vanshoppers

Hi all,

We are a family of 5 flying into and out of Paris, first time in France. I am looking for a kid friendly itinerary, our youngest is 6 years old. Lots of castles and museums is not our thing, there is a bit of fatigue for both after traveling through other European countries extensively. Louvre and Versailles are probably a must. One option I am considering:

1) 4 nights in Paris - visit Eiffel Tower, Notredame, Louvre, Versailles (day trip), Champs Elysses, Arc de Triomphe
2) 2 nights for Normandy and Mont St. Michel. Which city/town would make a good base? Is renting a car in the base town better for these two days than rely on public transportation?
3) 4 nights in Paris - day trips to Bruges, Lyon. Visit Montemarte, Siene river cruise, Latin quarter

Might mix and match between (1) and (3) to balance day trips out. Does this seem reasonable? Any other suggestions for day trips? Is Giverny worth it? I was also debating about Amsterdam, but seemed too much to fit that in.

nylilly

HI. I think your itinerary looks reasonable, but I'm not an expert on France despite having visited it at least a half dozen times. I wanted to chime in, though, on Giverny and Normandy, both of which I've visited. In my opinion, Giverny is worth a visit. Any attraction which is primarily outdoors, usually is a good opportunity for younger children to stretch their legs and get some fresh air. To prep your children and get them excited, share images of Monet's work and challenge them to find similar views while walking the gardens and paths of Monet's home. As for Normandy, we stayed in Bayeaux and were very happy with its scenery, food and proximity to the WWII beaches. Bayeaux's famous tapestry might not thrill little ones, but there's a wonderful children's book called The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz which uses Mont St Michel as a setting for part of the novel. It would make a great family read prior (or during) your trip. Bon voyage!

Sassafrass

Bruges and Lyon are not good day trips from Paris. Just too far, too much travel time versus time being in either place. You don’t actually have much time consuming stuff planned for Paris. Some things will take only a few minutes to an hour or so, like the Seine River cruise and walking through The Latin Quarter. The Champs Elysses is basically a long street. You will be on it at some point just as you tour around. Don’t make it a focal point.
if you wanted to include Bruges, you could do a couple of days there, biking, going to the beach at Oostende, etc.
if your flights are changeable, and if you really want Amsterdam, you fly into Amsterdam, spend a couple of nights, then Bruges, then Normandy and do Paris last. Changes of hotels, yes, but not as bad as terribly long day trips. By staying in Paris twice, per your itinerary, you already have three hotels.

Jean

Two nights to see "Normandy" and Mont Saint-Michel... You'd have to say what "Normandy" means to you and what you'd want to see/do, but this sounds awfully rushed and probably not possible using only public transportation. Just driving back to Paris from MSM takes at least 4 hours.

KTtravel

I am not sure when you are planning to take your trip, but Notre Dame is currently closed. However, Sainte Chapelle is worth a visit for its beautiful stained-glass windows. While you are there, visit nearby Berthillon's ice cream take-out window. How can you beat strolling through Paris with an ice cream cone?

I know your family isn't keen on museums but the Musee de l'Orangerie is small and won't require too much of your time. The breathtaking Monet Water Lily paintings would be a perfect prelude prior to a visit of Giverny. Afterwards, you can stroll through the Tuileries gardens although I think your family would have even more fun in the Luxembourg gardens.

Try to get to Versailles early before it gets very crowded. The fountains "play" only on some days so you might want to check their schedule.

My kids have fond memories of the Louvre because we paused mid-morning for a pastry in one of the museum's cafes. It is amazing how reviving a French pastry can be!

coral22

Congratulations on your first trip to France!
First of all, when is this trip? Crowds and weather might change how much you can accomplish.
Is your airfare set?

What location is your priority on this trip? You have presented a lot of options but not all can be fit in.

We did a trip with some similar locations. We flew into Amsterdam, stayed there, took the train to Paris, immediately got a car to Rouen,stayed, drove to Honfleur, stayed, drove to Bayeux, stayed, drove to Paris stopping at Giverny along the way. Turned in the car. We had been to Paris quite a few times, so we only stayed 2 nights there, but I think you would be seriously short changing Paris on our schedule. We had 12 nights to do all of this. We originally had Bruges and Mont Saint-Michel on our wish list but had to edit them out, they were huge time eaters. I think Amsterdam is a really fun different flavor from France, but if you are locked into Paris flights, I don't know if it would be worth it. If you do go to Normandy, I would give it 3 nights. Error on the side of under scheduling, you have a lot of people and a wide age gap to juggle. Follow your heart with your choices and everyone will have a better time if it is a more relaxed pace.

Renting a car was wonderful and easy, it gives you so much freedom, but we were not traveling with a family of 5. You have to be careful about your car size and trunk space, cars are smaller. Have fun!

AJPeabody

You should consider the Museum of Fairground Arts, fun for the whole family.
https://arts-forains.com/en
Your ideas for daytrips are entirely futile. You will spend the day going and returning, with just enough time to eat lunch.
Although Versailles is a castle (chateau in French), the grounds could be fun for a kid. For instance, the Hamlet.
I would suggest getting a couple of guidebooks, especially Rick Steves.
When are you going?

vanshoppers

Thank you all for taking the time to respond!

Could you please suggest additional things to do in Paris?

Unfortunately No

Utah beach, American cemetery, perhaps a museum (!) - I assume the museums here would be on the smaller side

Second half of July

Not sure yet. Trying out figure out what day trips from Paris would be interesting. Don't want to move with luggage too many times (especially without a car). 1st priority is Paris (!), second is Normandy beaches/MSM for my family members. Looking for day trip suggestions. Curious why Lyon isn't a good option. With a 2 hour train ride, can get in by 10 AM and stay until 7 PM or so just exploring the city in a relaxed manner and get on a train again. Is that too much? Bruges is a little further, still debating about that. It seems too much for one day and too little for two days (given the hassle of moving).

coral22

Good to know some of the details!
I would definitely limit this trip to Paris and Normandy. You asked if Lyon would work, you could do it but I don't think it would be relaxing or worthwhile at all. You mentioned getting there at 10, so getting up 6:30? And a 7pm train back home, getting back to the hotel at 9:30? I think that sounds gruelling. Another concern, if it is exceptionally hot or rainy, or you are tired, you are stuck far from your hotel. We always fit in an afternoon hotel break on our trips to put our feet up, or nap and freshen up for dinner. Especially with a family of 5, it is better to have options.

I usually don't recommend splitting time in Paris, but in your instance it will work well.
4 nights Paris, get in, get situated, time adjust. Stay in the 5th, 6th or 7th. Tour according to your list, I would include Versailles in this part.

Rent a car, head to Bayeux.
3 nights Bayeux. Many beautiful areas along to coast to explore, (for instance, Etretat) It depends on how much you want to drive and how much time you want to devote to the World War 2 sites. I would do at least a half day private tour, for the D Day sites. It is so informative and worthwhile. You can decide on the last day if you want to go to Mont Saint-Michel, it is a time commitment. Then head back to Paris and stop in Giverny, it is absolutely worth it!

Return car, Paris 3 nights, now stay in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th arrondissment. You will get a different feel.

Other things to do:
Canal Saint-Martin, charming shaded area with small bridges over the canal lock system, very interesting and a nice place to stop for ice cream.
Rue de Montorgueil, outdoor market, beautiful ironwork along the street, fun cafes, shops, cheeses, candy, etc. and the oldest bakery in Paris
The Catacombs, underground, very interesting, lined with bones and skulls, kids love it!
Paris Plages(Temporary sand beaches set up along the Seine in the summer)
Numerous beautiful parks to stroll and to bring a picnic lunch
The list goes on and on, but your children's interests and energy level will determine what else to add

menachem

What are your travel dates? End of july and throughout august is Paris Plages, Paris Plages is on from July 9th, which is excellent for your children, especially the 6 year old.

https://en.parisinfo.com/paris-show-...1/paris-plages

Generally, consider splitting up a day and not going everywhere in a large group. Paris has so much to do, that I'm curious as to why you would want to travel far from the city at all. All your daytrips will be too much once you do them. It's just not that feasible. Factor in a longish trainride back, all of you (but most of all your children) exhausted. Not my idea of fun. I know you want to see much

menachem

I second this excellent suggestion, also because of the site itself (the last wine warehouse left at Bercy) Make sure you reserve a tour well ahead of time. You need to book ahead, you can't turn up on the day.

Jean

In Normandy, the most comprehensive museum on the invasion is the Peace Memorial in Caen. I wouldn't describe it as a "small" museum, and depending on your interest in D-Day, you could spend several hours there. There are smaller museums at Arromanches, Omaha Beach, and Utah Beach, plus a monument to the Rangers at Pont-du-Hoc, the U.S. cemetery near Colleville-sur-Mer, and in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the Airborne Museum dedicated to the paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st divisions. Just about every town has a monument and/or small museum commemorating the battle. A (very) few hedgerows survive.

If you rent the car in Paris, the drive to Caen would take 3 hours. From Caen to all of the sites listed above, not counting stops, would take almost 3 hours. Then, the drive to Mont Saint-Michel would take at least 90 minutes, and the drive back to Paris about 4 hours.

If you rented the car in Caen, the train from Paris would take 2:17 hours. You'd probably want to return the car at Caen to avoid a one-way rental surcharge. The drive from MSM to Caen would take more than 90 minutes.

rosiecaro

I agree with previous posters, limit what you are trying to do. Normandy is FULL of things to do. The D-day stuff can easily take a couple of days, Mont St Michele is a good hike, but worth it. We took our kids when then we’re 11&12. They were not wild about Giverny, but they are not artsy kids. Nor were they wild about the Bayeaux tapestry. You know your kids though and if they are interested in art, or those parts of history they might find it interesting too. What we did find helpful overall on the trip were 2 things. Firstly, we knew we were going to give the kids spending money. So we made them earn it in advance by answering a list of questions related to the places we were going. It was pretty fun to see them tie it together when we were there. One question, for example, was what did the salamander have to do with French royalty? And once our nephew saw it on a castle he was like “oh I remember that” and could articulate the answer. The other thing we did was watch a lot of movies related to out itinerary in advance, so any movies that you can find that might be related to for example D-Day, or maybe something around the circumstances of the Bayeaux tapestry, all of those things will bring it home to the kids and make it more interesting when they’re there.

P_M

I've just returned from Paris and it's imperative to book Louvre tickets in advance. We checked the website on a Thursday and we couldn't get in until the following Monday. It's also best to book the Eiffel Tower and Sainte Chapele in advance, otherwise you will stand in very long lines.

Christina

I don't agree with the dire predictions about how horrific day trips will be. It is a lot easier to do a day trip than to move your base. It is really enjoyable for me to just get on a train with only a small day pack for a bottle of water, etc, and enjoy another city/town for a day. I just really get tired of spending endless days in such huge metropolitan areas as Paris which is tiring itself for that reason, crowded onto suffocating busses and metros sometimes, tons of tourists in the center, etc. Second half of JUly may be pretty hot, also, making all those crowds worse.

Lyon is only a 2 hr train trip from Paris, you can easily do that on a day trip IMO. I have gone to numerous destinations for day trips and my rule is 2 or less, definitely. I will spend 2.5 hrs one way by train if it's a place I really want to see and there is no way I am ever going to be closer, that happens a lot. We all just don't have endless trips and itineraries on our horizon, after all. To me, doing a day trip by train is easy and relaxing. I am not remotely exhausted, any more than if I spent that full day in Paris. Train travel isn't exhausting, it can be relaxing actually. I find the return trip is usually during the time of day I call the lost time when I don't do anything anyway, and usually just go to my hotel room and relax a couple hours before dinner, to rest from the day. So a train trip is the same purpose (ie, 5 to 7 pm). Bruges is more like 2.5 hrs by train, I think, and you have to transfer (you do not have to transfer to Lyon, it's just a simple direct TGV). I haven't gone there by day trip from Paris but I went there once in a trip that included more Netherlands, etc. I probably wouldn't do that as there are closer day trips to Paris.

I have done Brussels as a day trip from Paris, that is easy enough if you really want to get outside France. Within France, there are so many, hard to name them all -- Reims, Strasbourg, Nancy, Troyes, Rouen, Chartres, etc. I've been to Angers as a day trip by train. Or Fontainebleau or Chantilly, etc.

So my advice is the opposite in general, although I can't speak to your particular family issues. With 3 kids you may need to readjust . But I would not spend all that time in Paris, I think that would get tiresome and be too one-dimensional, I don't care how many museums there are to see. I don't know your kids' interests or ages, I think Versailles is kind of a big time suck and not that enjoyable for many. I doubt if kids are that interested in the history of Louis XVI, Marie, etc. Versailles is very big and lots of rooms with old furniture. A smaller, more accessible castle is Vincennes which is to the east and right off the metro. https://www.chateau-de-vincennes.fr/

Fontainebleau is a smaller estate and nice for a chateau, also. Chantilly is also an easy trip, and there are other things there like a horse museum.
https://chateaudechantilly.fr/en/gre...-of-the-horse/

Mont St Michel is awfully far. As for Normandy if you mean the WWII thing, I did that as a day trip and enjoyed it a lot also. The train is about 2 hrs each way, as I recall. there are a couple excellent small group tour companies that do day trips to the Normandy beaches areas from near the train station. I don't think kids would be so interested in a hanging old textile, many adults aren't, but you have enough time to see that if you really want since the afternoon day tours usually meet around 1 pm. I used Normandy Sightseeing Tours.

If you are really interested in WWII history, Caen has an excellent museum, of course. You could just visit Caen and Bayeux and scratch Mont St Michel but depends how attached to visiting it that you are.

This is the company I used for a D Day tour
https://www.normandy-sightseeing-tours.com/

Can't say enough good about them. I see they do a day tour to/from Mont St Michel, also, from Bayeux. That would probably be easier than DIY actually. The problem is with a family, those costs can really add up versus just renting a car and DIY. For a family of 5, I'm sure it would be at least 500-600 euro for that day trip. So that's the conundrum. The DDay afternoon Omaha beach tour would run around 300 euro for a family of 5.

https://www.normandy-sightseeing-tou...aha-beach.html

A car for two days plus gas etc wouldn't be near that much, of course. Train/bus isn't really efficient for Mont St Michel, although possible.

Another good day trip by train is Angers, they have a castle. It's only 1:40 by train. They also have an old tapestry, also. It's a pleasant city. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Tapestry

Sassafrass

It seems you have traveled a lot, so disregard any of my suggestions that do not appear useful.
.
Versailles: Friends took a kid’s tour and they loved it. Just look at Versailles Tours for Kids. Our kids also loved Versailles, because the guide told them great stories they could relate to. Our friends rented a boat and their kids rowed on the lake for an hour or so. That was their favorite thing, actually doing something.

Don’t know the ages of your older kids, but renting boats and sailing them in Luxembourg Gardens is such a Parisian thing, IMHO. My kids loved it so much, after doing it once, we went to a toy store and bought them each their own wooden boat with fabric sails to sail again and to bring home with them. Those little boats became childhood treasures.

Now a days, they might just have phones with a camera, but one of my kids always had a camera and did some kind of theme each trip. The other carried a little sketch book to write or draw in.

We also tried to incorporate their interests. The one who took photos also collected stamps, so we went to little stamp shops in Paris and let her pick some for her collection. Their interests can dictate.

Both girls bought sterling charms when we traveled. They are small enough to be easy packing and last forever.

When we were with friends, they had street artists do their kid’s portraits. Of course it is touristy, and they did not expect great art, but the kids absolutely loved it. Of my friend’s three kids, one was wonderful! Beautifully done, not overly stylized and a good likeness. One was kind of kitschy, but a decent likeness. One was a wonderful drawing, but not a likeness. It is possible to get something good, if you choose well and pay for the better artist. Really look carefully and choose one whose work you actually like and allow time for it.

art classes for kids in Paris lists everything from art to cooking classes for kids and families.

Day Trips: I don’t think anyone is opposed to day trips. It is a matter of what works without an inordinate amount of time traveling versus time doing something or sightseeing. Those are major considerations with children. The other consideration is how you personally like to spend time. In Summer, late afternoon and early evening is our favorite time to roam around, pick up snacks for later, take photos with shadows, etc. so not a good time to be on a train for us. Others want a nap and shower before dinner or just relax and read. What does your family like?

vanshoppers

Thank you for the heads up! I was able to snag some tickets on the last but one day of our trip (phew!). Haven't been lucky enough to get the Eiffel tower lift tickets yet. They seem to fly off as soon as they open. Only have 2 days left at this point.

AJPeabody

If you can't get the Eifel Tower tix, you can still reach the same height for a view by riding in the tethered balloon, assuming the weather is right. https://ballondeparis.com/ The views are spectacular.

bilboburgler

Sacre Couer is roughly 100 metres below the top of the Tower. Plus, of course, the place is interesting.

vanshoppers

Found Eiffel tickets to the top for the last day of our stay and 2nd floor tickets for the last but one night. Here is how the trip is shaping up at this point. Any feedback is welcome. We are still noodling on a few things here.

Day 1 - Siene cruise (we arrive at 10:30 AM, but not scheduling much, we may end up doing random walking)
Day 2 - Arc De Triomphe, Champs Elysses, Eiffel tower stairs (need to get tickets) - overall on the lighter side again. Not sure if we should schedule more
Day 3 - Chapelle, NotreDame, Pantheon, Latin Quarter, Luxembourg Gardens
Day 4 - Drive to Bayeux, with stops at Giverny and Honfleur. Is a stop at Deuville worth it? Any other stops? Etretat doesn't seem worth it after seeing Algarve, Cabo etc.
Day 5 - D-day beaches, museums
Day 6 - Mont St. Michel, Saint-Mere-Eglese. Is this feasible, any other recommendations?
Day 7 - Drive to Paris, afternoon/evening at Montmarte
Day 8 - Day trip (thinking about Bruges)
Day 9 - Louvre (1:30 PM appt), not sure what we do in the AM. Eiffel tower at 9:30 PM
Day 10 - Eiffel top at 4:30 PM. Haven't planned much else. Open to suggestions. This is our last day in Paris

Thank you all for being super helpful!