A trip to Paris

[Torchy]

One of my favourite websites :-

Paris 26 Gigapixels is a stitching of 2346 single photos showing a very high-resolution panoramic view of the French capital (354159x75570 px).

http://www.paris-26-gigapixels.com/index-en.html

 

[m-tinkerbelle]

I am very very glad you posted this! It helps me out with my children (6, 8, 10) who actaully are very excited to see both Paris and DLP. Plus, I love ice cream I had no idea there was a world famous ice cream shop there. YUM!!

I don't know how long you'll be staying in the area, but you can also take the kids to La Cite des Sciences de Paris La Villette, i've heard kids LOVE it http://www.cite-sciences.fr/en/cite-des-sciences

If you have little girls you can take them to the Doll Museum (Musée de la Poupée http://www.museedelapoupeeparis.com/info-autre-lien/infoen.html)

They might love to go to the Eiffel Tower so if you can get your tickets in advance and wake them up early you can take them to the top. The view from there is absolutely stunning!

Also, I saw a couple of brochures at the tourism office outside DLP about a feline park which seemed very interesting, they might be interested in visiting that.

Another tour idea if your kids are into real-life castles and palaces would be Vaux le Vicomte castle in case you wanted to visit Versailles but see it as an impossible (and boring for kids) option. Vaux le Vicomte I think is near DLP and I think you can take the RER A to get there. If they get bored you can take them back to DLP ASAP

Check Provins too, it might be a very cool site to visit with kids (it's an UNESCO medieval city)

As for ice cream, there are many artisan ice cream shops in Paris that sell DELICIOUS ice cream and also, every single bakery smells like heaven . We really regretted having breakfast included in the hotel rate


I agree with Isila that for a day visit -with small kids- to such a large city and to get around on foot and then using public transportation might not be a good idea at all. Chances are that you'll get cranky kids and cranky parents .
You can also take the Les Cars Rouges tour, they take you around and you can check the most famous places by yourself and hop on and off the bus as often as you like but again, if it's supposed to be a short visit I'd go for the tours that pick you up at your hotel, really.

have fun you all! we want to go back to Paris badly XD we enjoy the city as much as we enjoy DLP. Our next trip will be our fifth time there and SO MANY things left to see

 

[Isila]

I wanna go to Paris.....

 

[Johnny_boy]

I am very very glad you posted this! It helps me out with my children (6, 8, 10) who actaully are very excited to see both Paris and DLP. Plus, I love ice cream I had no idea there was a world famous ice cream shop there. YUM!!

Yeah, the ice cream is good but was shut when we were there so we got some from the attached cafe sitting outside, 3 bowls with the smallest scoops of ice cream ever and 2 cafe au lait for around €28! It was lovely ice cream but don't sit down!!

We did a walk from the Arc de Triomphe (Charles de Gaulle Etoile metro/RER) down the Champs-Élysées to the Louvre on a Sunday 3.5 years ago and had a great time, it's a lovely walk via le Jardin de Toulliers and Place de la Concorde, don't know if the kids would enjoy it though. When we were there there was a model boat race going on in J-de-T.

There was a carousel in J-de-T when we were there which DD and I went on and we saw a wedding photo shoot in P-d-l-C. There's a small park at the end of Champs-Élysées where we had lunch, saw the police move on some rough sleepers and DD played with a little boy while the two adults he was with had a very intense discussion about something. It was a pretty nice walk, loads of (closed) designer shops (most shops close on Sunday in France).

My tip would be to get the RER as suggested, buy lunch from a bakery (loads around though they will shut at 12pm until 2pm), they pretty much all sell filled sandwiches and the bread is baked 4 times a day so they're very fresh and you get a meal deal of a cake, drink (beer or soda) and sandwich for a few Euro. Great way to get good food and eat at your leisure.

Public toilets are free in Paris and tend to be the self-clean variety, handy to know when you have kids.

The RER/Metro is a great way to get round, would save you a lot of walking. as stations are everywhere. If you have smartphone or pda, there are loads of apps for metro route planning, most also have the attractions so you choose them rather than the station and are free or under $1. I've used a few of them and they're great, they work offline so no data roaming charges.

cheers

 

[Johnny_boy]

There are two Charles de Gaulle stations, L'Etoile (the star - in the centre of Paris - from above it looks like star) and Roissy (the airport) - just to save any confusion and an over-long train journey if you decide on that option.

When we were in Paris about 13 years ago on 1 August, the temperatures were high 30s and touched 40 a few times, my BMW Z3 (pre kids) didn't have aircon and driving round was like being in a fan assisted oven. It was high 20s low 30s in mid-September 3.5 years ago but it can drop if you have rain. When we were there 2.5 years ago in July, I was cold walking round Disney in shorts and we were wearing waterproofs and jumpers at Monet's garden. Hope that helps.

 

[sweetlovin']

I love all these tips! I am staying 3 nights in the 7th arrondissement which is a short walk to the Eiffel Tower and about a 5 minute walk to the 8th line train station. So, I am not staying in the heart of the city, however, the neighborhood seems very very safe.

The hotel will not be ready when we get off the plane 8:45am, so my plan is to maybe do a Siene Cruise early afternoon (after depositig our luggage at the hotel) and grabbing food (in reverse order).

I did book my kids a private tour of the Louvre as well as a private tour of Notre Dame. Yes, I spent a lot of money. However, the Louvre guide will set up a treasure hunt to keep the kids entertained. The Notre Dame tour is geared towards kids as well, so hopefully they will be engaged enough that they will learn about the history. I have asked all of them if they want to climb the steps. I have done this before, so I explained to the kids that the steps are just as steep, narrow, and winding as the steps shown in Sleeping Beauty. They all have said they want to climb and see the Gargolyes. Has anyone with younger kids done this?

Finding carousels will be a huge key in keeping my 6yo little girl happy, so I am writing down all of the ideas and locations. I knew about the science museum, not about the doll musuem which is another way to engage the youngest. The castles may be a little more difficult for me to get to, but I will keep it in mind if we have some free time.

The bakery idea sounds wonderful and quite frankly, if most bakeries carry sandwiches, the most logical as well. This way as soon as a child mentions hunger we will just go to the closest bakery and eat. I think being so close to the Effiel Tower, we can have a picnic at the park at night and watch the tower light up.

I know that the first Sunday of every month all of the government museums are free. I just need to find out which of the museums are included in that list. There must be a list on the internet somewhere. I did find a link to buy Eiffel Tower tickets ahead of time, but April isn't up quite yet. http://ticket.toureiffel.fr/index-css5-sete-pg1-lgen.html

Has anyone walked Musee d'Orsay with little ones? I believe it is not far from my hotel at all (walking distance) and I love Renior paintings. However, if it would not be enjoyabe for my children I can skip it. This is their first overseas trip and keeping them entertained and happy is my number 1 priority. I want to get them to fall in love with traveling and experiencing new cultures. This trip is completely about them.

On a side note, I was just in England, Scotland, and Wales (sans kids) this summer and I had the best ice cream across from Shakespeare's house! It was heavenly. So I am looking forward to trying all the different ice cream shops. I could spend an entire 4 days skipping meals and eating ice cream. YUM!! I also had the best chocolate muffins and french fries. I can't wait to go back next year with my son to catch a Tottenham or Liverpool game and eat muffins, fries, and ice cream. Oh, showing him all the rich history will be fun as well

 

[Johnny_boy]

The Musee d'Orsay is an impressive builing, M-I-L visited it and brought me back a book. I want to see it just because it looks so amazing, I'm not an art fan but love interesting buildings but each to their own. It looks the kind of place the kids might like for a bit - mine are happy if they have stairs they can run up and down Might be worth a quick visit with a backout plan i.e. go and see what you want first

If you're veggie, don't read the next paragraph:

A couple of food things worth looking out for are rillettes (ree-ets) that are abit like a pate but quite fatty shredded meat, goose, rabbit and pork are very nice. Tartes au pommes/poire/etc. are sliced glazed apples, pears, etc. You often get them as part of a meal-deal. Rotiseries are another good choice for a quick meal, fresh roasted poultry with some fresh bread, they often have potatoes cooked in the fat dripping from the roatating birds, which are yummy.

I like the sound of the Louvre tour, it's massive so it'll tire the kids out. Notre Dam is very busy so booking a tour is a good idea.

The food is plentiful, loads of delis, bakeries, etc. dotted around - just keep an eye on the lunchtime closing! It's quite sudden, the shutters will just go down!

One place we liked was "Manhatten" or La Defense, the business district. It has the big cube arch and you get great views from the top. There is a shopping centre there and the usual chains like MacDonalds and Starbucks but some really weird shapped buildings.

I've posted a PM with my flickr photos when DD was 1, some of the pictures might help decide one way or the other.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmhunt/268804889/" title="IMG_1613 by johnny_boy, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/122/268804889_1bb922b3c1.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="IMG_1613" /></a>

 

[disney_bob]

Do you have a link to where you were seeing the information about tours from DLP around Paris? My wife and I are considering a DCL trip next year and might stop at DLP on the trip back. We'd love to do some tours with a group from Disney and not have to find our own way around (we're not adventurous like that).

 

[sweetlovin']

Do you have a link to where you were seeing the information about tours from DLP around Paris? My wife and I are considering a DCL trip next year and might stop at DLP on the trip back. We'd love to do some tours with a group from Disney and not have to find our own way around (we're not adventurous like that).

Here is the link for two of the three trips from DLP into Paris

http://us.entertainment.disneylandparis.com/paris-and-surroundings/index.xhtml

 

[m-tinkerbelle]

The Musee d'Orsay is an impressive builing, M-I-L visited it and brought me back a book. I want to see it just because it looks so amazing, I'm not an art fan but love interesting buildings but each to their own. It looks the kind of place the kids might like for a bit - mine are happy if they have stairs they can run up and down Might be worth a quick visit with a backout plan i.e. go and see what you want first

If you're veggie, don't read the next paragraph:

A couple of food things worth looking out for are rillettes (ree-ets) that are abit like a pate but quite fatty shredded meat, goose, rabbit and pork are very nice. Tartes au pommes/poire/etc. are sliced glazed apples, pears, etc. You often get them as part of a meal-deal. Rotiseries are another good choice for a quick meal, fresh roasted poultry with some fresh bread, they often have potatoes cooked in the fat dripping from the roatating birds, which are yummy.

I like the sound of the Louvre tour, it's massive so it'll tire the kids out. Notre Dam is very busy so booking a tour is a good idea.

The food is plentiful, loads of delis, bakeries, etc. dotted around - just keep an eye on the lunchtime closing! It's quite sudden, the shutters will just go down!

One place we liked was "Manhatten" or La Defense, the business district. It has the big cube arch and you get great views from the top. There is a shopping centre there and the usual chains like MacDonalds and Starbucks but some really weird shapped buildings.

I've posted a PM with my flickr photos when DD was 1, some of the pictures might help decide one way or the other.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmhunt/268804889/" title="IMG_1613 by johnny_boy, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/122/268804889_1bb922b3c1.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="IMG_1613" /></a>

L'Arc de la Defense was closed for the public last year. They had some sort of accident and they closed the elevators for a rehab (which I heard, was going to take a year to complete). Check if they are operative before going. I've heard the views from there are amazing but we couldn't go up

 

[J Marley]

I have just finished a review of the Cityrama Paris by Night trip which we did on Tuesday 8th February if anyone is interested

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2656605

 

[Isila]

I have just finished a review of the Cityrama Paris by Night trip which we did on Tuesday 8th February if anyone is interested

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2656605

oh, yes, very interested

 

[gracie2007]

Hi,

Had a look at ur pics and they look ammmmmmmmmmazing!!

We are going June 5th and have been thinking bout doing this tour. Really want to see Eiffel tower but only have 3 days in parks. Also have a 4 year old so wonder if this will be to much for her???? but am deperate to go on tour.

We are going with family but they are staying in different hotel outside disney (magic circus) and we are in New york.
Does anyone know if the hotels are ok with sleep overs....my daughter staying in their room one nite and their girl staying in ours??? Not sure if this is ok cause when you book you have to state who is in the room, but think this is the only way we can go on tour.

Thanks for any help xxxx

 

[John245]

have fun in paris!