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Idea for 3 days with kids

Our family (kids aged 5 and 9) is enjoying an amazing 4 weeks in France. We did Paris for the first few week and are now at a rental home in the market towns of Provence. Our rental is over in mid June and we have about three days before we need to be back in Paris for our flight home. Originally we thought we’d want to do Paris again, but we now think we’d like to see somewhere else.

We won’t have a car anymore, so we need something accessible by train. We also have a lot of luggage, so we’d need to either leave luggage or go to just one spot for a couple days.

We’d thought about Mont St-Michel but didn’t know if 3 days would be too much time, and our kids aren’t quite ready for those DDay sights nearby. Is any of Brittany realistic by train from Paris? We plan to have already seen the southern Provencial beach towns, since most of them are a short drive from our home right now, plus they all seem to require a car. We even considered going as far as Barcelona, just to show the kids something different (this is their first time out of the country).

Any ideas?

Posted by
653 posts

Chamonix. Everything is accessible without a car. We went there when our kids were 5 and 9 and it was the highlight of the trip.

Posted by
3 posts

@kd, yes, three with travel. Leave rental and return car Saturday midday, have to be on a plane in Paris on Tuesday afternoon.

Posted by
10187 posts

Why not go to the Loire Valley ? Tours or St Pierre des Corps is about one hour from Paris by train, and then you can get from there to smaller towns to stay in such as Amboise (although it's a bit of a hike from the train station into town) or Chinon or Blois or somewhere.

To me Amboise would be great with kids, as there is Leonardo da Vinci's last residence with tons of his life-size inventions in the gardens that kids can experiment with / crawl around.

And you should be either able to hire a private driver or get a bus or something to get over to Chenonceaux and back to see the fabulous Chateau there. If that sounds like too much of a pain, there's the chateau right there in Amboise with great views along the river. And a nice pedestrian center to grab an ice cream or a bite to eat.

Some will say Amboise is too touristy so you will want to keep that in mind.