If anyone knows of any McDonald's or other fast food restaurant near the Luxembourg Gardens (we're staying at Hotel de Ste. Beuve on rue St. Beuve) please let me know. We would like to try the other local restaurants, of course, but our son would like his fast food if he can get it. Thanks.

There's a McDonald's on the corner of Blvd St. Germain and Blvd St. Michel in the 6th--may be something closer but for sure your son can get his fix there. Been a long time since we've gone into a McDonald's in France but when our children were small they thought it's burgers were quite different from US burgers. You might want to push steak frites and chicken from regular menus as closer to US food.

Ther are a few McDonalds in Paris mostly in highly commercial touristy areas like them Champs Elysee. Don't know of any near the Luxemberg gardens. I am tempted to pontificate about the youngster benefitting from a vaction from American fast fod while in France, but I won't.<BR>

Julie, thanks for letting me know about the one in St. Germain because we'll also be staying there later on. <BR>RJD, I understand what you're saying. But I don't know if you've got children especially one that'll be a teenager soon, but they've got their own minds now. He does try different food but something familiar is what he prefers most times. When we last visited Paris a few years ago, he ordered a hamburger at a cafe and got a hamburger with an egg on it. So it's not quite the same thing.

If I remember correctly, I walked by a McDonald's on rue de Rennes between Gare Monparnasse and rue de Vaugirard.

Well, since you won't I will. A number of years ago while I was a drama teacher I took a small group of students to two plays and dinner in a nearby city. The group voted on which kind of restaurant to have dinner and they chose Chinese. We went as a group. but one boy (about 15 at the time) refused to eat "that stuff". He saw a McDonald's right across the street and begged for me to let him go there. I held fast and insisted he couldn't leave the group. He pouted a while, but was really hungry so started eating.<BR>At my next parent's conference with his mother, she wanted to know what I had done. All John wanted to eat was Chinese food. For years she had literally been stopping at McDonalds' or Pizza Hut on her way home from work to bring John his own dinner, because that was all he would eat. She just couldn't understand how I was able to make him eat that food.<BR>The moral is easy. If there are no McDonald's (or even if they are) wouldn't it be nice to get your child (he's not 3 or 4 for God's sake) to try local food? And I can almost assure you that he will end up liking croque monsieur, and will be amazed that other places besides McDonald's have really good fries!!!

Wow, a bunch of quick responses. My "if you won't I will" was in reference to RJD's reluctance to pontificate.

everything i've eaten at mcdonalds in france seems the same as in canada, which i'm assuming is the same as american. i wouldn't worry about finding a mc donalds right near where you are, because nothing is very far away in paris. to get from luxembourg to st.michel take like, 10 minutes. but i always feel like mcdonalds is everywhere.

There's one on Blvd. Montparnasse between Blvd. Raspail and rue de Rennes. It's close to the Mustang Cafe (tex mex place) and Baskin Robbins. Right around the corner from where you'll be. <BR><BR>Having said that, you will also be right around the corner from all the Breton creperies off Blvd. Raspail (go down rue Huyghens and I think also Delambre). Your son will love the main dish and dessert crepes there.

I recall the MacDonalds as being on rue de Rennes close to the intersection of rue des Rennes and Boulveard Montparnasse. It is on the left side of the street as you walk toward the Montparnasse-Bienvenue Metro station entrance on rue des Rennes. It is just a few yards south of the entrance to Hotel Acacias St. Germain. There is a sidewalk edition of La Brioche Doree close by, which has great pastries, yogurt, and other French goodies.<BR><BR>I guess I can't help but choke a little bit at the thoughts of someone going to Paris to look for American food. <BR>That is akin to my acquaintenance who got upset in Munich because he could not find Budweiser beer. (@$@# Germans don't know good beer.)<BR><BR>Fortunately, I did not think the food at McDonalds as all that American style. Close perhaps, but definitely designed for the French. Given that American fast food is greasy, full of fat, loaded with calories, and generally deficient in nutrition, except for fat and cholesterol, and that American tastes are sub Neanderthal, I am not surprised.<BR><BR>We don't know what good food is.<BR>So there, I pontificated for all of you.<BR><BR>And how do I know what the food at McDonalds is like? We at yogurt there one Sunday morning when everything else along rue des Rennes was closed, even La Brioche Doree. <BR>I never ate one of their hamburgers.<BR>I don't like them here; I can only imagine that a French one is not the same. <BR>

Not many people have said they have actually eaten McDonald's hamburgers in Paris. Well, I have---once. I think it must have been the one on Rue des Rennes. We dropped by for a lark, not because we needed an American fix. I wanted to see what it would be like. Anyway, to me the meat in the burger was basically inedible. It was dry, full of hard gristle that was almost like bone, and simply tasted like bad meat. If the frites hadn't been pretty good, I would have wasted the entire cost of the meal. However, the expense wasn't wasted, because I paid to have a good lesson in eating---never at McDonald's in Paris again.

Yes, thanks for the advice and the nearest McDonald's location. About the advice on getting my son to try other food, I understand completely what you're all saying.<BR><BR>To be honest, my son is not that unbending and he will try something new to eat at least once. But if he doesn't like it, he will be a bit unwilling to try it again. I'm pretty sure that he will be able to try the local food, but it's the familiarity to eat something with what he's known all the time that he'd like once in a while since we'll be there for 8 days.

Pontifications about childrens' dietary habits aside, questions like this always puzzle me (when they are sincere and not trolls). Would you change your itinerary or hotel reservations if the answer was "No, there are no McD's around?" I think there are enough pre-trip arrangements to worry about without predetermining the location of a McDonalds.

Jennifer, I understand completely what you are saying. I have a 15 year old grandson who went to Paris with a school group at age 14, and he definitely needed McDonald's! <BR>In Paris I have stayed on the other side of Luxembourg Gardens from where your hotel is (at Le Clos Medicis) and there is a McDonald's near there on Blvd.St. Michel. It is on the corner of Blvd. Mich. and the street that leads to the Panthenon, near gates to Luxembourg and the Luxembourg RER. One Sunday night I was desperate - too tired to look for a restaurant and all the really good pick-up places were closed. I tried to hide the McDonald's bag taking it back to my room!

Hi Jennifer. I can't remember the name of it, but there's a fast-food hamburger joint (a French chain, I think) on the rue Soufflot, near the Place Edmond Rostand, on the east side of the Luxembourg Gardens.

Jennifer, it's me again. Don't worry too much about food, as you are staying close to Montparnasse Blvd. and there are so many choices of places to eat around there, that he might accept. I have also stayed in that area (and I love it, by the way). There are 2 Hippopatamus restaurants around there that have hamburger-type meals, steaks and frites, etc. Also Chez Clement (across the street from Le Select, I think, - anyway on Montparnasse near the St. Beuve) has good American type food, reasonably priced. And there are so many places to pick up delicious sandwiches. I love to picnic in Luxembourg Gardens.

I have posted here recently about getting good quality French fast food in Paris; I think the post is called Cheap Eats in Paris or something like that. It lists a lot of local high quality sandwich places. If you are interested and can't find it I can probably dig it up for you.

Infortunately, Jennifer seems to typify the "typical" American mother......the kid rules. <BR><BR>Too bad. What a wasted trip.<BR><BR>Brat

Thanks again for the suggestions-I'm not worrying about it as you may think. I'm only trying to get some information.<BR><BR>As for the one that's called "Brat" that surely describes you. Another word for you is RUDE. Mind your own business if you have nothing to say and trying to hide behind fake handle says alot more about your character.

Save your money, stay home and hire a babysitter, and feed the brat big macs till his butt is so big he can't fit in an airplane seat. You want to make him happy, don't you? you're just wasting your money traveling.