The last time I was in Paris was 15yrs ago, on my Honeymoon...well times change we are heading back in Feb with 2/3 little ones 4yrs %26amp; 8yrs girls. Where should we stay? What should we do? PLease no DISNEY. We are Canadian and bylingual so languange is not a factor either. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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If they are bilingual, then I%26#39;d offer them some of the ateliers that are available at museums throughout the city. Most museums have something for the kids and if you are here the first two weeks of the month it is winter break, so there will lots of things going on everyday. They do fill-up so get on line and start booking today.
As for unorganised activities. I always recommend the gardens at the Rodin Museum.
The Luxembourg gardens have a plyground that the kids love.
The Jardin d%26#39;Acclimmatation in the Bois de Boulogne is Paris%26#39; answer to Disneyland... MUCH smaller and incredibly French.
My 8 year old%26#39;s Number 1 favorite thing to do is to jump on the trampolines in the Tuileries gardens, even better if followed by a hot chocolate at Laduree.
There is an ice skating rink at the Hotel de Ville, even better when followed by ice cream at Berthillon on the Ile St Louis (the Brasserie de l%26#39;Ile SL has Excellent hot wine for the adults).
Our 11 year old loves going to the public pool at Neuilly, it is indoor, very large, clean and welcoming to families.
There are hundreds of more ideas out there. search in this forum and you will find tons of suggestions.
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ooh, I%26#39;m travelling with children but usually don%26#39;t think of doing anything different then I do, just maybe shorter visits as we mostly stick to museums and shows, but this swimming thing sounds amazing. I am coming in March. Where is this pool located? Can anyone go? I am jumping for joy already!
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Un gros MERCI! Phread!!!!
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Well, really just Paris itself is fun for kids. Eiffel Tower, climbing the bell tower at Notre Dame, the %26quot;excavations%26quot; under the plaza in front of Notre Dame with the ancient ruins, riding the Metro, buying baguettes......it%26#39;s all fun! Always have a little bit of baguette in your pocket for the birds. My boys fed the birds everywhere. If your kids like that sort of thing, go to the bushes in the square in front of Notre Dame and with a little coaxing and a little baguette, they can get the pigeons and sparrows to eat from their hands. My boys found many museums to be a lot of fun. The Louvre they liked, and the statues in the D%26#39;Orsay. The Pompidou they REALLY liked, and it was fun in the early evening to watch the sunset from the top and check out all the CRAZY art. They found some of it to be very humorous. They really, really liked the Picasso Museum, as well as the history museum near there that has all sorts of stuff and is free.....can%26#39;t remember the name but it was good with lots of %26quot;things%26quot; that kids like to look at. It%26#39;s in the Marais......
There is a fun %26quot;playground%26quot; called Le Jardin des Enfants or something close to that (obviously I don%26#39;t speak French!) that is in the Halle area. It is right near the church...St. Eustache? Anyway, there are signs in the area to direct you to it. It%26#39;s odd, but it%26#39;s a big fenced area and you go at certain times and kids-only can go inside for exactly 1 hour. It costs less than 1 Euro per kid and they have 20-something year olds running it (very pleasant, one always speaks English). The kids get to run around for part of the time, then they organize games for all the kids.....doesn%26#39;t matter whether you speak French or not. My kids are still talking about it. There is an %26quot;ancient Greek Ruin%26quot; part of the playground and a %26quot;jungle volcano%26quot; part and twists and turns and tunnels and all sorts of things. Amazing. The kids loved playing with the French kids and playing %26quot;Chat et ??%26quot; whatever %26quot;Cat %26amp; Mouse%26quot; translates into. And as a parent you have a quick 60 minutes to hit some shops and tour the church and have a coffee in a nearby cafe.
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One other thing....plan for rain and make sure everyone has an umbrella. And find the smallest most compact ones you can find, because as the mom you%26#39;re probably going to be the one carrying them around! =)
Before you go.....read every book about Paris and France you can lay your hands on to the kids. Madeline, of course, but we found a lot of other ones, as well as movies (from Madeline to a bunch of others I can%26#39;t remember now).
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Travelbug, the pool in Neuilly is public and anyone can go for a price (5E). It is, ironically enough, located in Neuilly.
ville-neuillysurseine.fr/html/…
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You could try this one in the 5th.
…wanadoo.fr/our.parisflats.are.yours/apparts…
We stayed in the 35 sq m. apartment over Christmas %26#39;05 and liked it a lot. It is a small but very well equipped apartment suitable for a family with two small children (ours are 3.5 and 6.5 years old). It is on a very quiet street, yet close to lots of shops and restaurants, and close to the metro. The landlord is very nice. Check out the comments in the guest book at the web site, and if you have questions, feel free to ask me.
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I would highly recommend an apartment (www.bestparislodge.com is a good one) rental. Food is pretty expensive in restaurants and if your kids are picky eaters, you will do better to be able to feed them things that they really like. Also, we found that having a 10 year old, we couldn%26#39;t get her to eat salad without dressing she was used to and she didn%26#39;t like vinagrette, so I would suggest taking along a bottle of a favorite one for them if they eat greens. Walking around is great, though the parks will be a bit chilly in February, the bateaux mouches are fun, Musee D%26#39;Orsay is smaller and better than the Louvre and more manageable. Notre Dame tour to the top is great and Georges Pompidou can be fun.
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I took my 4-year-old some years ago and used the book Linnea in Paris, which she was very familiar with, to frame the stay. We re-read the book and watched the video a few times before we left. Once there we visited the Musee Marmottan, even re-enacting a vignette from the book where Linnea stands very close to the painting (Waterlilies) and was unable to visualize the flowers, and then is advised by Mr. Blum to stand back, which enabled her to see the actual design. We went to Notre-Dame and walked past the Hotel Esmeralda. Of course the visit culminated in a trip to Giverney (it was May) and we stood on the Japanese bridge, sketched, etc. Luckily I had followed the advice of the hotel, and booked a minivan to go to Giverney. This was extremely fortuitous, since it was the Ascension Thursday holiday, very hot, and the lines were unbelievably long. If we had gone on our own, I would probably have had to give up and leave, without seeing Giverney. Happily, the minivan actually constitutes a %26quot;group%26quot;, and we rolled right in without any wait at all! Also, the minivan returns you to your hotel, which was terrific since she was hot, sleepy, and cranky at that point. Well worth the extra money, at least with kids.
I also used the Eiffel Tower, which she was familiar with as an icon of Paris, as another
touchstone. We stayed at a hotel on rue Amelie and asked for a room with a view of the ET. They actually gave us a little free-standing penthouse on the roof which was terrific -- included a large terrace with a table for four, and direct views of the ET. It was also wonderful for eating dinner on several nights.
There are playgrounds everywhere and many carrousels. We stopped at everyone we saw. I think the big thing for me was to realize before we left that my normal agenda -- walking, windowshopping, cafe-sitting -- would have to be severely amended. Although we did all of that, I had to have a flexible but thought-out plan for each day.
Stops for ice-cream and hot chocolate were mandatory.
By the way, I actually regretted not bringing those little packets of ketchup that you get at fast-food places with me, since my daughter is a ketchup-addict and needs it for her frites. Although we could always get ketchup, sometimes we had to wait for the waiter to find some, and sometimes we had to pay a surcharge! I also recall that she did not like the local juice boxes (the juice is better, less sweet and more fruity) and I only had 6 US-style juice boxes with me, which I had to hoard. Otherwise we did fine with food, Chinese and Vietnamese being a great default, as was roast chicken from the markets. She developed an appreciation for high-quality croissants with confiture while there also.
Have a great trip!
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