Ideas for grandkids in Paris

I have never met a 7 year old who would be very interested in any of the three places you mention. Take her to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and a boat ride in the Bois de Boulogne. The toy department of one of the big department stores could be fun. The Doll Museum is closing or has already closed, unfortunately. The Louvre probably has child oriented tours, I am thinking, as may some of the other museums. Just riding the metro would probably be a thrill, and of course a boat ride on the Seine. There are some small parks where pony or donkey rides are to be had. One is near the Marmatton Museum. The Science Museum at La Villette has lots of interactive stuff for kids. You can get there on the Metro or on a canal cruise.

The Louvre has suggestions for tours you can do with children on its website.
My children liked the large statues on the ground floor of the Orsay. If your granddaughter likes dance, she should like the dancer paintings and the Degas statue.

Marrionette theater in the Jardin de Luxembourg.
Arts et Metiers Museum has original old airplanes, very early cars, Foucault's Pendulum and a ton of other very interesting objects.
My granddaughter loves going out for hot chocolate, so try Angelina's.
Riding a golf cart around the gardens at Versaille.
Any playground you find and they are in every neighborhood.
Cite de la Musique museum, next to the science museum Norma suggested, as well as Norma's excellent suggestions.

Honestly 7 year olds are just small people with shorter attention spans. Whatever she enjoys now at home will be closely the same. It just gets refined with age. I have a two year old son and almost four year old daughter. We drag them everywhere. Not Paris yet but I will when I feel we are all ready to go back. I also travel with friends kids of the same age. Their likes/dislikes don’t really change much from what they like elsewhere. My kids would love market streets, chocolate shops, and definitely the catacombs. Bocce ball and pick-up ‘football’ at the Roman arena where huge hits with friends kids. My son, absolutely. Daughter, no way. We would be walking Marche Mouffetarde. Both kids are bored with museums after an hour (but I threaten them with a nap!). Make sure to ask mom for input on this one if possible.

The sunset view of Paris from the top of the Arc de Triomphe is spectacular but i doubt that a 7 year old would enjoy climbing the 284 steps to the top.

There is a book that my daughter enjoyed as a child Linnea in Monet's Garden; she will probably enjoy the garden especially if she has read the book. In the same vein, have her watch the Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame and then climb the Tower to see the gargoyles. Lots of steps so depends on the kid; I am betting though that seeing the gargoyles would be more interesting than a long climb to see a sunset.

The Luxembourg Gardens has a pay playground with some fun toys for kids this age. The Tuilleries has trampolines. Both often have vendors who rent wonderful toy sailboats to sail on the fountain pools.

We had our kids choose a fancy pastry at a bakery each afternoon; these can go back to the apartment or room or to a park for an afternoon snack. Maybe everyone chooses one and you cut it into thirds to sample. Choosing from this beautiful pastries is a lot of fun for a kid this age.

There are carrousels all over Paris. I love the one in the Square Batignolles which also has a pond which often has interesting water fowl and ducklings and gosslings this time of year. It is very old fashioned. There is sometimes a primitive carrousel with wood horses and swords for the kids to spear rings in the park by the Marmottan. There are lots of more modern ones here and there; let her ride when she spots one. there is an endangered species carrousel at the botanical gardens in the 5th and natural history museums with dinosaurs etc.

Bon Marche has baking classes for children. Deyrolles taxidermy displays may be of interest - or not...one could assure the child that animals displayed were not hunted etc. Ladurees for a fancy ‘tea’ and macaroon. I echo the idea of a boat cruise which is pretty especially at night and also to,limit the walking she would need to do. Perhaps a ride on the doubledecker tour bus? What a lovely trip for all of you!

The natural history museum has a nice collection of dinosaurs. She will go nuts!

My kids when they were your grandchild's age loved the Rodin Museum -- my son was obsessed with the Thinker. During the summer if that is when you are traveling, they also enjoyed the carnival held in the Jardin des Tuileries. It's just a regular traveling carnival but we always offered it up part of a trip to the Louvre and now at ages 19 and 11 they love the Louvre. Also, they love being outside and really like Giverny, especially my daughter who loves flowers and artists so depending on your granddaughter, Givenchy could be a great hit. My son loved Jardin Luxembourg and continues to enjoy it even now that he is passing out of playing in the park age but your granddaughter is IMO still young enough to enjoy that. They also really liked going for ice cream and also American style pizza and for some reason walking down rue Montorgeuil to see the restaurant with the snail on it (L'Escargot) with zero interest in actually eating escargot. One of the things that we try to do is go to see things in Paris that fit in with their interests so, for example, one year we went to all the Paris spots in Cars 2, which that year was my son's then-current obsession. They also really like Tour Montparnasse and usually ask to go back there every summer.

HI FOLKS, THANKS FOR THE THOUGHTS AND IDEAS! Compay

When my daughter was 8 years old, we went to Paris and she really enjoyed a day trip to GIverny to see Monet's garden. Before going, we read the delightful children's book: Linnea in Monet's Garden by Cristina Bjork. This book explains Impressionism painting from a child's point of view and highlights some of Monet's most famous paintings. My daughter used this book to help us plan our day trip to Monet's garden. She even brought some colored pencils and sketched in the garden like the character in the book!

This museum is fun for kids. I haven't been there lately but grand children of friends enjoyed it when I took them.

http://www.museedesautomates.fr/

When I brought my children to the Tulieries, I was disappointed as they were beautiful formal gardens but I could not find any run around places to kick a soccer ball or to play hide and seek (I'm not saying that those areas don't exist, I just couldn't find them). I did find however a group of trampolines. You pay a few Euro and the kids can jump for 5-10 minutes---and believe me jumping for 5-10 minutes can burn up a lot of energy and generates tons of laughter. Here is one article about this (http://mannaparis.com/why-dont-you-visit-the-trampolines-in-the-tuileries/) but you can can google "Trampolines at Tulieries" and you will find the details of where they are located, etc. Have fun!

I'd stay right next to Jardin du Luxembourg. So much for kids to see and do.

THANKS AGAIN FOLKS. SOME MORE GOOD IDEAS. A SPECIAL SHOUTOUT TO CHRISTINE REGARDS CRISTINA BJORK'S BOOK. IT WAS ON OUR LIST! And not to brag to much, but 284 steps up the ADT is not much for our granddaughter, who is used to hiking in the Colorado mtns. !

We spent a week this past summer with our kids aged 11 and 9. We did the Eiffel Tower which they loved as well as the Arc de Triomphe. 284 steps is nothing :)
Stopped at ladurée for macarons while strolling Les champs Elysees.

A cruise on the Seine was also great fun. We took the train out to Versailles and rented bikes and toured the ground on our bikes. Great fun!
Have fun!

I suggest a family activity. What we did on our trip was adopt poses which reflected the statues and paintings - life imitating art, we called it. Silly, but a 7 YO would find it fun.

I would also visit a special cafe or candy store. Get the kid a little bit of chocolate.

Have you watched the move Chocolate with her? It's a very nice movie, about small-town France, with a little girl and her mother. It might be a good movie. You could watch it first, to make sure you were comfortable with it (sometimes adults forget some scenes in movies). I think we watched it with our children of about the age of your grandchild.