In November 2019 we went to Paris en famille for a story for The Independent. Story below… For further tips not included in the story, scroll down!
Paris for families
The child-friendly guide to Paris – not including Disney!
Strolling the elegant boulevards, dining in atmospheric brasseries and admiring world-class art in Paris can be heaven when you’re keeping the company of adults. Add children to the mix and those joys quickly becomes a ‘why do we have to walk?’ whinge; an ‘I’m not eating that!’ whine and a ‘Why are we looking at boring pictures?’ moan.
How then, to ‘do’ Paris, its art, architecture and food without breaking the bank and in a way that makes every member of the family happy? The answer lies in the attractions that are a little less known that the big hitters such as the famous galleries, the Bateaux Mouches river cruises and a certain theme park just outside the city.
When it comes to art, the Musee d’Orsay, the Orangerie and the Louvre are all free to under-18s, while the convenience of timed-entry tickets help beat the queues. Despite this, my nine-year-old daughter and six-year-old son were unlikely to appreciate the Mona Lisa from behind a crowd of iPhone-wielding tourists, or gaze enchantedly at Monet’s waterlilies for more than three seconds. Thankfully a different kind of arty experience awaited us at the Atelier des Lumières in the 11th arrondissement. This vast warehouse, a former iron foundry, opened in April 2018 and showcases art with an impressive son-et-lumiere (sound and light) show on its 10-metre walls. With a timed entry tickets (book ahead to get a good slot – www.atelier-lumieres.com), we stepped into the dark and magical space as Van Gogh’s Sunflowers towered above us projected in full technicolour on to the walls.
Over the next 45 minutes we sat on the floor agog at Van Gogh, mesmerised by the giant versions of legendary works. Elements of the paintings moved in time with the jazz music soundtrack. It was followed by another film celebrating Van Gogh’s admiration of Japanese art had us gazing, wide-eyed, at an animated version of Hokusai’s Great Wave as it rolled to the soundtrack of Claude Debussy’s La Mer; giant, beady-eyed fish jumping in the waves. What made it even more special is that the children could touch the art-work – the lights danced on their hands as they reached out to the walls to touch them.
In summer, the Jardin des Plantes is a haven for children: fountains, parquet gardens and paths to run around, and a small zoo with orangutans, snakes, birds and insects. The garden is a different story in the winter drizzle though; thankfully there’s as much to explore inside the Galeries d’Evolution where exhibits tells the story of earth’s animal kingdom. The ground floor is all about life in the oceans and there we learn how the narwhal (with the help of an impressive life-size model) inspired legends of unicorns; we giggle at films of penguins’ hilarious antics; and learn how coral is formed. Up a level, and we get close to the parade of taxidermied animals from the African plains in the centre of the floor, elsewhere we see how different the animals that live in South America are.
The ‘galerie’ itself is impressive, too: dating from 1889, it still has its original glass roof which covers 1000 square metres and casts gentle light into the enormous space. Additional effects add to the drama and, as we stand at the top of the three floors of balconies, the sound of a simulated storm fills the hall with the boom of thunder and patter of rain.
A 20-minute walk away (we risked the whinging) is La Felicitá (lafelicita.fr/); it’s tagged as the biggest restaurant in Europe, but the immense glass-roofed warehouse (it covers 4500m2) is more a food hall than restaurant. Created by the Italian Big Mamma restaurant group, it opened in spring 2018 and offers a variety of freshly prepared foods from different counters thus offering families the holy grail of serving something for everyone. So as the kids each munched on a burger, my husband and I tucked into crunchy poke bowls served in the train carriage that is parked in the centre of the hall. I resisted a drink from the oh-so-Instagrammable bar – where five decks of bottle shelves tower above the mixologists below – but I vowed to return sans enfants for that.
Over the weekend, the kids murmured the ‘D’ word a few times, testament to the fact that for the under-10s Paris is synonymous with Disney. In a bid to distract from it, we went over to the Bois de Boulogne, the huge wood and parkland on the western edge of the city where the Jardin d’Acclimatation offers fairground rides with a good old-fashioned vibe. It reopened after refurbishment in summer 2018, but its history dates from 1860 when it was a zoo for animals to acclimatise to the chilly Parisian climate after being kidnapped from the colonies. These days, the animal magic comes in the form of donkey rides to exotic bird aviary, but it was the fairground rides that proved most popular.
The park costs €5 (€2.50 for kids) to get into, with a book of vouchers for the rides an additional cost. Given it was a chilly November day, queues were either short or non-existent and so we whirled around on the flying chairs, zipped up and down on the roller-coasters, and the kids bumped each other on the dodgems. Elsewhere, we tried our luck at the shooting galleries and duck-fishing, won us vouchers that we exchanged for surprisingly decent prizes. The park was immaculate, the rides smart – beautifully designed with a hint of steampunk – and the staff were friendly. Not a princess was to be seen but, after that afternoon, Disney wasn’t mentioned again, while the whinges and moans were pleasantly absent too.
Travel essentials
Carolyn and family paid for tickets on EasyJet to Paris Charles-de-Gaulle (easyjet.com).
Where to stay
Mama Shelter East in the 10th arrondissement, which has 170 rooms with B&B doubles from €95. A B&B family room costs from €219 Mama Shelter West opened in December 2019 in the 15th arrondissement. It has its own bar-restaurant and is close to two Metro stations.
Hotel Gavarni in the 16th arrondissement is another great family option and being a short walk to Trocadero and Passy Metro stations. The Eiffel Suite has a great view of the rooftops and the Eiffel Tower. Room-only doubles from €160, family rooms from €400 (sawdays.co.uk).
Read the story online: Paris for families
Tips not in the story:
Where else to eat?
The trick is to do your research ahead, and book! If your kids are anything like ours, then hunger means ‘hanger’ and trying to find a decent place to eat, under pressure, when you don’t know the area is one way to ruin a day. I find La Forchette app (the French equivalent of The Fork, the Trip Advisor booking app) very useful as it’s good for seeing what was near each attraction we were visiting. Everywhere we ate was good (though never trade your favourite restaurant critic for Trip Advisor reviews!) but it offers discounts and is a really easy way to book in a hurry.
Food served fast – I don’t mean McDo – is also a plus, so look creperies are a good bet – you can be in and out and full of delicious galette and crepe in an hour. We’ve tried the Framboise creperies a few times and they’re pretty good. There are three in Paris, one very usefully near the Hotel Gavarni (where we stayed – details above). There’s also Creperie Breizh Café, which has branches in Saint Malo, Cancale in Brittany, so they know their crepes.
Like La Felicitá, a food hall is a good bet if everyone likes something different. In the Marais, the fantastic food hall-cum-market Le Marché d’Enfant Rouge has a good choice too, including Japanese, Chinese, Thai, if you’ve had your fill of French cuisine. And if you’re eating on the hop, then don’t forget the ultimate in French fast food (before they became obsessed by burgers!) the jambon-beurre – the ham baguette!
What about the Eiffel Tower?
Well, though the angle for the story was the lesser-known attractions, we did indeed go up the tower and didn’t regret it. We booked timed tickets, went up at night (visiting in winter meant the skies were quite grey) and I loved every minute. I haven’t been to the top for years, so I felt as enchanted as the kids. Longer story to come…