We’re off to Paris in October for 4 days and it would be nice to have some ideas of what to see/do with our 12yr old daughter.

Eiffel tower is on the list of course but we won’t bother with the Louvre as I think it will be rather dull for her (and we don’t get a big kick out of looking at old paintings).

Just wondered if there were some hidden gems that aren’t on the main tourist trails.

Friends were there in March and raved about the Secret Parisbook.

Versailles or Chantilly

Go out to Fontainbleau and the forest

The boat trip and/or bus trip

The second hand clothes shops

Eat at L’Entrecote

Pompidou Centre

Montmatre

Eurodisney.

montparnasse tower for the best view.
coutume for the best coffee/ breakfast (7th)

Pompidou Centre

Postmodern eyesore or functionalist dreamscape?

If you want to take her shopping go to Galleries Lafayette (Opera Metro). Amazing Dome ceiling with a coffee bar on the roof – fantastic view.

Gotta be the Catacombs.

You have no idea how bad this thread title sounds……
I looked and was going to advise you you may get locked up……. 😆

The queues at the Eiffel tower can be massive 2 hour + waits on busy days, limiting what else you can get done in daylight hours!

Get a portrait done in the Montparnasse market. Good for a laugh when you get home.

Try http://en.parisinfo.com/paris-museum-monument/71499/Musée-des-égouts-de-Paris if she isn’t too girlie…

The Musee de la magie is good for kids.

The Marais area is cool to stroll around.

A couple of extra questions!…

• Is it better to book these attractions beforehand? If so, who are reputable companies.

• Re airport parking – not done this for years. It seems like you book an arrival and departure slot. What happens if your plane is delayed and you go over your departure time.

We’re flying from Luton if it helps.

Ta!

we don’t get a big kick out of looking at old paintings

Paris is full of old buildings as well, you’ll hate it.
Why not spend an hour there and just do a bit of it, unless it’s shit of course. Which it’s not.
If you’re going to spend all that time, effort and money to go to a world Capital, don’t you think that it might possibly be worth it to go and see some of its culture?
Versailles is quite a long way out of Paris, and is full of old stuff.
You could go to the Beaubourg – that’s modern in a sort of 50 year old sort of way, and there’s all the Grand Projet of Mitterand – some of those are only 30 years old.
You can do a midnight to dawn trip on the Metro.
Go to Parc de la Villette and see the museum of science and industry and Tschumi’s park with follies is ace – and it’s less than 30 years old, just.

We went with Jnr last summer for 3 days, he was 13 and a few weeks – so a very similar age.

We just did all the typical tourist sights i.e. lots of old buildings and lots of walking. We didn’t do the Louvre as we didn’t have time (but we’re going back for that at some point). We stayed just out of the centre of the city and got the train in each morning (20 min each way) and wandered for about 14 hours each day. Jnr was never bored with any where we went.

We didn’t queue at all at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower. We got there pretty much as soon as it opened on a Sunday morning, bought our ticket and walked up The lift queues were huge though. There was a queue to go to the very top, but it didn’t seem too bad I think because we kept looking out at the city and laughing at the range selfie stick pouting occurring.

Let her watch the film Amelie before you go, she’ll probably love it, then if/when she does go about Montmartre to skim stones in the canal, go to the cafe that is featured in the film etc

As much as the louve might sound dull some stuff is incredibly impressive, the scale of the last supper etc. There were some other exhibitions on so check what else is going on before ruling it out.

As for airport parking avoid any airport that can’t be accessed by public transport is my rule.

[pedant] re Amelie – Canal St Martin, nowhere near Montmartre [/pedant]. Nice walk from aforementioned Parc de la Villette.

Steady on aP, he only said he’s not keen on old paintings, not old stuff in general. A bit like me. Old buildings/architecture? Love it. Old technology? Brilliant. Archaeology? Almost chose archaeology to study at uni. Old languages? Fascinating. Old paintings? Meh. 😉

OP: do some googling to see if anyone can recommend a guided tour of a museum. We had an art student guide us round the Vatican (free tour but we gave him a huge tip), it was really fascinating learning about how the various styles of art came and went, the politics around who commissioned pics, who was in them, the symbolism hidden in the backgrounds etc. If we’d just gone round ourselves, even with the listeny-headphone-thingies, it would have been dull. Looking back on my visits to the Louvre, having someone explain things to you would’ve been way better than just wandering round looking at stuff.

Thanks for your input aP – but to extrapolate all that twaddle from a simple comment saying I don’t like looking at old paintings is a bit special!

There are lots of places we are planning to visit, The Louvre isn’t high on the list though.

Paris is great. Our 7yo daughter loved it too.

We found the tourist bus a good way to get around and see the sights. The Metro is also very good, but watch out for pick pockets (we caught a couple trying to rob some Japanese tourists).

See the Eiffel tower lit up and sparkling at 10pm.
Take a ride on the Seine.
Take a bike tour or take a segway tour (done it in San Francisco, but same company).
Climb up to Sacré-Cœur
Take a walk through the parks.
See the Louvre, just to visit the pyramid if nothing else. BTW it’s not all old paintings.
The Musee D’Orsay is worth a look (arrive early).
Take a roof top tour of the Pantheon.
Printemps (just to see the dome, if not interested in the shopping)

For food we always recommend L’Affriolé on Rue Malar. Not cheap, but quite possibly the most amazing meal I have eaten anywhere.

The list goes on. You’ll have a great time. We found TripAdvisor to be a good resource.

It’s worth a trip on a bateau mouche, the Velib’ (Boris bikes) are a good way to get around as well, the only problem is finding somewhere to park them at popular tourist spots…

Personally I would skip Notre Dame (if the queues are as long as usual) and go to Sainte-Chapelle round the corner…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/6Sp1QH]Saint-Chapelle 5[/url] by Beanum, on Flickr

Bit of a train ride but the Cite des Science was good

Just resurrecting this thread!

Has anyone used the Paris City Pass?
http://booking.parisinfo.com/z6200e2x26827m466g3514_uk-paris-city-passport.aspx?utm_source=parisinfo-en&utm_medium=flash-top3&utm_content=PCP-en&utm_campaign=top3-global

I sort of know it would work out a bit more expensive, but the convenience kind of appeals.

not myself – but a colleague at work went, bought the museum pass and said it was a good bit of business as it’s not that much more than entrance to one, and it gives you queue jump, which is especially useful at the Louvre (always lots of queues)

remember to get a carnet – 10 tickets that give you any travel on the metro AND the bus

catacombs a must, montparnasse tower – cheaper and higher than the eifel, la villette science museum and the pompidou centre.