Experts Advice

I have great respect for the experts on this forum and value your input. Traveling to Paris with my eleven-year-old niece and sixteen year-old-nephew. We arrive in Paris on August 3, 2005 at 1600 from London. We will be staying at Le Bristol. Leaving Paris on August the 8, 2005. We live in Florida and this will be my niece and nephew first trip in Paris.

I want to hire private guide(s) that will take the three of us on a variety of tours. The guide would pick us up at the Bristol. Transportation could be by Metro, cab or guide/driver. I am completely flexible on the tours duration, the sites or their order. Tours could be morning or afternoon or could be a morning walk with an afternoon museum visit. Some of the ideas I have are as follows:

Trip One:

Norte Dame, Ile de la Cite, Ile St-Louis.

The streets around boulevard St. Germain, rue de Buci, Sainte-Chapelle, Musee de Cluny and the Jardin du Luxembourg.

Trip Two:

Day at the Louvre

Evening trip to Montmartre and Sacre-Coeur.

Trip Three:

Versailles (Saturday, August 6, 2005)

Arrive in the morning @ 9:00, Tour the Palace, the gardens, go for a boat and bike ride.

Trip Four:

Arc de Triumphe, Eiffel Tower, Hotel des Invalides, Musee d��� Orsay, Musee Rodin. Place de la Concorde. I think we could come back to the Eiffel Tower an evening after dinner to go to the top and explore the.

I have set dinner reservations each night, experts thoughts? Wednesday, Jean_Georges��� Market, Thursday dinner at Music-Hall, Friday dinner at the Summer Restaurant Le Bristol, Saturday dinner at Dominique Bouchet, Sunday dinner at Summer Restaurant Le Bristol.

Thank You

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Whilst I%26#39;m not one of the %26quot;experts%26quot;, I%26#39;d say that your days look pretty well planned. There%26#39;s a website …compuserve.com/homepages/pariswalking/ which may be helpful for some of your days. There%26#39;s heaps of guided walks/tours - just google and you%26#39;ll find them no worries.

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Were the kids consulted as to what they might want to do on this trip?

I don%26#39;t know your nephew and niece but six museums in four days would be a lot for most adults, IMO. For an 11 year-old???

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My daughter was 11 the first time I took her to Paris. I have learned that the following advice (given to me) is wise: looking at a lot of things in a museum does not work well for most kids. Looking at a small number of %26quot;big%26quot; famous pieces of art, etc. seems to work much better. Better yet, if either your nephew or niece is about to study some period in history or has just done so, then -- my suggestion -- focus on that in the Louvre. Example of narrowing focus: When we were in Egypt several years ago, our guide complained constantly about the antiquities that the Brits and French mostly (he rarely mentioned the University of Chicago Egyptologists) carted off to their countries. The next time my daughter and I were in Paris, we went to the Louvre solely to check out whether our guide was right. Again my opinion, kids need down time. Your trip sounds over-programmed. Guides talk all the time. Kids get tired of listening. Rather than eat nightly at fine restaurants, you might try walking over to the Avenue St Germain (left bank). Just beyond the Odeon metro stop on the River side of the street is a small street called rue de la Seine. Take a right, wander down to rue de buci. You mentioned it. In that neighborhood (small narrow streets mostly closed to cars), you will see small restaurants that serve things like fondue and crepes--both of which my daughter was very interested in trying. Many kids, including mine, do better kind of %26quot;grazing%26quot; all day (eating little amounts--frequently), rather than sitting down for long slow meals. Because it is vacation, I pretty much let her eat what she wants rather than what is good for her. I let my daughter navigate in the metro--many good laughs when we have gone the wrong way. Bottom line: there is a limit to what kids will absorb happily.

Bon voyage.

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I%26#39;ll do it...

You can look at my posts to get to know who I am. I am not a travel guide, do not advertise anything on this sight and never intend to make a living as such.

I study Frech lit and civilisation and have written a Paris guidebook for adolescents (not yet published) so I have pretty good ideas for what is out there and what gets kids attention.

I think it is great that you are taking your niece and nephew on this adventure!

You can email me if you are interested :sabesphoto@yahoo.com

As for dinners... you may want to skip the Summer restaurant one night and go for something that is fun, I%26#39;d recommend La Coupole, Le Train Bleu, or l%26#39;Atelier de Joel Robouchon. Or perhaps leave it open for a place that you may discover together on your travels.

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I%26#39;m not sure where I read this suggestion (could even be here) for kids at museums. They suggested going to the gift shop first and buying postcards of the pictures etc that you want to see. That way it becomes an adventure for the kids as they find the real items. Just a thought

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In le Louvre, the gift shop (pretty big and good by the way) sells some books in English that are mystery short and well illustrated novels, that can be solved only by taking the clues in the museum. Very funny and really efficient, so the kids can play the detective while visiting the museum. Much more efficient than a classical art guide to read : )

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We lucked into a great private tour company called Paris Photo Tours. First, we took their Da Vinci Code half-day tour, very reasonably priced, liked it so much we ended up booking 2 more: Literary Paris (Existentialism) and Gastronomy. www.parisphototours.com

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I am by no means an expert, but I think you could do a lot of this yourselves with the aid of a guidebook and map which would give you a lot more freedom to depart from your original plans if you feel tired, want a break, etc.

Whilst it is a good idea to know what you want to see, and the way you have grouped sites shows you have already studied the location, I think it could be a mistake to stick too rigidly to a plan.

Trying to do all this could be rather overwhelming for your nephew and niece.

I think your Day1 looks good and is an ideal one to do un-guided.

Maybe a guide is a good idea for the evening visit to Montmartre area.

Leave some time free for just savouring the atmosphere, picnic in the Champ de Mars or Jardin du Luxembourg. And maybe not book restaurants every evening, leave one or two free?

I%26#39;m not an expert, just a Mum who recently took my teenage daughter for her first visit to Paris.

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Having visited Paris as a 10 yr old and as a 13 yr old, ( then serveral more times as an adult) and now going with my own 14 yr old son, I think your schedule is too full and %26quot; set%26quot;!!

I remember gettting sick of the %26quot; forced sight seeing march%26quot; and just wanting to relax and wander around abit.

The one thing I do strongly recommend is getting a private tour guide for the Louvre. My grandmother hired one for me when I was 13 , and I am sure it was exspensive, but it make that visit to that museum unforgettable!

The bike ride in Versailles is a great idea.

I also concur that reservations for dinner each night leave you will no experiment room, plus if it is hot, the kids may just want a lighter supper, crepes, etc.

You sound like you really want the kids to enjoy themselves, don%26#39;t worry so much about scheduling each moment, they will be in PARIS with you, that will be fun.

My fourteen yr old son has insisited we go on the %26quot; Sewer Tour%26quot; and visit the The Catacombs. Oh well, not my choice but he%26#39;ll do the museum %26quot; stuff%26quot; for me if I do %26quot; sewer%26quot; stuff for him! LOL

Get the kids ideas for things they%26#39;d like to see , getting them doing their own research will make the trip more interesting.

Please report back and let us know how the trip went !!!

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In April I took my 16 and 12 year old granddaughters to Paris. For our first full day there, we spent the day with Michael Osman. I can not say enough good things about him. He was a great tour guide. On our way home when I asked the girls about their favorite parts of the trip, the day spent touring with Michael was the top of the list. I had considered making dinner reservations ahead of time and decided not to. I was very glad I hadn%26#39;t because each day found us enjoying activities that we might not necessarily have wanted to stop in order to go sit in a restaurant. Having a hot dog and pommes frites from a food stand while we watched the Eiffel Tower twinkle in the moonlit sky was a memorable meal that no restaurant could duplicate. Whatever you do, I am sure you will have a wonderful time.