Our Paris Family Itinerary With Kids

Paris for Kids!

Our Paris Family Itinerary, Day by Day

This is our Paris family itinerary, everything we did with our two girls in the city. Paris is a fabulous city for kids!  If you are wondering if this is a good family destination, I am pleased to say, absolutely! If you are wondering if you should leave the kids or bring them with you to Paris, well that one is up to you…

There are plenty of things to do in Paris with kids that the whole family will enjoy, but let’s start with accessibility with the littles.

Paris is stroller friendly!

As you may expect, the infrastructure around Paris is as good as any you would find around the states and much of Europe.  Mostly large sidewalks and a few cobblestone or brick streets make the stroller journey smooth.

I will mention though, not all Metro access points have an elevator.  If you plan on using the metro as your main transportation, expect to carry the stroller down stairs often or hoof it to one of the larger metro hubs that do offer elevators.  Also if you are renting an apartment, make sure the building has a lift if you are on the second floor or higher, this will save you extra effort as you come and go.  For more information on the apartment we stayed and our favorite neighborhoods for littles, visit our Where to Stay in Paris page.

Transportation with Littles

When walking isn’t an option, you are left with the Metro or Taxis.  The metro in Paris is fairly easy to navigate for those who are used to metro systems.  If you get there and decide that it is too overwhelming, don’t stress and let it ruin your vaca, just take a taxi.  It may be less cost effective, but you made it all the way to Paris, better to spend a little more money and enjoy your time with less stress.

Some taxi’s have car seats!  That’s right, when we grabbed a taxi from Charles De Gaulle airport, our taxi driver busted out a car seat for Kaida and a booster for Viona!  Win!

This isn’t always the case, as we grabbed a couple of shorter rides in the city and none of the drivers offered a car seat…I also didn’t bother asking.  We travel a lot so we have become very comfortable riding in taxi’s without a car seat for our baby/kids, however, I understand everyone has different comfort levels when it comes to this type of thing.  Taxi’s are everywhere so it should not be a challenge to hail one.

Where Will my Little Sleep

Many AirBnB’s offer a Pack-n-play for babies/toddlers, usually at no charge.  Some of them will list it among their amenities, but if you don’t see one listed and really like the rental otherwise, just message the host!  I can’t tell you how many times I have messaged a host about a pack-n-play and I have yet to have anyone tell me they could/would not provide one.  For more on the apartment we stayed in (with a pack-n-play) check out our Where to Stay in Paris page.

Activities for Kids

This list of activities for kids is probably very long, but some of the things our kids enjoyed were: strolling through Luxembourg gardens, going to the The Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes (zoo), playing on the columns at Domaine National du Palais-Royal, playing on playgrounds, going to Disneyland Paris (duh!) and they even love walking around seeing the bustling city and new things around every corner.

There are lots of playgrounds around the city but there is a particularly cool one at the Nelson Mandela Gardens.  At the time of our visit the larger playground area was closed, so we played in the little kid area.  The larger playground is seriously extensive with some crazy slides, super cool for older kids.  I believe the age restriction for that area is 7+.

This park has great scenery and was enjoyable to simply walk through.  For more information on this park, visit Paris’ page here.  It is also really close to Domaine National du Palais-Royal, where you can see those fun black and white columns by Buren.

Food and Picky Little Eaters

You may be wondering, what is my three year old going to eat?  Foie Gras?  Seared duck breast?  Stinky cheese?!

I assure you there are plenty of normal, bland things to eat all over Paris!  We hit a Carrefour Market right away to grab some applesauce pouches, crackers and chips to have snacks readily available for the kids while we were walking around.  There is nothing that kills a good time faster than a hangry uncooperative toddler!

There are also bakeries everywhere, so sometimes I would just grab our picky Kaida some bread or bread with chocolate chips in it.  She never complained about that!

What about at restaurants you ask?  We found that most restaurants tried to offer something simple for our little ones, like pasta with butter, extra baguette bread, fruit, etc.

Even when we dined at a Michelin star restaurant they offered to make the kids some plain potatoes and plain white fish, which was a very kind gesture.  If you are asking yourself, are these people crazy taking a kid and an unruly toddler to a Michelin star restaurant?!  Maybe, but we don’t think so.

Food drives me so I will never forgo an opportunity to have incredible food just because I have littles in tow.  We know our kids and even though our youngest can be a challenge, we know how to mitigate and make sure they don’t disturb other patrons in a restaurant.  We are not above putting them in front of iPads so we can enjoy a nice meal and we always bring back up snacks we know they will like if they refuse to eat the food at the restaurant.  We also have a rule that if our toddler starts losing her shit, one of us sacrifices eating the meal warm and takes her outside.

To read about all of our fav places to eat, visit our Paris Eats page.

Shopping and Toy Stores

L’oiseau de Paradis is a cute little toy store in Saint Germaine that offers unique finds as well as your typical Legos etc.  Since it was in the area, we thought we would stop in.  The kids picked out a couple of small trinkets.

211 Bd Saint-Germain, 75007 Paris, France

www.loiseaudeparadis.fr

Le Petite Souk is a super cutes kids boutique a few blocks from Notre Dame on the 3rd Arrondissement side on the Seine.  This store is much bigger than the toy store previously mentioned and had a variety of kids toys, clothing, home goods and more.  I found some really cute items here!  Had I brought a bigger suitcase, I would have stocked up further!

50 Rue de la Verrerie, 75004 Paris, France

www.lepetitsouk.fr

Overall

Paris is a great place to travel with kids!  Their culture values kids like most cultures and our children were met with politeness everywhere we ventured.  I never caught anyone throwing daggers or dirty looks towards our kids in a restaurant or anywhere else in public.  There is so much for little eyes to see and little feet to do all around Paris.  There is amazing foods that your kids may discover they love.  After all, it’s hard to resist all the decadent looking pastries as you pass by!