What to do in Paris with teenagers?

[HappyAsASandboy]

I will be taking two teenagers to Paris in November. We’re staying in a hostel near the Colone Fabien Metro station.

We’re planning on going up the Eiffel Tower and on a river boat trip on the Seine. Does anyone have any other ideas for day or evening - bonus points if not too expensive.

We arrive late Friday and leave early Monday, so have all day/evening Saturday and all day/evening Sunday to fill.

Street food and shopping in the Marais. Do the boat trip in twilight if you can or whenever the lights are turned on. Obviously can be quite chilly in November so check when the last ones are (or you could get a covered one with drinks and snacks). Les Halles for mall shopping and the expensive stores in Rue Faubourg if they’re into that. If they like art, the Centre Pompidou and the Picasso Museum. How old are they?

Disneyland Paris is fun

The Catacombs are fascinating

Depends what they like. My two both wanted to see the Eiffel Tower at night and to go to look round the Paris Opera House (one is going into a career in technical theatre and one is ballet obsessed). My daughter said that she wanted to just walk around, sit in a cafe, have a croissant, etc.

If they are Emily in Paris fans then you can check out filming locations for that.

Go up the Arc de Triomphe when it's dark and get a good look at the Eifel Tower all lit up and sparkly.

Go and grab a hot chocolate from Carette's.

The Louvre is an obvious one.

Shopping in the Marais - Saturday rather than Sunday though and have a sqizz at Notre Dame.

Day trip out to Versaille?

I’m a French teacher and have taken many kids to Paris on trips. They’re always fascinated by the catacombs. The Centre Pompidou is also interesting. Maybe waffles in the Tuileries gardens? The Montparnasse tower gives an alternative view.

The Sacré Coeur is beautiful. A walk
down the Champs Elysée, may have to
turn a blind eye to all the graffiti though, if its the same as when I was last there.

My DD loved the inside of the Galeries Lafayette.

Les Invalides was an unexpected success - we were there for ages

Mine loved Montmartre - Sacre Coeur, street artists, the incredible views, the beautiful art deco metro stations, street performers. Even the restaurants are reasonably priced and though they look a bit touristy they have atmosphere. We had steak frites in one with checked table cloths and a man singing Edith Piaf songs at a piano. It was cheap and cheerful.

A sightseeing walk from the Louvre Pyramide to Place de la Concorde where the guillotine stood in the revolution right up to (or at least looking through to) Arc de Triomphe at the end of Champs Elysees is pretty.

Warn your teens that Parisian waiters are famously rude. Don't let them take offence - see the funny side of it.

I second the Pompidou centre, the sushi around the Efeil tower is amazing !

Im going end of october with my 2 girls.
Plan as follows
Day 1 arrive chill and walk around
Day 2 central paris eifel tower maybe the cruise if time.
Lunch
Then im booking louvre museum as youngest loves art
Then on to the dreamers museum. Then back to hotel tea
Day 3 disney
Day 4 we come home flight at 9pm so gonna have Day in disney til 5pm before train to airport.

Maybe you could go to the moulan rouge. Now if I hadn't booked to be close to disney already I would have flew in stayed in a hotel near moulin rouge gone their for the evening then been closer to paris for the next day then gone to the disney hotel and had 2 nights there.

Sacre coeur, Notre Dame, boat trip, musee d’orsay, napoleon’s tomb was a hit went to the ballet one evening

You can travel from the Tour Eiffel to the Musée d’Orsay by RER, usually on a double-decker train, which kids and teens may like! A metro card will cover RER journeys in the centre too as well as the metro.

When we went with a 14 year old and an 11 year old we visited a restaurant called Dragons Elyssées which is just the Champs Elyssée where fish swim under the floor. It’s a Chinese restaurant and clearly prices reflect the location but the kids loved it - so much so that when they each had their first serious partner and went to Paris they each chose to go back to it!

If they like vintage shopping, try the shops on rue des Archives where clothes are sold by weight - also the shop Kiliwatch is fun.
Try the Batobus - up and down the seine

Skip the louvre and go to the picasso museum instead. Also the bakeries Mamiche are cool fun young trendy and delicious!

There's an amazing flea market in northern Paris. But for two whole days in Paris bring your comfiest shoes and wander. You can buy an advance museum pass which also gets you priority entry into some museums. I recommend the Musee D'orsay as more bitesize than the Louvre. Notre Dame has reopened after years of refurb so must look utterly stunning inside.

The main Paris flea market is the Saint-Ouen Market (Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen), also known as Les Puces de Clignancourt, located at the city's northern edge. It's the world's largest antique market, featuring hundreds of vendors, 12 covered markets, and a vast array of items from vintage fashion to antique furniture. Other notable Paris flea markets include the Porte de Vanves and the Montreuil markets, offering a wider range of goods and a more local feel.

The catacombs were amazing and my teens loved that. They also really enjoyed Montmartre to sit in the cafes and watch the street artists. It had a lovely atmosphere. If you save the Eiffel Tower for around sunset you can go up in the daylight and then stay until it lights up so get both views. My daughter loved galeries Lafayette Haussmann (a huge store similar to selfridges) but my son not so much! We were there 4 days so did a side hustle to Parc Asterix theme park which was really reasonable, great theming, big rides with no queues. That was a great find too.

My DD loved the Picasso museum when she was 14. We did some vintage shopping nearby too.

My DD was free into the musee d'orsay too, but I wasn't clear if that's because she had an Irish EU passport or under 19!

She loved having petit dejeuner in a cafe - the bread roll, jam, coffee cheap version.

We did hotel picnics one night and linked Netflix to the hotel TV and watched a movie on the bed (not parisien but a lot of fun!)

DD also loved macarons from Lauderee.

Oh and the cool cafe in Galleries Lafayette.

All a bit predictable but we had a super few days.

Suggest they interact jovially with the Parisian waiters in restaurants by clicking their fingers and call out 'Garçon' loudly.

They are an affable lot and love it - especially with foreigners!

If you don’t want to pay for a river cruise, buy a 24 or 48 hour pass on the river taxi. It’s much cheaper and pretty much the same as the non-dining cruises. We used it to get to the Eiffel tower, then down to Notre Dame, then back up to the Louvre. The next day we did the full circuit and just got off where we got on. It took a couple of hours and my teen boys loved it.

Also, the rooftop of the Montparnasse tower at sunset - amazing 360
views of Paris including the Eiffel
Tower - way better than being on the eiffel
tower itself!
we then had dinner at the classic Art Deco brasserie La Coupole nearby which was Paris in nutshell.

The catacombs!!!

Wow! Thank you all for so many fabulous suggestions. I am sad we only have two days now.

I was worried I wouldn’t know what to do with them and we’d be walking the wrong areas and missing the best bits. Now I am confident we’ll have a great time and see all the things I (now) remember from my own trips to Paris in my 20s.

Thank you!