dining with a group including children

Wherever you decide, try to get hold of some of the menus before you arrive so that the children learn about their choices beforehand.

Apparently, no one here has personal experience dinner with 8 or however many kids you got in Paris.

Here's general advice (no specific picks) from Rick for dining in Paris with kids in tow: "Eat dinner early, before the sophisticated local crowd dines. Skip romantic places. Try relaxed cafes, or fast-food restaurants, where kids can move around without bothering others. Picnics work well."

It sounds like the Hippopotamus chain might work for you.

The one and only (thank goodness) time I was in Paris with young children, we found the Italian restaurants the easiest in which to find what children like. The one thing they could not get used to was that bread accompanied the meals but not butter. Try explaining that to North American children.