2 Days in Paris + 2 Days DLP - Suggestions?

[jtw999]

Our family (2 adults + 3 sons - 13, 11, and 8) is going on a Med Cruise in July 2011. We want to end our trip with a few days in Paris. We will have two days to explore Paris and then two days at DLP.

I am very unfamiliar with Paris, beyond the obvious sights such as the Eiffel Tower. I've been looking online but I'm finding it overwhelming... :surfweb:

I would love some suggestions for how to plan the 2 days we have, so we can see the main sights and see the best of Paris! We will be staying at a DLP hotel, so we will to add in travel time in and out of the city each day.

So, suggestions like open top bus tours, walking routes, anything... Some definite stops are the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, and Musee D'Orsay. (I don't think we'll manage more than 2 hours in each museum).

:dance3:Thank you!!

[Johnny_boy]

The Louvre is huge, it would take days to explore, it's probably not that interesting for kids to be honest. If you have an iPod touch/iPhone, there is an interactive free app called Louvre which shows where the main attractions are. There's an online planner as well, http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en . If you do decide to do it, plan well ahead what you want to see and where it is or you end up for hours wandering about seeing thousands of paintings that you're probably not interested in. I tried it on the day and we ended up walking for 4 hours and only seeing 3 things that we wanted

There are a number of boat trips on the river Seinne which are worth doing.

La Defense, the business district has the huge Grande Arche which you can go up in and the views from the top are excellent. There's also the Arc De Triomphe, rhe walk from the Lovre to there is quite interesting.

There is a big science museum in Paris as well -it crashed my browser the last time I tried to open their website...

Notre Dame is another popular place but I personally think it's better to go to the Sacre Coeur, less crowded and nicer views.

The RER into Paris will take about an hour then it's only 30 mins or so between most attractions on the Metro. www.ratp.fr is the Metro website, the tickets are interchangeable between the Metro/RER (light railway) and the buses. The Disney Station is Marne-La-Vallee-Chessy for reference.

There's been a few threads recently about this subject which have a lot more info.

http://family.go.com/travel/things-to-do/france/for-teens/ mentions a few things worth doing.

The open top bus tours are a good way of getting round as well.

Food in Paris is very nice, the bread is baked up to 4 times a day and is very cheap, buy it in themorning and it will be stale by evening, it really is worth buying just before you eat it. I've been told to wait in a baker's shop despite there being loads of bread as fresh bread was about to arrive from the back of the shop! We liked grabbing some bread and some meat, cheese, pate or rillettes (shredded cooked meat, bit like a course pate) and a cake or two and eating outdoors. French bakers often do a price promotion on a sandwich, drink (soft drink or beer) and a cake which os one of the cheapest ways to eat on the go. Many small shops and supermarkets close over lunchtime (12-2.30pm) so buy in advance. I've mentioned this rather than restaurants if you want to make the most of your time. There's also the usual McDonalds and other chains but we never bother, if we wanted to eat there, we'd have stayed at home is the way we look at it but familiarity is often comforting. Each to their own.

Enjoy!