and stick and watching all the children guide them around the pond, you remember the donkey ride in the gardens and the beekeeper working next to the playground, the candy carts around the city and you do "silly" things like get a baguette at 3 different shops just to compare or ice cream at different places ot try all the flavors. Traveling with kids can be exhausting (in good and bad ways :)) but it does remind you that the moments are what make up the trip and rarely is it dragging yourself through a museum just to say you went. Have a wonderful time and rent those "phones" at the museums for the kids to listen to information about the artwork. I am not sure that got all that they heard but watching them stand next to a picture listening intently and being happy to be there made it worth the small charge. ENJOY!

we spent time in Paris for a week when the kids were all probably just a year younger than yours probably the April vacation too. They absolutely loved it. More than 10 years later they still talk about the Napoleon museum and artifacts mostly about his stuffed horse and his casket. I think they had my husband take them back multiple times and when they were in high school, they were able to talk about him in history classes like he was a friend that is how much of an impression the museum made on 3 young kids.

motherofthree,

Your post above is great. Thank you!

Excellent! We stayed in a Vacation in Paris apartment with our 10 and 12 year old a little over a year ago. Our first day worked out pretty well, although after shopping for food and supplies for the apartment, the girls took about a one hour nap while my boy and I explored the neighborhood. But then we managed to take a super-long walk culminating in hanging out in the pet shops along the Quai Megisserie (not too far from your apartment) - the shops were warm after the freezing long walk.

Have a great time!

donald - you and your brood should be getting close to the airport by now. [I hope I've made sufficient allowance for the time difference]

so bon voyage a tous.

have a great flight, and we look forward to hearing from you when you've got yourselves ensconced in the apartment.