France with babies

Believe me, you don't want a van in Paris. If you only have a week then personally I would spend the week in Paris and do a couple of day trips. Much easier with such young children and there is enough in Paris to keep you going for a month! If you do want to split your time, then I would look at 4-5 days in Paris and then maybe 2-3 days in another city that is easy to reach by train such as Strasbourg (I know it is not in the area you mention), Dijon Lyon or Avignon. They all have more than enough to keep you interested for a few days. I think that the hassle of car hire for the few days you have is not worth it.

Paris is a pretty easy city with a toddler. A few days in the country, not so much. It would be different if you could settle into a gite for a week or two and then a car would make sense in the country. I would second the recommendation to base in the city which is full of parks and activities that work well with small kids. Plan on using the buses and on an apartment to make putting the kids to bet and having your own social space possible as well as dealing with meals and naps and such.

Thank you for the tips! This will be our first time in Europe, so while staying in Paris for the week is probably the best idea, we really do want to see wine country as well (we LOVE our wine!) Based on your feedback, it looks like wearing the kids and relying on the metro and train is the best idea in Paris. Then train to Provence/Burgandy and maybe rent a vehicle while there to get around to the sites in the country and drive back to Paris for our flight home?

If you are going to do this I would strongly suggest that you START in the countryside and then finish in Paris. You need to be in Paris the night before your flight and so splitting the trip would leave you wasting your last day rushing back to home base. Perhaps fly directly to Dijon and then get a hotel in Beaune? Or fly into Paris and take a train to a base in a wine region. And then drive back to Paris dropping the car on the edge of town and cabbing to your lodging for the finish in Paris.

Your arrival day is pretty much shot anyway, so you might as well waste it getting to your furthest point rather than having 3 wasted days: day of arrival, day you travel south, day you rush back to be in Paris for the flight home. By starting at the furthest point, you utilize jet lag day and then you can enjoy the drive back to Paris and not have that final rush back day at all.

Traveling with such young kids is difficult and you have to kind of adjust the rhythm to their needs; this makes a week in the city likely to give you a more satisfying trip that will encourage you to actually do it again. Any chance you could leave the kids with Grandma and take the week for yourselves? I know not everyone has that advantage; we didn't for most of our parenting years; but the kinds of things you want to do on the trip are not very compatible with naps and early bedtimes, and getting babies fed and keeping them happy.

You should take your stroller and not count on carrying the children everywhere. People take their strollers in the metro and buses. In fact, there is an area inside buses set aside for strollers, shopping carts, etc. An apartment near Luxembourg Garden would be nice as there are many activities for the three year old in the Garden.

If you like wine and just want to taste and see some caves, perhaps it's easier to go to Reims than Burgundy, strictly for logistics; it's much easier to reach CDG from Champagne than Burgundy.

You're probably not going to want to hear this, and there will be others that disagree, but "France with babies" and "France for the wine experience" aren't particularly compatible. And if you're only there for a week moving to another location and then back again is nothing but a time consuming nuisance. If you have no one to leave the little ones with and want to bring them along (which I understand completely) then it's better to stick with one location and all of you will enjoy your visit a lot more.

My parents, brother and his girlfriend will also be joining us on the trip so we will have lots of help with this kids. I like the idea of traveling to the country first then heading back into the city. Maybe we'll give that a thought. Also are strollers compatible with all the streets? I've heard they can be cobblestone in which cases stroller is less than ideal.

there are no cobblestones in Paris; some streets are sets which are sort of like bricks -- and those can be bumpy but nothing like the roughness of cobblestones. Most sidewalks are concrete. And as others have noted the buses have space for strollers. Nevertheless if you can handle the 3 year old in a backpack -- that is great. I had to give that up when they were two. A backpack is the easiest way to move around with toddlers -- but most museums will not allow them whereas you can use a stroller there.

Yes, for strollers, even in the countryside. But they aren't those big SUV type strollers we see in the States but good quality umbrella strollers. My first one was born in Paris decades ago, and we always used a stroller except out hiking somewhere.

Hi,

I took my 9 month old to Paris and had no problems. The biggest lesson I learned with jetlag and babies would be to rent an apartment so you have some space and doors that shut so at least somebody can get some sleep while the other parent is with le bebe. I would recommend a hearty fold up stroller with a basket underneath for storing things for the 3 year old as they will tire out. You can leave it in the lobby of the apartment or hotel.

If you only have a week and want to base in Paris and see wine country, I would suggest a day trip to the Loire Valley. It's a very easy fast trip on the TGV to Tours, where you can rent a car and drive out to several wineries, and be back in Paris in the evening. I did this a few years ago with friends and we also had time to visit the castle at Chinon in the same day. Wonderful experience. At the time I did this day trip, it was (I believe) a Hertz outlet that was closest to the Tours train station, but that may have changed by now.

make sure one adult doesn't partake of the tastings at the wineries to be the designated driver.