Paris city break with kids

[FleurNancy]

We live in a popular UK tourist destination and are lucky enough to spend a lot of time at the beach. So we've decided that city breaks are the way forward for holidays and have earmarked a window of a week in late Aug/early Sept. I'm thinking of Paris for this year, the kids will be 6, 8 and 11. We've mentioned it to them and thus far all they have mentioned is baguettes and the Eiffel Tower, no mention of Disneyland. My questions are:

1. Can we really pull off a Paris city break without Disney?!
2. How long would we need really without Disney? I suspect a week would be too much
3. Best area to stay (probably an Airbnb)? I've not been to Paris since I was a student.
4. Itinerary suggestions: Eiffel, Louvre, Pompidou, boat ride on Seine, Cité des Science...

It's feeling like 4 nights might be enough. I'd absolutely love to take them to Musée D'Orsay, Musée Rodin, Orangerie etc but suspect I might be pushing my luck...

Any top tips please?

We stayed at this B&B (B&B Brigitte) with 2 DCs (5 and 9) and 2 adults. Very central and easy to walk to quite a few tourists areas. Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis are a few minutes walk away. DCs really enjoyed Jardin du Luxembourg.

Yes, you absolutely can do Paris without Disney and you could easily fill a week.
Half a day (at least!) in Jardin d’Acclimation www.jardindacclimatation.fr/en
Spend a day at Versailles. It’s about a 35-45 minute train ride outside of Paris on the RER train. Apart from the amazing palace and gardens, there are musical fountain displays, a mini train which tours the gardens, rowing boats, bike hire, animals to stroke etc... A five-minute train journey from Versailles, in Elancourt, there’s a miniature France with hyper-realistic models and an activity trail for the kids.
Head east to the Bois de Vincennes. The enormous park has all sorts of child-friendly activities and festivals, including a medieval castle and a fantastic zoo. It’s a few metro stops away from central Paris on line 1 and you can hire rowboats on the lake (weather permitting) for €10 an hour.
The Magic Museum is worth a short visit and entry includes a magic demonstration. The museum also has a large collection of moving mechanical figures.
Leave time for the Jardin des Tuileries. The playground is a big hit for kids around five and above. There’s also a carousel, a carnival with a giant Ferris wheel in summer and even the odd goat grazing on the grass!
If you’re there on a Sunday, definitely visit the bird market on Ile de la Cité right next to metro Cité. Vendors sell other animals like ferrets and mice. My dc we’re especially attracted to the dwarf bunnies that can be petted.
Head to the Parc de la Villette playground in the north of the city on the banks of the canal for slides and various jungle gym-esque activities with kid-sized hamster wheels and zip lines. Games and carnival rides nearby will fill any extra time.
The Musée Gourmand du Chocolat has 45 minute chocolate making workshops for the whole family. Even if you don’t do the workshop, the museum is interesting and great fun for children, with demonstrations and a chocolate art exhibition. The hot chocolate stop is always popular!
www.museeduchocolat.fr/summer-classes/?lang=en

Thank you both for such helpful tips!!

We went last year for a week with a 5, 9 and 10 year old. Went by Eurostar which was very easy. Stayed in an airbnb in the Latin Quarter which was fab and central enough to walk lots. Went nowhere near Disney. We used the Mission Paris guidebook for the kids which was a big hit. We went to Notre Dame, Luxembourg Gardens (my favourite day, fabulous place ), Eiffel Tower at night (much quieter and fun to experience the lights when actually on the tower), Sacre Coeur, Louvre, boat trip up the Seine, Jardin des Plantes (went to the zoo). Tried to balance big days and more relaxed days.

This year Florence!

We did do Disney but added a few days in the city as well. We live in London so it’s pretty similar to being at home for us. Got an Airbnb in the marais which I couldn’t recommend more for restaurants. Also walkable to a lot of things and a good shopping centre (inc the Lego shop) nearby, as well as the Pompidou centre.

My kids loved it and yours are a better age for it than ours, as there aren’t many apartments with lifts in Paris so we struggled with our double buggy.

Get a timeout guide from the library, that’s my biggest tip! There also a Eurocamp a little way out that has a pool etc if you fancy that. And I’ve never Versailles, if we had longer I’d have done that.

My dd was only a toddler but we loved it. Parks in the city where people sailed model boats, Versailles was a gigantic place ,- so much to see, we went up the Efiel tower, the aquarium was fairly decent. We needed to get out of the sun. We often had drinks in eve in the park under the tower, along with a few thousand others.

The main thing I would change if I went again in late August is air conditioning! It was 36 degrees and very hard to sleep.

Oh you’ll have a lovely time and it sounds like you’ve got a great itinerary coming together!

I love the Parc des Buttes Chaumont - it has big caves with stalactites for running about in and a wee puppet theatre in summer. A lovely grotto at the top of the park as well that you can climb up to and see all of Paris.

Glaces Berthillon on l’île St Louis is epic for ice cream (and you don’t have to queue for the main shop, they sell it in loads of places on the island).

More great tips, thank you! Flights now booked (6 nights) and considering Airbnb options, one in the Marais is front runner at the mo. Lego store you say... That'll be a winner! Eiffel Tower at night is a great idea too. So exciting!