Kids in Paris

We%26#39;re leaving for Paris in a week with our 10 and 11 year old for 8 days..anyone have any good suggestions that are original and not in the travel guide books..like..

Places kids play soccer

Places kids play tennis

Cooking schools

Unique programs in museums...

We%26#39;re banning gameboys and Euro Disney...

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Le Cordon Bleu has cooking classes for kids.

Check out Palais-Royal gardens and cool sculptures, etc. (series of black/white striped posts; metal balls sculpture, etc.)

Go to a Guignol Marionnette puppet play at Le Jardin du Luxembourg or several other parks. The play times at Le Jardin du Luxembourg are Weds. at 3:30pm and Sat. and Sun at 11am and 3:30pm. This park also has a real live apiary (beehive village), a statute of liberty, a carousel, and a pond to float boats.

Le Jardin du Luxembourg also has tennis courts.

Le Double-Fond, 1 Place du Marche in the Marais (Metro: St. Paul) has magic shows at night in the cellar room of the bar. Minors are welcome. It is in French but you can tell what is going on. There are a variety of magicians so check out who will be there when you are there, if you are interested. www.doublefond.com

Le Musee de la Poupee (doll museum) occasionally has special programs on Saturday mornings. Check the website. (I don%26#39;t know if your kids are girls or boys--although the gameboys might mean boys.

Louis Lepine Place near Notre Dame is a large flower shop but on Sundays they bring in birds, rabbits, etc. It is great people and bird watching!

Walk along Canal St-Martin between Metro Jaures and Metro Republique to see the boats go through the various different locks. Very interesting. Don%26#39;t take the boat ride--too long and boring but the walk is interesting. You can stand very near the boat/canal and can see really well.

Musee de la Contrafacon is a counterfeit museum. They have a huge variety of items here and their pair the authentic next to the counterfeit so you can guess which is which. Kids would love it. It is located in the 16th arrondissement and is open Tues-Sun 2-5:30pm. Metro: Porte Dauphine.

Musee des Arts Forains, Bercy Village is wonderful. It is antique fairground arts. It might be too late for this now. You MUST have an advance reservation which you receive by emailing diane@pavillons-de-bercy.com. It only costs about 15E for an adult. It is very cool!

How about Le Chateau de Monte-Cristo (3 Muskateers/Alexander Dumas). The website is:

dumaspere.com/pages/…chateau.html

How about seeing le mur Vegetal which goes up the front of the Musee Quai Branly near the Eiffel Tower. This vegetation wall goes straight up and contains 15,000 plants.

Be sure to see the outside of the Pompidou Museum. Kids love it. Next door is a fountain with lots of colorful moving parts. Someone mentioned recently that this wasn%26#39;t currently operating. I would love to hear from someone else who has seen this recently. I call it the Stravinsky Fountain.

Are you all good roller skaters? Sunday afternoon and Friday evenings they have %26quot;skates%26quot; and close certain areas to cars. I%26#39;ve heard that Sunday is the easier skate of the two.

Paris Charms/Secrets discusses electric bicycle tours which you can participate in. I don%26#39;t know how old you need to be to do this.

The vedette boat rides would be fun. If you buy tickets on line you get a discount.

www.vedettesdupontneuf.com/billet.en.php

I don%26#39;t know where kids play soccer outside of their school playgrounds.

check out www.whatsonwhen.com/sisp/index.htm to see if there is anything of interest when you will be in Paris.

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Hi,

A couple of things in addition to the great list above.

Re playing football (soccer)- kids here play informal games in many parks after school, Wednesday afternoons and weekends, anyplace where they can really, e.g., in the Champs des Mars. You can ask some if your kids can join in, or buy them a cheap ball (you can get one in Monoprix) and they can play and probably others will join in with them.

If they like football they may enjoy a trip to the Stade de France, the French national stadium. They have guided tours in English - including going in the dressing rooms and on the pitch.

A trip to the air museum at Le Bourget - a short bus ride out of Paris - http://www.mae.org/

The Cite des Sciences is a great place for kids of that age, really interesting with lots of things to see.

The Musee des Arts and Metiers is also very good - http://www.arts-et-metiers.net/

Alison

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le Parc de la Villette is a great place for kids 9and adults!). They could stay a whole day there! besides being a park with big lawns and 35 giant sculptures/ modern versions of treehouses, there is an Imax movie theatre and a submarine.. and the city of Sciences and industries, the biggest science museum in Europe with lots of hands-on stuff for children. The park is located in the 19th district between 2 metro stations: Porte de la Villette on metro line 7 (end of line La Courneuve) and Porte de Pantin on metro line 5 (end of line Bobigny-Picasso. check france-for-visitors.com/paris/cite-des-scien… and france-for-visitors.com/paris/parc-de-la-vil…

Do you have a map of Paris and one of the Paris metro? if not can you go buy them in Portland, if not in Eugene? Kids are great at figuring which metro line to take, where to change etc. see …about.com/od/…Metro_and_Buses_2.htm

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Our 10 year old enjoyed le jardin des enfants at Les Halles. I couldn%26#39;t find an english language website for you but it%26#39;s mentioned in this article - smh.com.au/travel/among-the-swing-set-200812…

It%26#39;s an adventure playground for children aged 7 - 11. You have to leave your children there (adults aren%26#39;t allowed in) and there are trained staff who look after the kids. The children stay for an hour. I think the staff would speak some English, but on the day our daughter went all the other kids were French. Even with the obvious communication difficulties, she enjoyed it.

The opening hours were quite quirky and it would be a good idea to check before heading out there.

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In the article that Spotlight mentions, Le Jardin D%26#39;Acclimatation apparently has an Exploradome with interactive science displays for %26quot;tweens.%26quot;

If your kids are into musical instruments at all, Park de la Villette has a Musee de la Musique with gorgeous musical instruments including clavicordes and clavecins (they are piano-like)

I had a delicious lunch at a restaurant across the street from Park de la Villette called Le Bistro 190 (it used to be called Dagorno). It is located at 190 avenue Jean Jaures just across from Cite de la Musique.

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You can check out this site for cooking classes in English for your family. Otherwise, my girls love L%26#39;Atelier des Chefs, but it is in French and it is not private, as Anne%26#39;s classes are.

Soccer... the pick up games for the 10-11 year olds tend to be in neighborhood parks after school is out at 4:30pm. A good place for this is the Catherine Labourre Park in the 7th, near metro Vaneau.

Tennis... Jardins de Luxembourg have courts open to the public.

Almost all of the museums have programs for the kids on the weekends. It would really depend on their interests. Again, they%26#39;d have to be fluent in French to have a good time.

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Not a place for kids to play tennis, but the museum at Roland Garros is really good and they do tours. We did that on our last trip and loved it. You need to email and book ahead of time.

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Thank you everyone for the GREAT suggestions! I%26#39;m printing them all out and putting them on our schedule. Really really appreciate it and love that you%26#39;ve all done everything and have first hand knowledge. That%26#39;s so much better than a book! And each message had something new that I hadn%26#39;t heard of so now the problem is getting everything in.

Many thanks.

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Thank you SO MUCH for the wonderful suggestions. I%26#39;m making our schedule today and all of these tips will be used and appreciated!

You also gave me a number of things that books don%26#39;t mention, so that%26#39;s an added bonus.

Many thanks.

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The soccer help will definitely save my older boy-we%26#39;ll see how he matches up trying to use his french and yelling %26quot;Drop the ball.%26quot;

Thanks for commenting and for the other suggestions/. They are great.