Paris with a 6 year old

My son loved the playground at the Luxembourg Gardens. The park also has a crepe stand, cotton candy, ice cream, cafés, a carousel, pony rides, marionette shows.

You may not have time but the Jardin d’Acclimatation is wonderful. It’s an old fashioned, very French amusement park for young children. It has lots to offer including animals and a train. It’s very clean and well run. It’s in the Bois de Boulogne (a large park) on the western edge of Paris.

I posted in your question about apartments/hotels in the review area, but will repeat here in case others see this too.

We went in July with our daughter - she was 5 but turned 6 just after we got home. She loved riding the metro (her favorite part of the whole trip), going to Versailles (the gardens and Hall of Mirrors were the highlights), the Eiffel tower - especially watching it sparkle from the Trocadero at 10pm, the Catacombs (def a big hit, make sure you know the release schedule to get tickets), and the playground in the Jardin du Luxembourg (Ludo Jardin; worth the few euros entry cost). She also enjoyed parts of the Louvre- the Sphinx, the jewels in the Apollo Gallery, and some of the other bigger sculptures.

We did a lot of museums because the older cousins (11 & 15) wanted to see everything and it was their first time - Louvre, Orsay, Cluny, Les Invalides. So we loaded books on our kindle and our daughter read a lot in the museums - but it worked perfectly because the adults/older kids got to see what they wanted and she was happy reading on a bench until we went to the next room. We might have made different choices of course if it was just us with her, like you will be.

Will also say - generally assume you can bring in water and food, as long as you don't eat in areas it's prohibited. A lot of times we didn't bring it with us as it was technically against the rules. But I didn't see anyone get stopped at any of the sites we visited, the bag checks were all about safety/weapons. So we bought lunch at several places, but could have just eaten food we brought for a quicker/easier experience.

-beth

Here are some snapshots of Jardin Acclimatation to give you an idea in case you want to visit with your daughter. It is lovely for kids that age.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2019/09/18/delights-of-jardin-acclimatation-and-fondation-louis-vuitton/
There are little carousels here and there in Paris and so enjoy those when you stumble on them. And kids this age are thrilled to sail the boats on the pool at the Luxembourg Gardens or the Tuilleries (both also have nice playgrounds -- the ones int he Tuilleries are free ). Sometimes there is a carnival with rides in the Tuilleries in late summer.

There is a kids guidebook called Mission Paris: A scavenger hunt adventure. It has brief descriptions and then things to look for at various sites. You just have to remember that you can't go to all of them...

I took my little girl for her 5th birthday a few years ago and had such a wonderful time. She likes the macabre stuff too but we skipped the catacombs. The stairs would have been too much for her. My now 6 year old son could handle it just fine though so keep that in mind. Instead we went to the Paleontology museum building at the museum of natural history. It’s not really my thing but I really enjoyed it almost as much as my daughter. Carousels and creperies are everywhere. Something I really never noticed before kids. We hit them all! We also spent a rainy day hitting the toy shops. One of our favorites was in a passage called Pain D’epices. The one my daughter loved was an entire passage of toy stores that looked like a fancy Toys R Us. It was nearby but I can’t find it. We also really enjoyed the archeological crypt in front of Notre Dame but we were there a few days before the big fire so I’m not sure if it’s open now or not. Chocolate shops were a huge hit too. Probably my favorite memory was having her sit for a sketch portrait in Montmartre and I got a souvenir of our trip out of it as well. We always made it back to our apartment before dark except one night and that was to go up the Eiffel Tower to watch it sparkle. She absolutely loved it. We found the playgrounds to be ok for a minute but the language barrier made it a bit of a disappointment. Paris with little ones is a great experience for both of you. I’ve probably never had more interaction with locals from anywhere than I did on this trip. The whole experience was a pure joy.

Sounds wonderful!

We were in Paris in May, and LOVED the Canal Saint-Martin in the 10th. It is a tree shaded, lovely area with small, low bridges that you can walk over and watch the boats maneuver the lock system. Very interesting! We stopped at a cafe, La Marine which was right on the water with a great view and had ice cream, but their lunch looked nice, too!