Family of 5 visit to France (Paris 4 nights, Bayeaux 1 night, Mont St Michel 1 night, Chennonceaux 1 night)
I have used this site to help plan several other trips to Europe, but this time I didn’t even need to ask any questions. They all were answered using the Search function in the Travel Forum, so I decided I needed to write a trip review in an effort to pay it forward and hopefully help someone else with their planning.
We are a family of 5, two parents and our kids (ages 16, 14 and 11). We traveled for 3 weeks from late July 2018 through mid August, not ideal, but that’s what the schedule allowed. First stop was France.
We landed in Paris (CDG), and had no problem getting a taxi van at the airport. There was not one waiting, but they called for one and it took maybe 10 minutes to arrive. The cab’s credit card machine “wasn’t working” but I had Euros, just a heads up to confirm before the ride if you must pay using a card.
We stayed at the MIJE Fourcy hostel – we got a private 6 bed room. I booked this directly through the MIJE web page. You may be able to book on Hostelworld.com, but I wasn’t sure how to manage the request for a 6 bed private room for 5 people on that site. I submitted a reservation request to MIJE, then confirmed the reservation by submitting a deposit (used Transferwise). I did not find out my specific location assignment (which building) until I paid the remaining balance a few weeks before the trip (also using Transferwise). That being said, the location and accommodations were great! It is a very short walk to 2 different metro stops and Notre Dame was a 10 minute walk. The included breakfast was just fine, and we did eat dinner at their restaurant one night. The food was fine and the price of dinner was a good value. They do not have kitchen facilities for guests to use, but we were able to buy picnic supplies from the grocery store around the corner and have dinner in the lovely, shaded courtyard. It seemed like other families and student groups staying there, so if you are looking for more of a young adult social scene, this may not be the place you are looking for.
Purchased Museum Passes at the kiosk outside the Musee D’Orsay. They will take a credit card, but you will pay a few Euros more than if you pay cash. Only needed 2 passes since kids are free at the museums.
Waiting in line to buy metro tickets, we were approached by someone wearing an official looking lanyard/id card offering “help”. They were not official transit employees, but trying to sell the expensive all inclusive passes on the ticket machines. I just wanted a carnet of metro tickets, we had to be very firm to get them to bother someone else. I never got my US chip/signature card to work in the metro ticket machines, but had no problem buying from the attended desk.
Even with all the advice in Rick’s guide book, it still took a bit to figure out where to go to visit the Louvre. With the Museum Pass, we were directed to the courtyard entrance by the pyramid. If you want audio guides, you must pay for them in the ticket office in the atrium, then collect the actual guides at the entrance to which ever wing you are visiting. You must leave an id when you collect the audioguides.
We had reserved time tickets to visit the Eiffel Tower (booked back in June when they Finally released the tickets). We took the metro to the Trocadero stop to take in the views before our ticket time. It took a while to walk to the tower and figure where to go from there. The initial security entrance to the area under the tower was at the East Pier, then the lift for the advance ticket holders was at the North Pier. We ended up coming down on the West side. We were at the security entrance at 3:45pm for a 4pm time slot (I would allow more time if possible), and were back down from the summit by 6:30.