Family-friendly plans for Paris, Normandy, and Loire in April

Consider that it will be a lot of train or road time in 9 days to do all three. You might instead with an 8 year old girl do either Normandy with Rouen (Joan of Arc etc) and Giverny (Monet) or Loire with Amboise and the castles, but not both regions in addition to Paris.

I should have mentioned that we'll rent a car out of Paris--presuming that this itinerary will be too much by public transport.

It's a very ambitious plan, so I'd be careful not to overschedule. Your kids may have problems adjusting to the time difference, so I would chose Paris as the first stop. While you're there, you might consider including a day at Disneyland Paris to keep your kids happy--after all it's their trip too. To avoid changing hotels too frequently, I'd do Giverny as a day trip from Paris and skip Honfleur. I'd also consider doing either Normandy or the Loire, but not both--again, to make it easier on the kids. If you go to Normandy, be sure to have them watch "The Longest Day" at home before you leave to give them some history. If you go to the Loire, consider staying in Amboise and day tripping to Chenonceaux for one day and Chambord for the other. There are many kid-friendly attractions at Chambord--such as a horse show or boat rides-- and the chateau is monumental.

When we traveled with kids, we found that staying at an apartment with a kitchen was better than at a hotel. We could make meals that they liked--and save money on pricey restaurants. It was also a comfortable place to unwind after a busy day and get over jet lag. For your Paris stay, this might be the best alternative. For more advice on traveling with kids, see Rick's tips.

The. first tie we took the kids to France, they were 8 and 10. We only had one day in Normandy, with a private driver. Our kids were ok with the museum in Caen and the American Cemetery, but my husband was career military and had just returned from a long deployment, so we had prepped our kids a bit. In Paris, the only thing our 8 year old had his heart set on was to climb up Notre Dame, so we did. The Seine cruises are perfect. Try to go on the half hour at night so you can see the Eiffel Tower twinkle on the hour. Otherwise our kids were fine with doing whatever we decided, but they were very easy travelers.

OP here- If I were to change tacks completely here I'd say is that my #1 place I want to go in France is the Dordogne region. I just didn't see that as do-able because of distance on this trip. If it is, we could do Paris and Dordogne. Perhaps people will say that 4-5 nights in Dordogne going RT from Paris within this timeframe is too short as well.

We did a similar trip in 2019 in the same time frame that you are proposing. It’s doable for sure.

We started in Paris and stayed in the 1st arrondissement for two nights Then took the train just outside the city and rented a car. We drove to Giverny on our way to Bayeaux. It was perfect as a day trip. Stayed in Bayeaux for two nights, taking an Overlord tour of the DDay beaches one of the days. Then we drove to Loire and stayed in Amboise for three nights. Then we went back to Paris and stayed in the right next to Luxembourg Park for two more nights before flying home. Our trip was centered around food and this was the perfect itinerary for us.

I understand the thinking behind a half-day tour of D-Day sites with a child in the mix, but you need to understand that Bayeux--although very attractive and the most convenient base for tours in the area--is some distance from the invasion sites visited on the tours. You'll spend a lot of the half day sitting in a van, driving out of Bayeux and back to Bayeux. A full-day tour will be about twice as long, but it will probably yield 3 or 4 times as much actual sightseeing time.

How reasonable a full-day tour would be with an 8-year-old, I just don't know. (I'm thinking about her interest level. I don't remember content that would be particularly disturbing to a child.)

The invasion museum in Bayeux is modern and quite good, but I didn't think about it from a child's perspective when I visited, so I just don't know whether it would hold her interest. The Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mere-Eglise is the old-fashioned sort; I don't think it would be a hit with an 8-year-old. The Airborne Museum is a stop on many/most of the full-day tours of US sites. On my tour (Overlord) it was also the lunch stop (meal not included), so one could skip the museum and have lunch at a creperie and walk around instead.

Get your daughter involved in the planning and try to do something on "her list" every day or two. If she has something to look forward to each day or so, she will be more accepting of the things you and dad want to do, and less likely to get bored.

alk,
You said the Dordogne is what you really want, and it is doable in your time frame. In June we rented a gite near La Roque Gageac for 10 days. We were already in France, but my daughter flew from San Francisco to Bordeaux with Air France (on one ticket, changing in Paris to the short Bordeaux flight), where it was easy to rent a car and drive to the Dordogne in about 3-4 hours. She stayed 8 nights with us. She returned to Bordeaux the day before her flight home. She stayed at a hotel that night near the airport and returned the car the next morning, before catching her flight to CDG and plane change for return to SFO. The key was buying her Air France ticket from SFO to Bordeaux on one round-trip ticket. She had a day longer than you do, but you could rent a place for a week and take your daughter to some wonderful places. Our daughter brought her 9 and 12 year old kids. We saw castles, a trebuchet demonstration, prehistoric caves, markets, beautiful villages and scenery, and kayaked on the Dordogne River. Being in a house we had breakfast there, and some dinners, eating lunch out each day. We went to a chocolaterie, a savonerie, and they loved comparing grocery stores and food products to ones in the states, as well as going to the patisserie almost every day for our baguettes and croissants. At our gite (a terrific house with a big yard and a pool) we all relaxed in the evening after dinner. Each day we did one or two things, so no one felt pressured. There were lots of outdoor things to see and do, so no little ones got fed up with just seeing art museums.
You might check my forum entry "Just Returned from Four Weeks in France, continued". It gives better details about our Dordogne stay. (Just wondering, do your nine days include travel days, or days on the ground in France?)

alk,
Just fyi. There is a TGV from Paris to Bordeaux that takes about 2 1/2 hours from Gare Montparnasse, and vice-versa. You would need to taxi from and to CDG from there. Also, there may be a TGV from the airport to Bordeaux as well. I am not sure of the times, though. You could decompress on the train after your flight, and even stay one night in Bordeaux before driving to the Dordogne. Hopefully you would be able to spend at least 6 days (meaning 7 nights) in the Dordogne region. It is a perfect destination for children of all ages!

alk,
Just reread your post. If you have nine full days on the ground and want to show some of Paris to your daughter, you could spend three days there and five in the Dordogne, using that ninth day to return to CDG as I mentioned in my post about the TGV. If your whole trip is nine days, then you only have seven days to see the sights, so perhaps the Dordogne isn't the best choice for you. It all depends on your flight arrival times and how they coordinate with the TGV departures from CDG or Paris to Bordeaux.
Bonne chance et bon voyage!
Judy

In Paris the Luxembourg Gardens have wooden sailboats that you can rent for a half hour. Our grandchildren thought it was great fun to push them in the pond and watch them sail. Your daughter might enjoy this. They also loved stopping for macaroons and crepes. Simple pleasures. The Musee D'Orsay was just as interesting to them as the Louvre was, and it is a smaller museum to enjoy. Going to the summit of the Eiffel Tower and taking a Seine River boat cruise were also great. They liked the views from Sacre Couer also.

Look for ways to give your youngest some context. For example, Linnea in Monet's Garden, a book by Cristina Bjork, would give her some familiarity with Monet if you were planning to see paintings by Impressionists.

Think about staying the night before touring DDay beaches at say Bayeaux. Years ago, we toured the beaches and viewed the tapestry with youngsters. No issues