Paris with a toddler?

[Cerseirys]

DP and I are thinking about a short Eurostar break to Paris in March with DS who will be 2 by then. I've been to Paris many times before but not since 2007 and not with DS.

How easy is it to get around Paris with a stroller? We have a Babyzen Yoyo so it's very compact. We take DS all over on the buses and tube in London but I can't remember how amenable the Metro is to travelling with a stroller.

And I'm guessing the weather in mid-March could go either way so what indoors activities are there for entertaining toddlers?

We took our two boys to Paris for the first time when DS1 was 5 and DS2 was 2. We only went because some good friends of ours were over from Canada and so we grabbed the opportunity to see them - and they were in Paris, so that's where we met.

I was worried about it, I'll admit. Paris, to me, is museums, lovely strolls, eating out, the Metro, etc and none of those things seemed that much fun with small DC. However, we were really pleasantly surprised and had a great few days.

My advice would be to grab yourself a copy of the DK Paris with Kids guide book as it has masses of helpful info about playgrounds and kid-friendly museums (in case of rain). Our LOs loved the Natural History museum, the Batobus (a hop-on, hop-off river bus), eating in bistros, gazing up at the Eiffel Tower (we didn't go up it, but there is a great view of it from Trocadero), and wandering the streets of the Latin Quarter. With a push-chair you'll find zipping around quite easy, but you should probably avoid the Metro as hardly any of the stations have lifts. We stayed in a Novotel as they do family rooms for very reasonable prices. We used the one near Montparnasse station and it was fine and convenient with a restaurant on site that did child-friendly food.

Did it nearly 2 years ago (wistful face). We just avoided the metro as hasn't graduated out of using the quinny buzz (firt time parents haha) and had heard it can be awkward to get up/down and on/off metro.

It was fine, we walked most places and were surprised how easy it is to cover most of it by foot. We spent a lot of time in jardines tulliere, near the louvre, lots of open space and cafes.

Do NOT try going round the louvre with a pushchair. I nearly committed murder!