Hi Friends
Any tips for a couple with an 8 year old travelling to Paris. WE have 7 full days. Would like to visit, Paris, Lourdes and a quaint town away from the city which captures the vineyards and country side feel.
Appreciate tips and advise on acc0modation and city itinerary.
Many thanks
Manoli
Lourdes is a long way from Paris on a relatively slow train line. If it is a must, I would strongly recommend staying at least one night there.
The only wine growing area close enough to Paris for a day trip (Paris is fairly northerly) is Champagne. The standard daytrip destination from Paris is Rheims (pronounced Rahnce) which is a fairly large city. You could also look into the slightly smaller Epernay, or somebody on the site who knows the region better than I might be able to recommend an actual small town. If you are willing to tie yourself down to a specific arrival and departure time, you can get advance discount fares for tickets from Paris to Rheims or Lourdes online - see http://www.seat61.com/France-trains.htm for advice depending on where in the world you come from.
Be sure to add things that your child will like. Spend an afternoon at a city park so he/she can play with local kids. Or spend a day at Paris Disney. It would be a nice reward for suffering through all those boring, stuffy things grown-ups like to do.
Paris is not in a wine region so you have to go further than is reasonable IMHO with only a week in Paris to see vineyards (except for the tiny vineyard in Montmartre which is a bit of a joke). Obviously if you want to go to Lourdes you should do it, but it is inconvenient to get to and will suck up a couple of days of your limited time.
If you want to see a smaller town, there are dozens in the Paris region reached in an hour or less by local train. Here are a few we have done. I particularly recommend Conflans Sainte Honorine for the ease in getting there and the lovely walk along the Seine. https://janettravels.wordpress.com/category/day-trips-from-paris/
Another great day trip is Auvers sur Oise where Van Gogh lived out his days and has many of the sites of his final paintings and his grave.
