In October 2023, we took our kids (ages 22 months and 3 years) to Europe. We visited a couple cities in Belgium and Paris, France and had an incredible trip. Paris is an incredible city that Logan and I were lucky enough to visit once before we had kids. This Paris family trip was a little bit different with the kids in tow, but we still were able to do so many activities and see so many of the iconic attractions Paris has to offer.
If you plan on taking a family vacation to Paris, I hope this itinerary gives you some good ideas of things to do and what you can look forward to!
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Family Paris Youtube Vlog
Our Paris Family Trip Itinerary
Day 1 – Saturday 10/21/2023
We started our Paris family trip taking a train from Belgium to Paris. You can read all about our Family Trip Around Belgium, here! Our Eurostar train ride from Brussels to Paris was uneventful. It was a full train though so the kids had to sit on our laps. Luckily the seats were big and the train ride was quick–only about a hour and a half.
When we got to the Gare Du Nord station, we bought our metro tickets. It’s pretty confusing, honestly, and we waited in multiple lines before we decided that it would be best to just buy our tickets separately every time. Kids ride free on the metro and it was worth it to buy a day pass if you were doing more than 5 rides in a day (I could be wrong about that..)
We got to our Airbnb around 3:00pm and relaxed for a bit before heading out to take a bus to the Eiffel Tower. We just walked around and then hung out in the grassy area by it. Most of it was fenced off because they were re-seeding it for the upcoming olympics. There is also plexiglass around the entire base which was new since we last went in 2017.
Guards started clearing people out so we took the bus back to our Airbnb, made dinner, and went to bed.
Day 2 – Sunday 10/22/2023
Since it was Sunday, we went to church. I love going to church in different countries and getting to meet people from all over. We got ready and took the metro. After church, we decided to walk over to the Notre Dame since it was a nice day. We grabbed some pastries on our way and looked at souvenirs.
Since the fire of the Notre Dame in 2019, it’s been under reconstruction and you can’t go up to it. But we went around to the the front and were able to see a lot of the outside. The whole thing is surrounded with walls with information about the Notre Dame, the fire, and the reconstruction.
After taking some pictures in front of the Notre Dame, we walked along the Seine river to the D’Orsay Museum. I was very excited for this because on our last trip to Paris, it was closed because of strikes (common in Paris). So we wanted to do it early on in our trip. You don’t need a reservation (as of 2023) but we bought the Museum Pass and this was our first day activating it. It’s totally worth it in my opinion if you want to visit multiple museums.
The Museum Pass gets you in to many of Paris’ museums and you often times skip the line. When we got to the D’Orsay, the lines were huge. We asked museum workers which line was for museum pass holders and it was so much shorter. I had our 22 mo in the carrier and she fell asleep quickly and our 3 yo in the stroller and he also fell asleep. So Logan and I were able to enjoy the paintings. They woke up a little before we left and our daughter loved the statues and that’s when I filmed this video that went viral on my Instagram and Tiktok.
We were hungry so we took the metro over to the Tuileries Garden outside the Louvre and ate at the little cafe there. The kids got ice cream and Logan and I got crepes. There is a carousel in the gardens so we went over and let the kids do a few rides on that which was the highlight of their day. There was also a fenced in playground right next to it so we let the kids play in there for about 45 minutes. I think they needed some time to run around and not be quiet so this was a perfect afternoon activity.
Since we were so close to the Louvre, we walked over to it and there was a lady out front blowing giant bubbles which lots of kids were running around and popping and our kids loved that. We took some fun pictures in front of the pyramid and then took a metro to a stop near the Arc De Triomphe since that’s close to where we were staying. We ate dinner at a restaurant called Nai Brasserie bar. We had a great view of the Arc De Triomphe and I tried escargot for the first time! It wasn’t bad. The waitress took a liking to the kids and brought out a special dessert just for our 3 year old.
After dinner, we walked over to the Arc De Triomphe (not right up to it because you have to go underground to cross the street), and got some street crepes for dessert. Lemon, butter, and sugar will always be my favorite. Then we walked home and went to bed.
Day 3 – Monday 10/23/2023
We woke up to a rainy day and the power in our Airbnb was out. It took a bit to get it back on so got a late start to the day. We ate breakfast at a little cafe that was down the street from where we stayed and then we decided to go to the Sharkespeare and Co bookstore.
It’s a very popular bookstore and had read that there is always a line to get inside and even on this rainy day, there was a line. It was very close to the Sainte-Chapelle so Logan decided to take our 1 year old over there to see if we could get in without a reservation. We had our stroller and didn’t know if we’d be able to bring it into the bookstore but they actually told us they had a spot to put it.
My 3 year old and I didn’t end up waiting long to get in to the bookstore and it was incredible. We went straight to the kids section where they had a little reading nook for little kids and I found a fairytale book to purchase.
We walked across the river to the Sainte-Chapelle and Logan called me to hurry because he was almost to the front of the line. I was shocked because reservations were totally sold out and we thought the line for no reservations would be huge, but he only waited about 20 minutes. The Museum Pass gets you into the Sainte-Chapelle
The Sainte-Chapelle is beautiful. You walk up a tiny windy staircase into a room surrounded in stained glass. We walked around for a bit, reading about the church and letting the kids wander in the single room.
It was still rainy so we went back to our Airbnb and stopped at Laduree for their famous macarons. They are incredible, albeit expensive, but very worth it in my opinion. We relaxed for a couple of hours before heading out to the Arc De Triomphe. You don’t need tickets to walk around the bottom, but you do need them to go up to the top. The Museum pass gets you to the top of the Arc De Triomphe.
Something I was very sad we didn’t do on our last Paris trip was climb to the top of the Arc De Triomphe at night to see the view of Paris with the Eiffel Tower lit up. We were making it happen on this trip! We walked over around 6:30pm as the sun was going down. We crossed underneath the street and popped up right under the Arch. It’s a really cool place to walk around.
We got in line to go up to the top and we were fully expecting to have to climb all the stairs with the kids on our backs. But right as we passed through security, a worker asked if we wanted to use the elevator. We quickly said yes! It’s a tiny elevator but we were at the top in no time. It was a bit cloudy still but the clouds eventually cleared and the view was incredible. It was the best view of Paris and something I will never forget. The kids mostly ran around up top and Logan and I took turns following them around so the other could look at the view.
We took the stairs down and let the kids play under the arch for a while since it wasn’t very busy. Then we walked back under the street and got street crepes again. We walked home with our treats and went to bed.
Day 4 – Tuesday 10/24/2023
We booked a bike tour a few days before for this morning and let me just say, it was a highlight of our trip. We were almost late because the metro line we planned on taking was very delayed so we took a different route and just barely made it. The company was very understanding and didn’t make us feel rushed at all.
We booked through Fat Tire Tours and they were excellent. They had kid seats on the bikes and helmets for our 1 and 3 year old. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and I felt really safe biking on the busy streets of Paris. It was fun to see a different side of Paris since so much of the traveling from site to site is underground.
We had a lunch stop on the tour and after it was over, we used their bathroom and filled up our water bottles before walking over to the Eiffel Tower. We stopped at a fruit stand along the way and bought some strawberries and enjoyed those on our walk. We let the kids run around in the grass and I filmed a Youtube video to share What I Keep In Our Stroller for a Day Around Paris.
After that the kids were tired so we decided to go for a long walk so they could sleep. Our 3 year old was in the stroller and our 1 year old was in the carrier. We walked from the Eiffel Tower to the Tuileries Gardens outside the Louvre. At one of the ponds, you can rent a small sail boat that you push with a wooden pole so it will float across. Logan and our son did that for about 30 minutes while me and baby girl just walked around.
It was around 5:30 at this point and we were all tired so we took the metro and went back to our Airbnb.
Day 5 – Wednesday 10/25/2023
The night before we made a very last minute decision to take the kids to Disneyland Paris. Tickets aren’t as expensive as they are for Disneyland in California so we decided to go for it. It felt like such a classic Paris Family Trip activity.We woke up and walked to the metro. It’s very easy to get to Disneyland Paris, you just need to get to a station where the RER A train will take you straight there. It’s about 45 minutes from Paris central.
Once we arrived, we walked through the gates and were in Disneyland Paris! It’s honestly very similar to Disneyland California. We rode lots of rides, got rained on, ate lots of Disney food, and overall had a great day. Logan and I took turns riding a few of the bigger rides while the other was with the kids.
Some things that were different and fun was the “dungeon” underneath the castle with Maleficent in her dragon form, characters like Jack Sparrow on Pirates of the Caribbean speaking french, and rides like Snow White not being updated so they’re still like the original ride.
We were there until a little after 6:00 and then headed to the big World of Disney Store that was just outside of the park by the train station. We got the kids a souvenir each, hopped on our train and went home.
Day 6 – Thursday 10/26/2023
We woke up and were planning to go to the Army Museum and Invalides. So we hopped on the bus to get over there, but as we were passing the Eiffel Tower, we decided to hop off at that stop and just see how long the line was to get up to the top. Our tour guide the day before had told us it could be up to a 4 hour wait, but we decided to go for it. We waited to go through security to get through the plexiglass just to walk under the Eiffel Tower for about 10 minutes. (It’s free to go in). The line was really short to get up to the top so we bought our tickets for $28 each, kids are free, and rode the elevator to the top!
We had our stroller and there is no where to store it so we had to fold it up and carry it with us the whole time up top. It was pretty miserable so if you go, make sure to leave your stroller behind at your hotel.
After our trip up to the Eiffel Tower, it was time for our reservations at the Louvre that we had made before we even left for Paris. Our bike tour guide had told us about a much less known entrance so you don’t have to wait in the very long line outside of the Pyramid so we went in through there. If you want to see the entrance, I show exactly where it is in my Paris vlog on Youtube.
The Louvre is not very stroller friendly as well, so if you can get by without, I would do that. Our kids were tired so it was nice for our 3 year old to rest in it, but there are a lot of stairs. We didn’t stay super long, but did do the Rick Steves Louvre audio tour which hits most of the main pieces.
After the Louvre, we walked up and down the Seinne river looking at the different little pop up green shops for any artwork we liked. There was a man selling pieces that it looked like he painted, but I’m pretty sure they were just prints. We bought a couple anyway because they were pretty. Then we took the Metro home to start packing.
Originally we planned to get the kids out one more time to go walk up and down the Champs Elysee, but they were both tired and Logan offered to stay back with them to finish packing. So after dinner, I went out by myself. I didn’t buy anything, except for some chocolates my dad asked me to bring back, but it was so fun to be out alone and just walk up and down the famous street with a view of the Arc De Triomphe. I grabbed a street crepe to eat on my walk home.
Day 7 – Friday 10/27/2023
Our plane left in the early afternoon so we had to wake up at 6:15 am to grab last minute things around the Airbnb. We took a metro to a train that took us to Charles De Gaulle airport. It wasn’t too bad even with all of our luggage. There was a nice guy at the train station who helped me carry the stroller down a few flights of stairs.
The flight back to Salt Lake was a direct flight and honestly uneventful. Paris was incredible and I can’t wait to get back there!
If you enjoyed this Paris Family Trip Itinerary, make sure to check out these other posts!
France and Paris are awesome for family travel. I’m a librarian, mom, and former educator and I love to find children’s books to read before traveling. Here are some of my favorites featuring France: http://storybooklists.com/country/storybooks-with-france
Oh thanks for sharing!