Taking our two children aged 5 and 7 to Paris for the day.

We’ve been to Paris a few times before the kids, and loved this city, but we avoided a trip to Paris with kids- until now!

This was mainly because any visit to France we’ve done with the children has been a road trip, and we didn’t fancy taking on the notorious crazy roads of Paris in the car.

This time, however, the boys had a real interest in seeing the city, mainly to see the Eiffel Tower. We love a day out, and we adore Paris, so we decided to go for it! 

Paris is a huge city with a million things to see and do. The trouble is deciding what to see and what to skip when you only have one day.

We had an amazing day, the boys loved it, and nobody had a meltdown( adults or kids!) Our recipe for success was keeping it simple, short and sweet. 

Our one day intinery

How we filled our day exploring Paris as a family.

1.Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower was the main draw for the kids who were so excited to see it in real life. So, our first stop of the day was to Trocadero. We got an early train into Paris from our campsite, and then got the metro to Trocadero Station.

When you exit Trocadero Station, you are greeted straight away with that iconic view of the Eiffel Tower, bold and defined. It was a stunning moment watching how excited the boys were to first clap eyes on the magnificent Eiffel Tower!

After taking in the view with a coffee, and taking lots of pictures, we took a 10 minute walk through the Trocadero Gardens and over the Pont d’lena Bridge to the foot of the Eiffel Tower to get a good close up.

Once upon a time, when we visited as a couple, you could walk right underneath the tower. Unfortunately, that is closed to the public now unless you have a ticket to go up the tower.

We decided not to spend precious time in the (massive) ques to get to the top. At first the boys wanted to go up to the top, but even they agreed with us when they saw the size of the ques!

I have been up before and not only is it a bit claustrophobic, crushed next to all those people taking selfies in a small space, I realise I prefer views of Paris that include the Eiffel Tower in them, such as from the top of the Arc de Triomphe ( which is a stunning view and we highly recommend!)

2. Eiffel Tower to Jardin de Tulleries (via the Pont de Alexandre III Bridge)

The plan was to get pain au chocolate to take out from the boulangerie and eat breakfast in the gardens of the Champ- de-Mars in the shadow of the imposing Tower. However. This area was totally closed off, save for a small walkway, due to preparations for the Paris Olympics.

So, change of plan we found our way out of there, found a boulangerie and ate our goods on a bench outside!

We were going to walk along the Seine at this point to the Louvre, but the main road followed the river at this point from the Eiffel Tower and basically means walking right next to a busy road for a few miles.

In our opinion, a much better option is to walk through the streets, looking at the boutique shops, fresh fruit and flower stalls, boulangerie and cafes on the streets until you get to Pont de Alexandre III, the famous bridge with gold adorned statues, regarded as the most ornate bridge in the city.

We crossed the bridge, had a stop for the boys (to rest their legs and play with their lego mini figures!)  We then carried on a short way to Cleopatra’s needle and the Jardin de Tullieries. Palace de la Concord and Cleopatras needle were again closed due to Olympic preparation, with big bleachers and seating being erected.

I love the Jardin de Tullieries, we got another cafe au lait and sat watching the boys feed sparrows ( they are so tame!), and play with boats on in the large ponds and fountains. There is also a Fairground here which the kids loved, of course! We then walked through the lawns, this was a great spot to let the boys loose and do what they wanted to do; play in the dirt, run, and jump. They also loved renting the aforementioned toy boats to ‘sail’on the pond.

3. Jardin de Tulluiries to the Lourve

We let the boys take as long as they wanted playing in the gardens, before strolling through the lawns and flower beds towards the famous Louvre Museum and its iconic glass pyramids. There was absolutely no way we were attempting to que up and deal with the masses trying to glimpse the Mona Lisa, especially with two kids in tow. So we had a photo stop outside, which was plenty for us!

The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world, with over 8 million visitors a year. It you were to look at every piece of art inside for only 30 seconds, it would take 100 days to see everything in the Louvre!

We have been inside before ( sans kids), it is very impressive and I would be interested to visit again one day, but the sheer volume of visitors and the crowds do put me off. I wonder when, if ever, they get a quiet morning there.

4. The Seine and the Notre Dame

Heading away from the Louvre, we made our way along the Seine towards Notre Dame cathedral. This section of the Seine is a much better place to stroll, with out the major road looming over you. There are cafes and bars dotted along the river bank in this section, and even little play stops with climbing equipment for the kids.

We shortly arrived at Ile de la Cite, an island in the Seine on which the Notre Dame is located. I was interested to see the Cathedral and how repair work was progressing since the 2020 fire devastated the building, but it was heaving. It felt horrible, busy, and crowded, to we took a selfie and left ASAP!

After Our Notre Dame selfie, we grabbed a baguette and took respite from the crowds in a beautiful city garden nearby, before heading back to the Saint Michel Notre Dame train station and back to our campsite. We got back to camp at 5pm, which left us with enough time for playing with kids, a relaxing evening meal, and an early night before we headed south on our French Road Trip.

---

Essential information

Travel

We chose our campsite, Parc du Roches, as it was very close to the nearby village of Saint Cheron, which has a direct line to Paris – Gard du Austerlitz.

Unfortunately, the station was running a bus replacement service to carry out repairs on the track ( we can’t seem to escape bad luck with trains. Even on holiday!) There was no way we were attempting that. The journey now had loads of transfers and took twice as long ( potentially longer!)

Instead, we used Google to find a different line and worked out, we could drive 30 mins to the next town (Orsay) and get on a different line there. Our trip to Paris was saved! It was free parking as it was a Sunday, and trains were running very frequently; so we hopped on the train and in 30 minutes found ourselves in the centre of Paris at Saint Michel Notre Dame Station. The tickets were 10 euro pp ( return).

When we arrived at Saint Michel Notre Dame Station, we got on the metro and headed straight for Trocadero ( for views of the Eiffel Tower). We just used Google to get the metro routes and times and found it worked well and was reliable info.

You can use your train ticket for one metro journey within the centre of Paris (only valid for 2 hours from when the ticket was purchased), so we took advantage of that and got straight to the Eiffel Tower.

The rest of the day, we planned to walk. I didn’t want to use the metro if possible as I wanted it to be more chilled and didn’t want to be working out connections and waiting on busy platforms if we could avoid it. I knew if we needed to, or if the kids got tired, we could use Google maps to hop on the nearest metro, and tickets for a single journey are inexpensive ( about 2 Euro pp )

I’d googled a walking route, and it came in under 5 kilometres, which I knew my kids could handle so we went for it, hitting the major sights we wanted to see, and letting the kids  stop to rest or play whenever they wanted. Our walking route took us along cute Parisian streets and Boulevards, the Seine, and we saw the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Jardin de Tullieries, Palace de la Concord, Pont Alexandre III Bridge and the Notre Dame.

There is also the option of a tourist cruise boat called the Batobus, it has various stops along the Seine that you can hop on/off and see the sights of Paris from the water. We walked past several docks for the Batobus along the Seine, but we didn’t fancy it. It seemed very crowded and not really our type of thing. But it may be a good option for families with smaller kids who don’t want to walk too far or navigate the metro.

Accomodation

This was the first stop on our French Road Trip. We drove from Calais Ferry Port. We chose the campsite Parc du Roches due to its proximity to Paris and the easy connection from the campsite to Paris by train; unfortunately for us, the trainline was being repaired, which was a shame as it was the major reason we chose this site.

The campsite was ok; it was a bit tired compared to other sites we have stayed in by Eurocamp. But, it was clean and cheap, and although no slides,  the pool was excellent, so overall, we had a good time.

We were using it as a base to visit Paris, on the way to Provence, which was fine, but in the future, if we were driving,  I would probably try a different site such as Croix du view Pont.

If coming to Paris as a dedicated trip we I would probably take the Eurostar and leave the car at home, staying in a ibis or similar in the centre of Paris ( we have done this before as a couple and found it worked out inexpensive and easy logistically too).

Summary

We came to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, and just wandering the streets soaking it all up.

I we achieved that, and it was a real success! It was easy to navigate the city by train and metro, plus the the kids were great walking and we saw and experienced so much on foot- it really gave us a feel for the city.

The key was definitely not pushing forward too much and letting our kids set the pace, with plenty of breaks for play and snacks.

Apart from seeing the Eiffel Tower, which the kids were so excited by, the best thing for them was the fair and toy boats at the Jardin de Tullieries. If we had more time or if I plotted a different route, I would have included a trip to the Jardin de Luxembourg, which also has a fabulous playground for the kids. If we extended the trip to two days, I would have caught the metro up to the Montmartre area of Paris, which is my favourite part, and explored the shops, cobbled streets and Sacre Coeur, but I am glad we didn’t try to squeeze it in on this one day trip.

Another landmark I was sad to miss was the Arc de Triomphe and would include this if we had two or more days in the city. You can climb to the top for a great view of Paris, including the Eiffel Tower ( I advise you to pre-book your tickets to save any annoying queing).

All in all, this visit confirmed to us how much we love Paris and we actually think it’s a great city to explore with kids. Au Reviour, Paris! We will be back. 

---

***