We’ve just returned from a long weekend in the City of Light. In the days of yore, before children, we lived there for a couple of years. Knowing that we would have a limited time there, we made sure we packed in the Parisian experiences and got to know the city really well. We even got married there, but that’s a story for a different time. Think paperwork. The French love paperwork.
This time however, we visited as tourists and with a younger person in tow, so we had to put our thinking caps on and come up with some ideas that were family friendly. We, for example, loved the Museé Marmottan but the Boy would rather stick pins in his eyes than sit for hours gazing at a Monet.

1. The Eiffel Tower is an absolute must. You can now buy tickets in advance and I would strongly recommend this. We relied on a twenty year old memory of being able to rock up, buy a ticket and take the lift. Not any more. The queues for lift access were huge and so we opted to walk up (we still needed to queue for 15 mins or so). My thigh muscles still tell the tale. You only walk as far as the first level but that’s the equivalent of 21 storeys. It hurts but it was huge fun and a big sense of achievement when you get there. There’s then the option to buy elevator tickets to go up to the next level (another 20 odd storeys) and then, joy unconfined, you can queue again to get more elevator tickets for the top deck. Take some extra clothing, it’s blowy up the top, but huge fun to see Paris from on high.

2. When you come down from the Eiffel Tower you can pick up a boat trip from the bottom. These trips are popularly known as the Bateaux Mouches, but they are only one of the companies operating up and down the river. The company operating from the Eiffel Tower is Bateaux Parisens. They have multi-lingual commentary and the trip takes an hour. You can also get the Batobus from the same dock, which allows you to jump on and off at various tourist sites, saving the trek to the Metro or RER.

3. Eat some French food. Strictly not Parisian, but crêpes are great fun to eat. The crêperie we used to visit has sadly closed down, but the Crêperie les Ecuries is just off the Champs Elysées and you can watch your meal being cooked in front of your eyes. The theme of the restaurant is horses, and the seats are made from saddles. The Boy recommends “La tout chocolat” for pud.

4. Go see the Mona Lisa. Sounds boring, but sell it as seeing the “most expensive painting in the world” and seeing if her eyes move when you do. On the way up stop at the Winged Victory of Samothrace which children love as it’s decapitated. For bonus points, pop to see the Venus de Milo. Don’t even think of trying to do the whole Louvre, it’s ridiculously huge and as my “art critic” husband will verify, contains miles of paintings of “fat pasty women”. If the thought of shelling out for tickets just to see pasty fat women irks you, the Louvre is free on the first Sunday of each month and 14th July.

5. See some Van Gogh. The only art the Boy is interested in as it was the subject of a Doctor Who episode. That episode was inspired by pictures in the Musée d’Orsay, in particular The Church at Auvers. Buy tickets in advance, either online from the museum website, or from outlets like FNAC stores.

6. (bonus idea) Ride a double decker train. The RER trains on line C are double decker and can pick you up from the Eiffel Tower or the Musée d’Orsay.

Prepare to be footsore and come home exhausted, but hopefully in love with the most beautiful city in the world.

photo credit: kurtmunz