Paris with kids

[NYCbound]

Hello, we’ve got two nights in Paris in July on the way to Disney. After getting so much advice from this board about what to do in NYC, I thought I’d come back to ask the gurus where to stay in Paris with a 12 and 8 years old, and top itineraries.

Eiffel Tower is a must for the 8 year old - any tips on how best to do this? Eg. Go early, VIP tickets to miss queues etc?

I’m looking for a mid range hotel, preferably with a family room.

I haven’t been to Paris for 20+ years so any restaurant recommendations would be great too.

thanks!

We stayed out at Disney and travelled in. Get timed tickets for the Eiffel Tower. The military museum was a hit with mine and they liked the Seine boat trip. We went to the Louvre and notre Dame (currently under restoration) and sacre coeur.

We did paris in October with 12 and 8 year olds. It was fab! We got 2 day tickets for the open top bus so could hop and off wherever. We did all the big sights. Lots and lots of walking but the kids loved it!

We planned our trip too late to buy times tickets to the Eiffel Tower, in peak August holiday time so I was worried about queues. We queued up about 8:45 (it opens at 9am)and were going up in the elevator by 9:30 and we were some of the first people at the top. We’d planned to get there earlier but the queue wasn’t huge, moved quickly and if we’d been there earlier it would have just led to a longer wait for it to open.

I took my two when they were 10 and 8- I bought these Paris (City Walks with Kids) amzn.eu/d/h0TskHT and let them choose three places each. We had a ball, despite temperatures of 40 degrees (July). We did maybe two activities a day and didn't rush anything. We were there for a week and didn't do Disney (they had been several times before). It was brilliant, although the apartment was a bit of a walk to the metro.

Eiffel tower was the biggest hit for mine, age 8 and 10, we went to the gardens at night to see it light up (free), and bought tickets online to go up to the top. Keep checking online for tickets if you can't get what you want - we got some the week before, at midnight french time ( don't know what time they release them).

The boats at Luxembourg gardens were great, playground looked fab too, but we didn't have time. We went to la Vilette for an exhibition, exhibition was fab, the rest of the area on paper looked great, but in reality we didn't enjoy it that much.

We did a lot of walking!

We were there last year with our dd, who as 10 at the time. We really enjoyed the science museum, Cite des sciences et de l’industries, it’s so interactive. We also went when dd was nearly 5, and I took her to the garden of the Rodin museum which, as well as having lots of sculptures, also had a charming cafe, a sandpit and loungers. I only bought tickets for the garden as she was so young.

Thanks everyone. Has anyone got any hotel recommendations?