8 Things to Do in Paris with Kids

Inspiration for your family trip to Paris

We are a family that loves adventure. Our favorite family moments are ones spent exploring new places together or revisiting familiar standbys. New place or old standby, you will often find us on a trip or at the very least, planning our next one.

Last spring, we began to plan our first overseas trip in a few years with our daughter. We were considering several European destinations, but Paris quickly rose to the top. It is convenient, easy to navigate (as we had been before), and little girls and Paris just make sense. Right? Berets, fancy clothes, pastries, and a sparkling Eiffel Tower. Oui, merci! So we booked our flights and began planning our itinerary. Typically, we keep the itinerary simple and flexible, especially with a kiddo in tow. We plan one main activity or place to be each day with plenty of room for breaks, wandering, changes, shopping, etc. We also knew we wanted to take into account we had a 4 year old. So, a non-stop schedule full of museums, reservations, and endless places to be wouldn’t work. We wanted a flexible itinerary with plenty of 4 year old approved activities.

After a lot of research and an amazing trip, here are our favorite, little girl approved Parisian activities. Plenty of sightseeing, mixed with playgrounds and other kid friendly activities. If you are familiar with Paris, you will likely notice there are some glaring omissions like the Louvre or Musee d’Orsay and other major landmarks. We took into account our daughter’s age and the fact that both my husband and I had been to Paris previously. With older kids or if we were first timers to Paris, we would have absolutely added at least one of those to the list! If/When we go back to Paris with our daughter in a few years, we will most certainly add a few museums to the schedule and explore some art together.

So here are some of our favorite Parisian activities for kids!

1. Ride All the Carousels

This is hands down our daughter’s favorite activity. She couldn’t get enough of the magical carousels in Paris. Our favorite was the one just to the West of the Eiffel Tower near Pont d’Iena. We rode it at least 3 times in our week in Paris. With the close proximity to the Eiffel Tower, it was equally magical for me to join her too! Our other favorite was located in Tuileries Garden. Tuileries Gardens is a beautiful little oasis in the city and a great stop after roaming around the Louvre and surrounding areas. I’m sure there are plenty more carousels in the city, but we were frequent fliers at these two in our week visiting.

2. Run Around Playgrounds

While this may seem obvious if you have kids, it does require some planning in a major city. Playgrounds, at times, are hard to come by and find! Thankfully, Paris had a few great ones in the city center, perfect for shortstops. Once again, Tuileries Gardens has a great one, near the carousel (smart planning). It has activities for both small and bigger kids and is enclosed making it easier to keep track of kiddos running around. Another favorite was just to the southeast of the Eiffel Tower. This one, while much smaller, was a great little spot to sit and soak in the Eiffel Tower while getting some energy out. The third one is in the Trocadero Gardens area across the river from the Eiffel Tower. Again, smaller in size, but conveniently located and beautiful views!

3. Eat at Angelina and Find All the Treats

Angelina is a Parisian favorite of ours. Their hot chocolate is famous (rightfully so) and treats are equally delicious. The interior was a highlight for our daughter as she loves all things fancy. We went twice on our trip and were sure to eat plenty of other macarons, pastries, and other treats daily. There are endless patisseries and boulangeries all over to satisfy any craving! We even did a DIY pastry tour and hit up quite a few hotspots around the city! It is easy to entertain kids when sweet treats are involved.

4. Go Up the Eiffel Tower

Despite having been to Paris multiple times, I had never been up the Eiffel Tower. This time we booked tickets in advance (saves us waiting in line) and went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It offered great views of the city, a fun ride up a quirky elevator, treats on all levels, and places to rest along the way. Highly recommend doing it with kids!

5. Visit the Palais Royal

This is a non-playground playground. It is full of podiums of various sizes all over the courtyard. Perfect for kids to run around, jump on and off, and expend some serious energy along the way. If you get there early enough in the morning, it is also a beautiful spot to take pictures with the light pouring into the courtyard.

6. Take a Cooking Class

If your child is 6 or older, I highly recommend a cooking class. France is known for delicious pastries and treats, so why not learn how to do it yourself? I have taken a number of cooking classes in Paris over the years and really wanted to do one this last trip, but she wasn’t quite old enough. La Cuisine is probably my favorite place to do classes and they do offer private classes for families with younger children, but opted to wait another year. Galeries Lafayette, the department store, offers macaron classes for children ages 6 and up for a reasonable price.

7. Visit Jardin du Luxembourg and Tuileries Gardens

Tuileries Gardens shows up once again alongside Jardin du Luxembourg. Both are large open spaces full of room to run and explore, as well as things like playgrounds, carousels, food stands, and places to sit. In the summer, Jardin du Luxembourg offers tiny sailboats to rent and use on one of the ponds in the gardens. No matter the weather, we all know kids love to run around and play and these two green spaces offer just the space to do it.

8. Take a Day Trip to Versailles

Our final favorite activity on the list is a trip out to Versailles to see the Palace and grounds. We actually stayed out in Versailles for a couple nights, but it is an easy day trip for sure. The Palace is spectacular and our fancy loving daughter enjoyed seeing all the amazing interior rooms. The Queen’s Room being the clear winner. The grounds are also a great way to spend time. You can rent golf carts or bikes to explore and paddle boats to float around the large pond/lake in the middle of the grounds. There are also endless acres to run around on foot and explore with your kiddos. We ended our trip here and it ended up being a highlight of the trip!

So how did we do? Again, I would definitely add a museum for next time and we explored a lot of the major landmarks on our way around the city. Notre Dame, Centre Pompidou, the courtyard of the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, and many more. What would you add to the list?

About the Content Creator:

Lana is a Franklin, IN native who currently resides in the Denver area. She is a former social studies teacher and current family and newborn photographer serving families in the south Denver area. She loves the way photography makes time stand still, just for a moment, and regularly fills her home with her favorite images. Lana spends her time with her husband and daughter exploring all the Foothills and Denver have to offer. You will often find the three of them traveling the US, the world, or at least planning their next big adventure together. Their recent trips include Paris, Italy, London, and Hawaii with Germany and Austria up next. Lana also loves to cook/bake, stay fit, and cozy up with a good book and if time weren’t an issue, you would find her doing those things in abundance.

Check out more of her work including travel prints at www.lanamariephoto.com