Family Holidays: Paris family holidays and breaks
Take the Family holiday rating 
Why
Mais pourquoi pas?! Paris is a truly wonderful city for family holidays and breaks,
and children are welcomed here - although it has to be said that French kids in
general, and Parisian ones in particular, are extremely well behaved, so get ready
for a few disapproving looks when yours cause havoc. The centre can be walked
easily, and the Métro is clean and useful, if – like London’s
– a trial for those with buggies.
The food is often phenomenal and generally kid-friendly, although there’s
a huge number of tourist traps and you can eat very badly here, so you still
need to choose wisely. Croissants, crêpes, omelettes, ice cream and hot
chocolate are perennial child-pleasers that were more or less invented by the
French. And best of all, after eating your fill of steak-frites and strolling
along the Seine, you can make the kids’ year with a trip to Disneyland
– magnifique!
- Top left: Arc de Triomphe
- Top middle: Sacre Couer Basilica
- Top right: Eiffel Tower
- Bottom left: Pyramide at the Louvre
- Bottom right: Pompidou Centre
When
Paris is amazing at any time of year, although it can overheat in August. This
is when many locals escape to the country or the seaside, yet despite many sights
and restaurants closing for the month, the city is filled with tourists and sights
such as the Eiffel Tower become impossibly crowded.
If you do visit in summer, cool off on
Paris
Plage – the temporary beaches set up alongside the Seine from mid-July,
complete with palm trees and loungers. Paris Plage grows year on year, but the
prime spot for families is close to Châtelet, where there’s a special
kid’s area with baby-changing and –feeding facilities and plenty to
entertain little ‘uns. Or head for the nearby
La
piscine Joséphine Baker (a floating swimming pool on the Seine), which
is open all year but comes into its own in summer, when its roof fully retracts.
Kids love the boat-shaped structure in metal, wood and glass, and the large paddling
pool; for parents there’s a gym, sauna, spa, Jacuzzi and hammam. You’ll
find it at quai François Mauriac in the 13th arrondissement.
Bastille Day (July 14th), when folk celebrate the 1789 surrender of the Bastille
that began the Revolution, is an exciting day all over France, but the firework
displays and concerts held in the capital are naturally among the very best.
Events start revving up the day before; on the day itself, everyone and their
brother flocks to the Champs-Elysées to watch a military parade led by
none less than the president, with jets whooshing overhead. After all-day partying,
there’s another giant congregration by the Eiffel Tower to watch the awesome
fireworks display.
At Christmas, Paris is an especially stunning sight, with lights and beautifully
decorated trees all over the city, plus fab gift shopping. (See our feature
article 'Christmas breaks in London and Paris',
by Rhonda Carrier, on Paris and London.)
Click
here for an up-to-date family friendly events guide to Paris…
How
It's about 2hrs 15mins from London St Pancras
with Eurostar. There are around 20
departures a day, and once you’re on board, there's plenty of room for
the kids to take a stroll up the aisles or nip up to the café for an
early taste of France in the shape of a croissant or croque-monsieur. Kids under
five travel free but don't get a seat if there’s not one available. When
booking, do state if you are travelling with an infant so that you’ll
be put in the family carriage with its baby-changing facilities.
Children's prices are around £50 return; adults should look out for offers
starting at around £69. First Class accommodation gives you more room,
plus free champagne and a meal served at your table – for example, scrambled
eggs and smoked salmon for breakfast. It’s all very civilized but costs,
not surprisingly, twice the standard price.
Eurostar arrives at the Gare du
Nord. The taxi rank here can get very busy but taxis are not absurdly expensive
in Paris and are worth the outlay if you’re loaded down. Or there are
two RER lines and two Metro lines in the station itself.
take the plane
British Airways flies to Paris Charles
de Gaulle just north of the city from most of its British airports. Other options
include Easyjet (from Liverpool, London Luton and Newcastle) and Ryanair to
Paris Beauvais airport one hour north of the city. Air France also serves most
UK cities including London's City airport. These days, when you can get a flight
for £1, it's worth shopping around, but remember that the ‘low cost’
airlines don't discount for kids’ fares. Once they're over 2, they're
as adult as the next person. Find the best flight deals with partners Expedia.
from the airport
Depending on where you are staying, the RER (train) is probably your fastest
means of getting into the centre. A taxi from Charles de Gaulle will cost around
€40 and from Orly (south of the city) approximately €30. International
rail tickets can be purchased online from TheTrainline.
Stay
take an apartment
There are numerous accommodation options in Paris. If you have
small children consider taking an apartment, as you'll have the freedom of having
your own living room, as well as facilities to self-cater if frogs legs are
step too far for your little ones. For example, Citadines
Apart'hotel Louvre. Another great option is choosing a self catering apartment.
Partners The Apartment Service have
almost 30 to choose from, in various locations in Paris, from £100 to
£450 per day, per apartment.
take a hotel
Whether you wish to stay right in the heart of Paris or perhaps
would like to be nearer to Disneyland Paris
there are loads of great options for families. Many hotels have suites, which
combine the best of both worlds, giving you your own space, whilst also allowing
you to take advantage of hotel facilities. For example, the Clarion
St. James, which is 3 minutes walk from the Louvre, and has a heated indoor
pool, children's menu and wonderful babysitting facilities, the Pavillion
de la Reine, Hotel St. James
& Albany or The Victoria Palace
(read about Dea Birkett's trip to Disneyland
Paris staying in The Victoria Palace.) Check some great Paris hotel deals
from Active Hotels and Expedia
Hotels.
Check our family favourite hotel and apartment options, which
you can find at the top right of this page.
Do
The Eiffel Tower is
a cliché but also a legend, recognized all over the world and much-loved
by kids. You can walk up to the first and second levels by stairs (all lung-busting
1,710 of them) for a nominal fee, or there’s a lift to the second floor
if you’re with younger kids (and any vertigo-suffering – or unfit
– parents). At the second floor there’s a second lift taking you
to the viewing platform at the top, 276m up. If you’re desperate to get
to the top but the queues, which can be horrendous in peak season (think two
hours and more), are offputting, you might ‘cheat’ by booking a
table at Le Jules Verne restaurant at the summit, which has a private lift.
This is more the place for a swanky or romantic meal, though: Altitude 95 on
the first level is better for families, with a kids’ menu (advance booking
– essential – gets you to the head of the lift queue), or there
are snack kiosks on levels one and two.
The Louvre, vast and awe-inspiring,
lives up to its reputation, from the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo to the
modern glass pyramid in the courtyard outside. Ask about the self-guided or
guided tours for families, or the program of workshops for kids 4 and up. You
can also print out a number of thematic trails on the likes of horses and Christmas
from the website ahead of your visit, including in English. From the Louvre
you can watch straight through to the Jardin
des Tuileries, with its sculptures, carousel and donkey rides.
Another popular outside space is the Jardin
du Luxembourg, over on the Left Bank, with lots of 19th-century statues,
including ones of various queens and other famous Parisian women around its
pond. Fountains make it a refreshing spot on a summer’s day, and you can
watch locals playing alfresco boules, chess and bridge, admire the 20 or so
hives at the aviary, and watch shows at the puppet theatre.
Or head for the wide open spaces of the Bois
de Boulogne east of the city, notorious as a transsexual hangout at night
but a wonderful spot in the daytime, especially for its Jardin
d’Acclimatation, an amusement park reached by a little motorized train
from Porte Maillot, with plenty of rides and play equipment (including a ‘magic
river’ with a water chute, trampolines, a hall of mirrors and a paddling
pool), a puppet theatre, a mini-zoo and farm, pony rides, kids’ gardening
workshops and the Musée en Herbe or ‘Growing Museum’, with
changing, hands-on art and science exhibitions and workshops for kids.
The building of the Centre Pompidou,
which looks like it’s been turned inside-out, is as much a tourist attraction
as the national collection of modern art inside. If you speak good French, check
out the artistic workshops for kids 6-10, or attend a Dimanche en Famille (‘Family
Sunday’), with activities based around a specific work, artist or theme.
For resolutely non-arty kids, head for the Ménagerie du Jardin
des Plantes
at the Musée
National d'Histoire Naturelle – a mini zoo inside the city’s
botanical garden. The world’s oldest zoo to have retained its original
appearance, having been set up in 1794 to house animals from the royal menagerie
at Versailles plus animals rescued from street entertainers, it focuses on smaller
animals and their conservation, and includes a unique ‘microzoo’
full of the kind of microscopic animals with whom we share our beds –
ick! There’s a larger zoo run by the same folk in the Bois de Vincennes
in the 12th arrondissement.
And don’t miss what’s inside the Musée
National d'Histoire Naturelle itself, especially the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution
with its thousands of stuffed animal specimens, the spooky Galeries de Paléontologie
et d'Anatomie Comparée, full of skeletons, preserved organs, shells and
fossils, and the giant – and we mean giant – crystals in the Galerie
de Minéralogie et de Géologie
In northern Paris, the La Villette abattoirs in the 19th arrondissement were
transformed into a remarkable leisure and cultural space in the 35-acre
Parc de la Villette, the city’s largest green expanse. Here you’ll
find, at various times of the year, contemporary circus, cabaret, street art,
cinema, puppetry and more, as well as tons of space in which to run around,
and a dozen themed gardens alongside a promenade bordered by sound installations
and play areas, including the Jardin des dunes et des vents (‘Garden of
Sand Dunes and Wind’) for 2–12-year-olds and the Jardin des voltiges
(‘Garden of Flight’) for over-6s.
On-site you’ll also find the Cité
des Sciences et de l'Industrie and the Cité de la Musique. The first,
a vast museum of science and technology, includes the Cité
des Enfants, with discovery spaces for kids 3–5 and 5–12, plus
a children’s media library, changing exhibitions, a planetarium, a decommissioned
1950s submarine you can explore, an IMAX cinema (the Geode), and a moving cinema
(the Cineaxe). The Cité
de la Musique is a concert space and museum of musical instruments; family
offerings include Wednesday-afternoon concerts and shows for children and parents,
music workshops, and tours of the collections with a storyteller, followed by
a workshop or by a puzzle to solve.
For those prepared to venture outside the city confines, there is, of course,
Disneyland in the eastern suburbs, 32km from the centre. Lesser-known but well
worth a visit is Parc Astérix
30km to the north, not far from Charles de Gaulle airport. The latter, based
on the classic Uderzo and Goscinny comic books about a tribe of ancient Gauls
resisting Roman occupation, includes Europe’s largest wooden rollercoaster,
plus some interesting rides modelled on ancient Greek and Roman themes. As with
Disneyland, you can choose to stay nearby, although both are straightforward
and speedy to access from the centre. For Disneyland, check out our Disneyland
Paris section.
For young kids, you could also try out the Playmobil
Funpark at Fresnes south of the city close to Orly airport.
Getting around
The centre is reasonably walkable, but beware of Parisian drivers, who don’t
always stop at red lights and almost never at marked crossings. The same goes
for trying to drive here. Adults and kids 14 and up can hire one of bikes that
form part of the new Velib’
system dotted all over Paris, although we can’t recommend strongly
enough that you stick to cycle routes (www.paris.fr
has a map, including those in the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes).
A good walk (and picnic spot) is the Promenade Plantée, a disused railway
line now planted with flowers, which runs from behind the Bastille Opéra
4.5km to the Bois de Vincennes.
The Métro
is clean, efficient and useful, if far from buggy friendly. The same tickets
can be used on buses; to save money buy
a carnet (book of ten) or a Paris Visite card, which gives you unlimited
travel on local transport within certain zones for between one and five days,
plus discounted entry on certain attractions. You can buy it at all Métro
and RER stops and in tourist offices, among other places.
A boat trip down the Seine is touristy but a must: the most longstanding company
to ply the river is Bateaux-Mouches,
offering recording commentary in a variety of languages. Lunches and dinners
are pricey, but one under-12s lunch menu is offered free with every two paying
adults.
Eat
Paris is a food-lover’s heaven. Even if you aren’t up for frogs’
legs and snails, the city should tickle your tastebuds somewhere along the line.
Below are a few of our favourites, from classic restaurants to a hot-chocolate
hideaway. And you can’t move for great delicatessens and specialist food
shops where you can stock up for picnics or self-catering treats, or for street
vendors sellings crêpes in all combinations, from cheese and ham to chocolate
and banana – particularly handy in a country in which dining hours are somewhat
restricted (although Paris is a better place than any for finding all-day options).
Berthillon, 31 rue St
Louis en l'Ile, 75004, 01 43 54 31 61. Fabulous hand-made ice creams and sorbets
available all over the city but best tasted here, at the factory and adjoining
tea-room, where you’ll get the greatest choice.
Bistro Romain, 30
rue St Denis, 75001, 01 40 26 82 80, and other locations. A handy (if not especially
cheap) chain to know about if you have relatively fussy kids who don’t
stray far from pasta, with friendly service. Other Italian staples on offer
include risottos, carpaccios, and meat and fish dishes, and under-12s get their
own menu.
Chez Angelina, 226 rue de Rivoli, 75001, 01 42 60 82 00. A classic tea-room
full of perfectly behaved French kids, and an authentic place for Paris afternoon
tea in grand surroundings. It’s also a good breakfast stop. The hot chocolate
is famous, the cakes unbeatable, but there are also club sandwiches, salads
and the like. You’ll almost certainly have to queue, hélas!
Le Jardin d'Ivy, 75 rue Mouffetard , 75005, 01 47 07 19 29. A refreshing find
in a touristy neighbourhood, full of families taking advantage of its flower-filled
courtyard or its conservatory when the weather isn’t so kind. The fish
is good, but it’s also a great place for veggies, and the prices are reasonable.
New Nioullaville,
32–34 rue de l’Orillon, 75011, 01 40 21 98 38. A vast Hong-Kong
style restaurant always bustling with Asian families (dishes come from various
parts of southeast Asia), with open kitchens for watching the multitude of chefs
at work, big fish-tanks and carts loaded with dim sum treats.
Les Ombres,
Musée Quai Branly, 27 Quai Branly, 75007, 01 47 53 68 00. A spacious
restaurant in a Paris’ museum of African, Asian Oceanian and American
civilizations, with gobsmacking views of the nearby Eiffel Tower, serving expensive
globally inspired dishes, many featuring Fair Trade ingredients. There’s
a large terrace with fountains looking out over the museum’s gardens.
Cost
Paris – like any major city – isn't cheap, even if you stay somewhere
relatively modest but especially if you go for a really good hotel. That said,
many great things are free, including access to the majority of green spaces.
- Hotels can vary from €70 per night to €1000 for a suite.
- Allow approximately €100 per night for a self-catering apartment.
- A
set menu averages €10
- A coffee around €3.
- Crepes €2 to €4.
- A carousel ride €2.
Travel reading
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