Heading to Paris with the kids next summer, what other places should we visit?

[Anonymous]

We are using all our frequent flier miles to get 4 tickets to Paris next summer with our kids (will be 10 and 11 next summer). I realized since we won't be going back to Europe any time soon, we should make the most of the trip. Where else would you go that would be affordable (either trains or inexpensive flights) and must see while we are already in Europe? The two places we have are London and Amsterdam.

TIA

[Anonymous]

Small towns are more fun. Spend some time in Carcasonne France. Go to Mt. Saint Michel. If you must leave France go to Brugges. Go to Avignon. You haven't seen Europe if all you have seen are the capitols. I had a great weekend in Bayeaux, viewing the Bayeaux Tapestry.

Go to Brittany in France, along the coast, and see the Neolithic monuments.
Go see some castles in the Loire. Small towns are also easier to navigate with children. Rent a car and spend two weeks driving around France.

[Anonymous]

Go to Saint Malo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Small towns are more fun. Spend some time in Carcasonne France. Go to Mt. Saint Michel. If you must leave France go to Brugges. Go to Avignon. You haven't seen Europe if all you have seen are the capitols. I had a great weekend in Bayeaux, viewing the Bayeaux Tapestry.

Go to Brittany in France, along the coast, and see the Neolithic monuments.
Go see some castles in the Loire. Small towns are also easier to navigate with children. Rent a car and spend two weeks driving around France.

OP here. Would older elementary/middle school enjoy some of the smaller towns? I've found when we traveled in the past that the kids do better with tours geared toward families or museums that are interactive.

[Anonymous]

Do you/kids speak French? I agree that France outside of Paris is beautiful and I think you'd all enjoy it, but if a focus would be on tours and museums, etc, these tend not to be in English in many of the smaller places. How long are you going for? London and Amsterdam are obviously very doable on the train (though price-wise I'd book early - I think tickets become available 5 or 6 months before, but check the TGV/Eurostar websites) and there is tons to do for kids of that age in both cities - but you might want to consider whether you want a very city-based holiday or you want to focus on exploring different parts of France

[Anonymous]

Rental car to Normandy and Mt. St. Michel. Brugges or Amsterdam would be nice, too.

[Anonymous]

In our family you are allowed to say you have seen a place if you have eaten a local dish, ridden in a novelty vehicle and gone to the top of something tall and looked down. In a small town you can still eat interesting food, go to the top of a castle and look out and taker a boat ride on a canal, etc. your kids do not need to push buttons at a museum to have fun. They will enjoy eating croissant, sitting in cafés, wearing those little headsets at the museum in Bruges and in the castles in the Loire. The Neolithic site in Brittany also has all of that interactive button pushing stuff as we'll.

[Anonymous]

Munich has a lot of museums historical sites. I liked it a lot when I was in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Since you are using frequent flyer miles, you should do either an open jaw or a stopover. I generally prefer open jaw. E.g., fly into Paris and out of Amsterdam or Nice, if that's where you are going. I strongly agree that you should add in small towns and try not to see everything. You could work your way south to Nice, stopping along the way and end on the French Riviera.

[Anonymous]

Portugal is lovely and most people don't think of it - so they are very tourist friendly.

[Anonymous]

Go north! When my DC were 7 and 9 we visited Paris for three or four days (they'd been there previously) and then rented a car and drove to Giverny to visit Monet's home and gardens. We then drove to the super cute town of Honfleur where we stayed for a couple of nights while we visited the WWII Normandy landing beaches and William the Conquerors castle. From there we went to Bruges which was just eh with kids (you know you're scraping the bottom of the barrel when you shell out cash to go to the Frites Museum). After that we drove to Amsterdam which my kids just adored. There, among other things, we went to the Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go north! When my DC were 7 and 9 we visited Paris for three or four days (they'd been there previously) and then rented a car and drove to Giverny to visit Monet's home and gardens. We then drove to the super cute town of Honfleur where we stayed for a couple of nights while we visited the WWII Normandy landing beaches and William the Conquerors castle. From there we went to Bruges which was just eh with kids (you know you're scraping the bottom of the barrel when you shell out cash to go to the Frites Museum). After that we drove to Amsterdam which my kids just adored. There, among other things, we went to the Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank house.

I don't know ... the Frites Museum sounds worthy of a pilgrimage to me!!

[Anonymous]

Day trip from Paris to Normandy. Take the train and book a tour.

[Anonymous]

My family did a couple week tour of Normandy and the Loire valley when I was 12. I didn't know any French and still enjoyed a number of the places that we went and I definitely remember that there were a lot of places that had English translations available and that was decades ago. I enjoyed seeing some of the small towns and I definitely have great memories of Mt St Michel, the Bayeaux tapestry and the chateaux. Giverny was also fantastic.