What to see in Paris with a 7 year old?

[cajunrose]

My MIL is paying for us to go to Paris to visit my BIL who lives there. I'm trying to figure out how long we should stay. I don't know a lot about Paris and certainly not what would be interesting for a 7 year old.

 

I know we are doing to Disney there on her birthday. Does anybody have any info about Disney in Paris?

 

The only things I know about that I want to do is Disney, Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Louvre, and that's about it.

 

Would you stay 2 or 3 weeks? We would also like to visit another country too that is close. Don't know which one yet though.

 

Thank you

Stephenie

[Cammie]

We did London, Paris and a tour of Italy this summer. We only did 3 days in Paris so we only hit the highlights (Eiffel, cruise on the river, Louvre, Versaille, Musee d'Orsay). We were not that enthralled with Paris but we LOVED London. If you can take one week out of your trip and do London - I would highly recommend it!!! The museums alone will keep any child engaged (natural history, science, British museum, etc, etc) plus you can get cheap tickets to great shows, visit the crown jewels in the tower of London, the wax museum... We did a week in London and it was not enough! We were travelling with two kids (4 and 8) and they had a blast! You can actually fly from Paris to London for cheaper than the train that goes in the chunnel. We found really cheap tickets on a discount flyer that worked out great for us!

 

Have a great trip!

[Mothersweets]

I'd stay for 3 weeks (mil is paying, right? :) ) and I would go see what I wanted to see and drag 7yo along for the ride. I wouldn't worry about making every moment fascinating to her - she's 7!

 

I would plan one kid thing each day - maybe an hour or two, and do what is interesting to me the rest of the time.

 

eta - I bet there are some great guidebooks out there. Maybe Rick Steves? He is usually more family-centered.

[ElizabethB]

We liked Germany better than France. Southern Germany is close, a 7 year old might enjoy seeing the castle that inspired the Disney castle. The French clothes are much cuter than the German clothes, though, especially little girls' dresses. You might want to take a bunch of short trips out from Paris, coming back to your BIL's house to rest and do laundry, that's what my parents did when they visited me in Germany.

 

Brugges in Brussels is also nice--great pastries, chocolates, and fun laces and tapestries to look at, it's also called "The Venice of the North," it has canals.

 

I would stay 3 weeks. We loved Europe!

Edited January 19, 2010 by ElizabethB

[Julie in CA]

If you can make a day trip out of Paris, Mont St. Michel is a really interesting place to go. I went with my son who's 18, but I think that might be interesting even for a younger kid. It's not really that long of a trip if you take the TGV from Paris and then a short bus ride to the coast of Normandy.

Have a good time!

[King Alfred Academy]

If you can make a day trip out of Paris, Mont St. Michel is a really interesting place to go. I went with my son who's 18, but I think that might be interesting even for a younger kid. It's not really that long of a trip if you take the TGV from Paris and then a short bus ride to the coast of Normandy.

Have a good time!

 

I second this! I would suggest staying the night and exploring after the tour buses have all gone home. We had an amazing time with no crowds. The abbey is breathtaking at night.

[ElizabethB]

If you can make a day trip out of Paris, Mont St. Michel is a really interesting place to go. I went with my son who's 18, but I think that might be interesting even for a younger kid. It's not really that long of a trip if you take the TGV from Paris and then a short bus ride to the coast of Normandy.

Have a good time!

 

:iagree:

 

Mont St. Michel is really cool, I forgot about that.

 

Also, Verdun is interesting and also is where they sell chocolate bombs, my husband got one as a child when he lived in Germany, he and his brothers still talk about that thing whenever they get together. (My husband and I went to Verdun, but on a weekend, and most of the stores were closed, so no chocolate bomb for us.)

 

Edit: I have no idea why I forgot about Mont St. Michel, the picture next to my name here is a view from a window at Mont St. Michel, duh!

Edited January 19, 2010 by ElizabethB

[SonshineLearner]

I'd stay a LONG time:-) When will you get to go back?

 

:-)

[Brilliant]

We did Paris with a 7-yr old.

 

He liked the Eiffel Tower, Napoleon's Tomb, and Les Invalides (war museum). But he's a boy. He didn't care about the Louvre or the Orsay - I'm not sure any 7yo would. The Seine Riverboat was fun. Of course you have to see Notre Dame, but we liked St Chapelle better.

 

If you can do any trips outside Paris, I second the recommendation for Mont St. Michelle. Very cool even for young kids.

[2sweetgirls]

It truly is a fabulous (though expensive) place to visit. My family is currently stationed in Germany and London has been one of our favorite trips. We spent a week and still felt it wasn't long enough. We saw a show and my girls (7 &9) are still singing it months later. The museums are all free and you can spend hours in them. The Tower of London currently has a Henry the 8th exhibit that was very cool. It showed the armor he wore and at the end had a fun hands on exhibit for the kids. The girls also really loved seeing the crown jewels. Hamley's toy store was 7 stories of fun too!

 

Another great place for kids is Rome. My girls LOVED the Colosseum and the Vatican. You can download a free podcast by Rick Steves about the Sistine Chapel off itunes. It was very informative and even my energetic girls sat for 30 minutes walking around the room listening and appreciated it all the more. And don't even get me started on the gelato (Italian ice cream)!

 

 

Look into discount airlines like Ryan Air and Easy Jet for extremely low fares. It's much cheaper to fly than take the train here. Just read ALL the fine print and don't expect anything fancy, it's very basic and they will add fees for everything if you're not careful. Stay as long as you can and enjoy your time here. It's almost overwhelming there is so much to see and do.

 

Hope this has helped a bit! :001_smile:

[jld]

We used to live north of Paris, and would go in once or twice a month and spend the day there.

 

We liked eating at the food court at the Louvre, or Godjo, an Ethiopian restaurant near the Pantheon. Both places are kid-friendly.

 

We nearly always went to the Jardin Luxembourg, or that park near Les Halles that only allows a small number of kids in at a time for supervised play (can't remember the name).

 

On the first Sunday of the month, many museums are free, but only my older kids enjoyed that. The younger ones stayed outside and fed the pigeons or played with Dad while the olders and I did the museums.

 

We always meant to do a river cruise, but never did (well, many, many years ago when dd was a toddler, but never with all the kids). A few times at the top of the Tour Eiffel, and that got boring. Aquaboulevard is a place we'd like to try sometime, but haven't gotten around to.

 

Ds10 was 8 when we went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, and still talks about it.

 

I thought the Playmobil Fun Park a little south of Paris was fun, but the kids said not to recommend it. I also think your daughter would like Parc Asterix (north of the city; you'd need to rent a car), but the kids said she might need to be familiar with Asterix to really enjoy it.

 

We always got gelato at Amorino, and usually a milk chocolate eclair at Cacao et Chocolat.

 

Mostly we went in on Sundays, so we usually just ate, walked around a museum or spent time at a park, then ate some dessert, and went back to our city. The times we were there on a weekday, or Saturday, we usually went to a grand magasin, even if we didn't need to buy anything, just to look at the selection and admire the displays.

 

There's a book called Imagerie de la France, which you will find at any bookstore in Paris, that has pictures of things around France that kids would enjoy. Try to pick it up your first day there, and see what intrigues your daughter the most, and maybe you can take a side trip there. We always get inspired when we look at that book.

 

I'm sure you'll have a great time. Stay as long as you can. France is a great place, despite the French.;) Hopefully your daughter will pick up some of the language.:)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

My MIL is paying for us to go to Paris to visit my BIL who lives there. I'm trying to figure out how long we should stay. I don't know a lot about Paris and certainly not what would be interesting for a 7 year old.

 

I know we are doing to Disney there on her birthday. Does anybody have any info about Disney in Paris?

 

The only things I know about that I want to do is Disney, Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Louvre, and that's about it.

 

Would you stay 2 or 3 weeks? We would also like to visit another country too that is close. Don't know which one yet though.

 

Thank you

Stephenie

 

We spent a week in Paris when kids were 7, 6 and 3, so it is totally doable.

I like the website Travel for Kids, which has book suggestions as well as good spots to visit with kids.

 

We did the Eiffel Tower (which my youngest still remembers), Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame, and Ste. Chappelle. Also Les Invalides (which has several different museums), the navy museum, the middle ages museum (formerly known as the Cluny - it has the unicorn tapestries and cool other stuff), the catacombs and much much more.

 

The Rick Steves Paris book along with the DK Paris guide is your best bet.

 

I was totally underwhelmed with Versailles and wouldn't go again.

 

Just walking around Paris was lots of fun.

 

We also enjoyed London, Belgium and Germany. You might consider hitting other parts of France (Normandy, Alsace, southern France) rather than leaving the country.

 

Have a great time. Get your kid lots of books set where you're visiting so dd is also excited. The Travel for Kids site has good listings of related books.

[saw]

One time we took the first Madeline book with us and visited all the places illustrated in the book, taking pictures of the kids at each place. If you have a Madeline fan, that could be fun. It was interesting to see how the illustrations compared to the real thing.

 

We went to EuroDisney in October. I think next time we go we'll try to stay at one of the on-site hotels or one nearby. I think, but am not sure, that that will give you early entrance to the park. There usually seem to be some sort of special deals on, so check their website. Just outside the park is the Rainforest Cafe, which is always a fun place to eat.

 

Once we went to Paris with my then 7 yo ds and two friends of his of the same age; they loved the sewer museum (Musee des Egouts sp???). The other mom and I found it amusing and smelly, but it was fun to see the boys' reactions. Definitely something different.

 

Sailing (little) boats in the Luxembourg Gardens is one of my kids' favorite things to do in Paris. Keeps them happy for hours, and it's really very simple, just sticks and little sailboats that they push around.

 

The museums have I think pretty good kid trails to follow, at least the D'Orsay does.

 

Have fun!

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I second Mont St. Michel if you can get away for the day. Also, I think la Ste. Chappelle is a must for anyone visiting Paris, even your 7 yr. old should be impressed. A bateau mouche ride on the Seine at night is lovely. I haven't been for many years, but there was a live butterfly garden at the Bois de Vincennes that was cool. Not sure if it's still there. There was also an old castle fort you could climb up. The museums will get a little boring for a kid that young. I wouldn't take a 7 year old to the Louvre, so if you can get a babysitter, go with only adults. The Musee d'Orsay might be more interesting for a child that age. The Marais district is nice to walk around in. You could go to Place Beaubourg near the Centre Pompidou and see the wacky fountain and street performers. A ride on the incline car up to Sacre Coeur is fun, too.

 

Paris has so many things to do!

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Oh, I forgot to add my suggestion for a second country. I adore Belgium!! The city of Bruges is absolutely fabulous. You can walk around the old city all day and never run out of cool stuff to see!

[cajunrose]

Thank you so much for all of the new ideas! My list just got longer. The only thing I'm not sure about is the 'other country'. There are SO many I want to visit there, I just don't know what I want to see the most!!!!

 

I love the website one of you sent. I just put most of those books on my amazon list. Now to check the library for them!

[cajunrose]

I also wanted to add that I JUST got back from a month long trip to Singapore (my mom lives there) and I drug my now 6 year old around to more places than she would ever care to see! She did fine....even on the boring stuff (some whining happened of course). She is a wonderful traveler and will be fine with whatever I want to do. I do like planning fun stuff for her to do though.

[Donovans4]

my ds was 10 when we went to France, and Guedelon Castle was one of the highlights of our trip. The plan is to reconstruct a castle using only medieval building techniques, a sort of living history museum.

http://www.newyorkcarver.com/guedelon.htm

 

we also enjoyed going to Claude Monet's home in Giverny (sp?), as well as Mont St. Michel.

 

 

LauraD in MN

[MSNative]

I'm sure I just blew past where someone suggested Versailles. It is great for kids and adults - esp. the "farm" where Marie A. pretended to farm. Kind of like how I pretend to garden by perusing catalogues.

 

I second the Arc and Musee D'Orsay. The Rodin museum is outstanding too and since it's sculptures primarily it is very accessible for kids. (my kids don't love looking at lots of paintings but can get a cool sculpture.) The Centre Pompidou is a wild modern art museum that has tons of unsual things to keep a 7 yr. old intrigued. Sacre Coeur and Montmatre. Lots of artist in Montmarte - cool for kids to get to see people creating right there.

 

 

If you are going outside of Paris (farther than Versailles which for some reason never seems that far outside to me), Normandy and Verdun are fantastic. The beaches of Normandy are great for kids to run and be outside and you can soak in the history. Verdun is just powerful.

 

 

Food - godiva ice cream! Croque Monsieur and Madame are still favorites in our family. Cheap and ubiquitous. We also just liked getting baguettes from the nearest bakery and maybe a little cheese and voila. Oh and if you're trying to save money, check prices on drinks. A friend came to visit us when we lived in Paris and tried to save money buy ordering hot chocolate. Wine is actually cheaper. (For you, not your 7yr old.)

Bon voyage!!

[meet me in paris]

One thing we did in Paris was getting a pass for the water taxi. Not only could we hop on and float to our next destination instead of walking or taking a cab/metro, it was beautiful! A few times we got on and just rode around... it was especially beautiful at night.

 

If you want to do a day/weekend trip out of the city without leaving the country, our favorite place of all was Annecy. It's in the Alps/Rhone region. There are castles, museums, a beautiful lake (great for swimming in the warm weather), lovely cafes, markets, etc. The people were absolutely wonderful and it's so quaint it was like being in a fairy tale.

[cajunrose]

Why do I suddenly think that 3 weeks won't be enough? LOL

[Mrs Mungo]

My MIL is paying for us to go to Paris to visit my BIL who lives there. I'm trying to figure out how long we should stay. I don't know a lot about Paris and certainly not what would be interesting for a 7 year old.

 

I know we are doing to Disney there on her birthday. Does anybody have any info about Disney in Paris?

 

The only things I know about that I want to do is Disney, Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Louvre, and that's about it.

 

Would you stay 2 or 3 weeks? We would also like to visit another country too that is close. Don't know which one yet though.

 

Thank you

Stephenie

 

I agree that Southern Germany will be the easiest and cheapest to visit (if that's a concern).

 

I'm going to have to come back to this question later today. We lived in Germany for 5 years and visited France many, many times. We visited Paris several times and Disneyland Paris twice. We also visited several of the other places (London, Belgium, Italy, etc) mentioned. However, we have a big day and I cannot type all of that at the moment! :)

[Pixie]

I took my then 4 yo and 7 yo to Paris for 3 days on one of our trip home. We went to see the Eiffel tower but they didn't want to go up. I took them to Le Louvres and they liked it, but I knew not to try to do too much there, we studied Egypt that year so I just stuck to the Egypt section of the museum. I also took them to see the Mona Lisa but all they remember of that part was the huge crowd of Japanese tourists we had to fight against to be able to even see the painting LOL We also went to the Jardin Des Plantes and Museum of natural science (my oldest was in dinosaur mode at that time so I picked that one).

We only had 3 days there and some time was spent with family (and also recuperating from jet lag) so we didn't do all I wanted to do.

 

As far Disney is concerned. Check the disboards www.disboards.com they have a section dedicated to Disneyland Paris. We spent 3 days there on our last trip to France, and stayed at one of the hotel on site (Sequoia Lodge). We all had a great time.

 

ETA: last trip we also went to Arles in the South of France, to see the Roman ruins and museum there, the girls really like seeing in real life what we studied in history (it would be about 4 hours train ride form Paris).

I am not sure I would do Verdun with a 7yo. I went there for a field trip in 9th grade, it was very powerful and sombering.

Edited January 19, 2010 by Pixie

[stripe]

I was totally underwhelmed with Versailles and wouldn't go again.

I completely agree with you. When I went, there was almost no furniture there, just a bed or two hanging on the wall -- everything was on loan!!!, and the Hall of Mirrors was all scratched with "John <3s Jane" and "Bob was here!" type of graffiti. Underwhelmed was exactly how I felt. The gardens might be fun, if you're into formal gardens, and if things are in bloom. (I went in the winter. The trees were wrapped up.)

 

I have to say that I found the Metro in Paris to be fantastic, and made moving around in the city very easy.

 

I went partway up the Eiffel Tower but didn't find that to be so thrilling either. If you like that sort of thing, try it. Otherwise spare yourself.

 

I didn't have the best food experiences in Paris, but the bread, pastries, and yogurt were uniformly delicious. (Except for some really rubbery "flan" I had once. Yech.)

 

I liked the museums in Paris a lot. If your child is into art, you could see a lot of museums. A la Linnea in Monet's Garden. Anything to do with Impressionists is, not surprisingly, packed.

 

Walking along the Seine is also fun.

 

I found "people watching" to be unusually entertaining in Paris. I once ate in a restaurant with a man who was obsessively photographing this old lady eat. It was...interesting.

[cajunrose]

Thank you so much for all of the ideas. I have a list going. I'm very very overwhelmed right now!

 

Stephenie

[abbeyej]

Make sure to take her to Angelina for hot chocolate! My kids still speak rapturously about it a year later! :)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

One tip for Paris is to get the Museum Pass. Rick Steves' books have the details. He probably also goes into it on his website.

 

We bought ours at Musee d'Orsay. Then it was also good for the Louvre. The great thing was that we were able to use a different entrance line at Louvre, bypassing a lot of line. It also allowed us to leave and re-enter. So we ate lunch at the food court of the attached mall rather than in the museum (which was expensive and a little too gourmet - think blue cheese and watercress sandwiches) and then use our pass to get right back in.

 

I also wouldn't program too much of your time. There is a lot to be said for just sitting in a plaza or a park with a chocolate filled crepe and thinking and talking about what you're seeing. We once spent about 20 minutes just walking around the exterior of a lovely Romanesqe church that was just on the way to something else. I had been in the courtyard of the Cluny for about a half hour when my dh suggested that we might also like goin INSIDE the museum instead of just admiring the exterior. But then I get carried away. (I've been known to draw a crowd in/around a church and dh joked that I was going to get arrested as an unlicensed tour guide in Rome for stopping every half block to point something out to the kids.)

[Julie in CA]

Make sure to take her to Angelina for hot chocolate! My kids still speak rapturously about it a year later! :)

We missed the chocolate. :(

BUT...raspberry sorbet from Berthillon....:drool5: :svengo:...changed my world!