Mini Guide to Paris – Travelling to Paris with kids

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Published on Wednesday, 02 November 2011 12:55

Last Updated on 02 November 2011

Anne Duramois

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We at www.Luvaville.com love Paris! After living in Paris for a couple of years we enjoy visiting the City of Lights as often as possible. Paris is a wonderful city even with kids… especially when you know where to go!

In the last couple of years, many great and nice cafés and restaurants have opened focusing on children and families. Furthermore Paris offers great parks and outdoor areas, interesting museums and some of the best shopping in the world. Getting around in the city with a stroller is maybe the most challenging since the metro is old and mostly not equipped with elevators. Only, the Metro Line 14 has elevators on all stations. Instead, walk or hop on a the bus and combine it with some sightseeing.

Note: When travelling with children, you always end up packing much more than you can actually carry. At Baby’tems.com you can rent everything you need in baby equipment on your vacation, which makes travelling with a baby to France a lot easier.

Luvaville.com – an international online travel guide and lifestyle blog for urban parents travelling to cities such as Paris, London, Berlin, Copenhagen & Barcelona with indispensable information for families about where to sleep, eat, shop & play – has created a mini guide to Paris when travelling with kids.

Stay

Hotel de la porte dorée, 273 Avenue Daumesnil, 75012 Paris, Tel: +33 (0)1 43 07 56 97

Small and charming hotel where families with children are more than welcome! The hotel’s four triple rooms are totally equipped for children with toys, small hangers, stools for the bathroom plus a free breakfast buffet for children under 10 offering bibs and highchairs.

Hotel le Meurice, 221 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, Tel: +33 (0)1 44 58 10 10

If money is no issue and you want to splurge yourself and your family, Hotel le Meurice is THE place to go! This 5 star luxury hotel situated by the garden of Tulleries is pretty expensive but you will be treated like kings and queens. Le Meurice also offers various services for children and families like already planned family programs, Children’s bathrobes and slippers, a treasure hunt, Colour pencils & puzzles, Cartoon DVD, Babysitting and highchairs.

Home Town Paris, www.hometown-paris.com

Do you want to feel at home even though you are out of town? The French Home Town is an innovative concept of Paris vacation rentals: you can rent one of their 34 apartments, located in the most prestigious districts of Paris, and benefit at the same time from several services such as fully equipped kitchen, flat screen tv, DVD player, cable tv, high speed internet, baby bed etc. Perfect for families traveling with children!

Eat

Bonpoint Flagship Store, 6 Rue Tournon, 75006 Paris

The Tea Room at this fabulous flagship store is a must see. Here you will find a charming café where you can enjoy a nice lunch – and if the weather is nice, you can sit in the beautiful French court yard.

Poussette Café, 6 Rue Pierre Semard, 75009 Paris, Tel: +33 (0)1 78 10 49 00

The Poussette Café is a concept store with café and shop under one roof: Here you will find everything that your heart desires if you are pregnant or have children. In the shop you will find fashion for children, toys, books, nursing products and decoration items.

While you are enjoying lunch your kids can play around in the play corner. Just outside the café, you will find a beautiful playground with facilities for the bigger ones and small children; A great combination of food and play.

Les 400 coups, 12 Rue de la Villette, 75019 Paris, Tel: +33 (0)1 40 40 77 78

This café is a good choice, they are open for evening dinners on Saturdays. Les 400 Coups have a great indoor play room with lots of toys for all ages, changing facilities, high chairs and an interesting program of happenings.

Restaurant Justine, 19 Rue du Commandant René Mouchotte, 75014 Paris, Tel: +33 (0)1 44 36 44 00

A great restaurant that makes delicious food. Furthermore the Restaurant Justine is also famous for their Sunday Baby Brunch.

Shopping

Bonton Concept Store, 5 Boulevard des Filles du Calvaire, 75003 Paris, Tel: +33 (0)1 42 72 34 69

This 800 m2 concept store is the newest Bonton shop in Paris. It combines a very nice shop and, a children’s hairdresser. In the shop you can find all the products from the Bonton universe: furnitures, clothes, shoes, nusery accessories, and toys. All in high quality and in beautiful designs.

Zef, 15 Rue Debelleyme, 75003 Paris, Tel: +33 (0)1 42 76 09 65

High quality of fabrics and elegant patterns with an ethnic touch. It is classic and hip, timeless and modern. Sizes range from new born to 12 years old. Designer Mariu De Andreis, the daughter of Italian fashion photographer Paolo Roversi, captures the perfect French bobo (bourgeois-bohème) look for her line of childrens’ clothing Zef. Zef has 5 boutiques in Paris but you can find their clothing line in various city’s around the world.

Serendipity, 83 Rue du Cherche-Midi, 75006 Paris, Tel: +33 (0)1 40 46 01 15

Fantastic concept store for children’s furniture, toys, interieur, design and decoration. You just want to buy it all. Worth a visit for sure!

Play

Musée en Herbe, 21 Rue Hérold, 75001 Paris, Tel: +33 (0)1 40 67 97 66

Musée en Herbe is an art museum located close to Place de la Victoire. The Museum is complete with interactive games to develop children’s artistic interest and knowledge. And with 600 m2 with different animations, art workshops and dress up games playing with the imagination and curiosity of the children, you can end up spending hours here.

La Cité des Enfants, 30 Avenue Corentin Cariou, 75019 Paris, Tel: +33 (0)1 40 05 70 00

La Cité de Enfants at Cité des Sciences is a great interactive museum with a space of 1,700 m2 open to children ages 2 to 7 and 5 -12. This is a unique space for active experimentation and exploration proposes a series of fun and educational activities divided into five thematic areas: “I discover myself”, “I can do”, “I locate myself”, “All together”, “I experiment”. Many new activities on identity, emotions, image comprehension, non-verbal communication, spatial representation, etc.

Jardin de Luxembourg, Tel: +33 01 44 07 28 29

The playground in the Jardin de Luxembourg is very nice but you have to pay something to get in. You have several sandpits, slides, climbing towers and room to play football and tennis. Last but not least, the Luxembourg Gardens is one of the only places in Paris with toilets and changing table and cute, clean, kid-sized toilets with little hand-washing basins. It costs 2,50 euros per child for one day and 1, 50 euros for an adult per day.

Nursing facilities for diaper accidents

Department Store Galeries Lafayette (on the 5th floor), 40 Boulevard Haussmann, 75009 Paris

Department Store Printemps (on the 7th floor), 64 Boulevard Haussmann, 75009 Paris

Department Store Bhv (on the 5th floor), 55 Rue de la Verrerie, 75004 Paris, Tel: +33 (0)1 42 74 90 00

Point WC on Champs Elysees (designer public toilets), 26 Avenue des Champs-Elysées, 75008 Paris