We successfully landed at Orly Airport at 1:30 pm. I love the fact that I had gone “all in” on the RS packing light philosophy. Each of us carried our own luggage on our back, including my 55 lb. 8-year-old who carried his 11.5 lbs of clothes, shoes and books like a champ through airports, getting to trains and walking through towns. I also really enjoyed not having to go to baggage claim. And if any of you have boys like mine, they also soo did not care that they had to wear clothes multiple days…I had to order them to change on a couple of occasions! The only thing they really needed/cared about was clean was socks.
We stayed outside of Paris in Vitry-Sur-Seine in a wonderful B&B called La Maison Bancana which is directly on the RER C line. This was again done for financial reasons. A fun, clean room four 4 (with bunkbeds for the boys) plus a delicious breakfast (think chocolate croissants, quiche, anything you can want to drink, fresh fruit, hard boiled eggs, etc) every morning was 120 euros per night. Fred who runs this place is a treasure. Meeting him was one of the highlights of our trip as we would talk to him and other guests every evening in his courtyard and he would help us with our plan of attack for the next day. He took pictures of our family eating together and has since emailed them to me. If you don’t mind staying a little farther out in order to afford a couple more days in Paris, this is the place to go.
We took a taxi from Orly to La Maison Bancana at a cost of 30 Euros. By the time we had settled in talked to Fred and had a plan of attack it was already 3:30. Now we happened to time our visit to Paris with the flooding of the Seine and the partial closing of the RER C line😅 This meant that we would stop at Guerre Austerlitz and then take metro to wherever we wanted instead of simply taking the RER C directly to the center of Paris. This was a little more work on our part, but once we figured it out (with the help of Fred) it worked great. That first evening we went to the Ile de la Cite and the Ile St. Louis. We walked through the grounds of Notre Dame, toured the archeology museum, bought gelato (from the boys perspective the more gelato the better the trip) on Ile St. Lois and ate dinner at a café that had views of the cathedral. It was the first sunny afternoon in Paris in weeks and we thoroughly enjoyed our omelets. (FYI if you have kids…it is true that finding bathrooms around here is not easy…it is one of the reasons we stopped for those omelets. But it turned out to be a fabulous decision because of the view.)
That evening the boys watched Ratatouille (which Fred had put in our room) and it was so funny seeing them react when they recognized some of the scenery. The next day was museum day. In one day we did the Army Museum, with Napoleon’s Tomb and the Louvre. My boys loved Napoleon’s Tomb and the Army Museum. I had to drag them out after three hours. I really appreciated the RS tour of Napoleon’s Tomb in his book on Paris because when you go in there it is really impressive but otherwise you have no clue what is what. My oldest was really entertained when he realized Waterloo was not listed as one of the key battles around his Tomb. Initially I was following RS tour of the museum and therefore going to focus on WWI and II but my husband asked (while we were in WWI) if we could see the medieval “stuff”. Understand I had planned this trip from start to finish and fel very responsible for everything, so deviation from “the plan” disconcerted me at first but I am so glad we did as it was an inspired decision. RS might find this part of the museum less interesting, but my 8 and 10-year-old loved it. For them, this felt like what Europe was all about and it certainly wasn’t something we could see in WV. They loved seeing the armor the kings of France would wear as young boys and man did they give me lectures on the development of weapons. We ate lunch at the café at
Posted by
OP
WV, USA
115 posts
Continued ...We ate lunch at the café at the museum and then decided to walk to the Louvre for our 2:30 tour. This walk to about 30 minutes.
We had decided to do a guided private tour of the Louvre for several reasons. First, it is huge. Second, my husband has an art history degree and my 8-year-old is extremely interested in art so having an expert was worth the money for us. Third, its huge. We actually booked a private tour of the Louvre through Paris Walks which was much more reasonable in price than some other places that cater to family tours of the Louvre. For our family of 4 a two-hour private tour was 180 euros. We asked to focus on ancient Egyptian and Greek art as that is where our interests in this museum were. Cerise was fabulous, incredibly knowledgeable and made our visit so worthwhile. We saw twice as much as we would have otherwise. BTW this was the first day the Louvre was open after the flooding, so we are really glad we went later in the day because we heard that morning it had been packed like sardines. We ate dinner at the café at the Louvre and then stayed on our own during extended hours. This was totally worth it because we stumbled on Hammurabi’s Code!!! (This is a big deal if you are a government teacher like me.) This was a loong day and we walked miles, the boys were amazing but probably burned them out a bit.
The next morning, we did a walking tour with Francoise of Paris-Saint-Germain through Paris Greets. I would recommend this non-profit, free experience to anyone who is visiting Paris for the first or third time. Francoise walked us around her neighborhood, showed us where her kids went to school and gave us one of the best lines of the trip. When she was talking about Parisian architecture she mentioned when pointing at some street that it was “new Paris”. “Oh” I said, “like 20th century, post WWII?” she gave me a slightly befuddled look and said, “No, I mean 1860s, Haussmann, you know.” This cracked me up. We live right by Antietam battlefield in MD. We consider 1862 old here and there that is “new”. We saw where Ben Franklin used to eat in Paris and she ended our walk at Jardin Luxembourg. For anyone going to Paris with kids I think this is a must go to, especially the playground. You have to pay 2 euros to get in, but they have equipment that would never be allowed in the US. If you are over 7 they have a self-propelled zip line for peats sake! My boys spent well over an hour here. It is also beautiful and a relaxing spot for the parents.
Later that day my 10-year-old crashed hard. Jet lag, not feeling well, homesick made it so that my husband got him McDonalds on the Champs-Élysées. My husband and I ordered Royales with Cheese (we got a laugh out of this, thank you Pulp Fiction). Oddly enough this was the only place in the entire trip where our credit cards did not work at a machine. Then my awesome husband took him back to the B&B while the 8-year-old and I kept touring. We ended up going to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and touring the Orssay. My 8-year-old loves VanGogh and Monet and thoroughly enjoyed seeing them. For him, this was one of the highlights of the trip. If I could go back and edit our trip, I would try to do more things like finding an awesome cheese shop to explore. The boys were disappointed about that, but there is just so much to do in Paris with very little time.
The next morning, we took the RER C to Versailles where we picked up our rental car to drive to Bayeux. This worked well as we didn’t have to drive though Paris and it was a quick route to the highways.
Posted by
Midwest
468 posts
Just found your trip reports and they are so fun to read. Your family sounded like it had a great time. My daughter was 10 and son a little older on our first trip to Paris a few years ago so I can relate to keeping kids happy. We went to McDonalds more than once and each time it was full of locals. (Or at least people speaking French) Thanks for posting.
Posted by
Central Valley, California
293 posts
Loved this trip report - but now my feet hurt! Lol. Wonderful plans you made to keep the boys amused. B&B sounds good too, and I'm making a note of it. Aaah Paris - have visited it 2 million times from when I lived in southwest Belgium for 4 years, always staying at the Cercle Militaire in Place St. Augustin - and your trip report has caught my eye - BECAUSE: I have always left Napoleon's Tomb un-visited along with just a few other famous spots. My favorite go-to lunch was always atop the Galleries Lafayettes, but I don't know if it still exists. Used to be a great view. What is the name of the cafe you ate at for the Notre Dame view? And have the boys seen the Disney movie of Notre Dame?
Posted by
San Francisco
14535 posts
@ kbachteil...My compliments to your boys on being such great troopers, spending all that time in the Army Museum and Napoleon's Tomb. Your boy noticing Waterloo not there is sharp, to say the least, and correct. Napoleon's defeats are not shown, that's why Waterloo, and neither is Leipzig. . Thanks for the great report !
Posted by
OP
WV, USA
115 posts
Sorry it has taken me so long to respond! The start of the school year for me and the boys has kept me from enjoying reading on this site and responding in a timely manner. Le flore en l'ile was the name of the place where we sat and ate omelettes with partial views of Notre Dame. It is at the tip of Ile Saint Louis.
Fred- thank you for the positive feedback. My boys love history and I am not exaggerating when I say I had to drag them out of there! For our next trip to Europe my (now) 11 year old is already making noises about visiting more WWII museums and sites. But really any museum or place dealing with military history excites him. If you have any suggestions of places you think are "can't miss" regardless of where they are in Europe, I would love to hear about it. We did Normandy on this trip, and I have a feeling we may need to put London on any itenerary we come up with because of the War Museum and Churchill's War Room.
Posted by
San Francisco
14535 posts
@ kbachtell....Bravo to your boys. Super good troopers. If you are going to London for sure next time, they should definitely see The Imperial War Museum, pay particular attention to the German war planes (detail wise ) there and what they would see regarding German warplanes in Munich at the Deutsches Museum. Also, in London there is the RAF Museum in north London, (Tube: Colinwood) From the Tube is ca 10 min walk to the Museum, which has German, US , Br, etc. planes. If you're staying in London long enough to do two day trips, ie train plus bus plus a little waking, you can get to Duxford , the RAF museum (big) and also to Bovington, the Tank Museum (big!!). Look at their websites. Logistically, both are doable from London.
Almost every capital in Europe has its Army/Military Museum...Paris, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Warsaw, Helsinki, Brussels, London....I've been to four of them, all with repeat visits. In Germany this type of museum is in various cities, also museums on naval war history.
If the boys want more Napoleonic history, several recommendations (even in London, if they are interested) can be made for that too. Are you going back to France on the next trip? "...drag them out after three hours." That must have been at 1700, closing time. I know, it's tough, if you're hooked at seeing the shop and all the Napoleonic "stuff" (books, etc ) available.
Posted by
San Francisco
14535 posts
Hi,
If you're going to be back in Paris next time, I heartily recommend going to Fontainebleau, leave early in the morning, see the Chateau where Napoleon lived and spent his last days before abdicating (the first time). Your boys will see and stand in the court yard, ie, the Cour des Adieux, where after signing the abdication in April 1814, Napoleon said farewell to the Old Guard .
Not too far from the Chateau Fontainebleau , ca 30 mins walk, is the " Napoleonic Museum of Art and Military History" at 88 rue Saint Honoré. It's closed on Sunday and Monday. If they took such an interest at Napoleon's Tomb, they will be fascinated and captivated by this museum. If you are really lucky, the accompanying Napoleonic music will be on when you are there. I've been there with the music on and there also when it was not played.