I’ve received a lot of questions about spring break trip to France, One of my friends had an amazing time in Paris with their kids so I take some information from them. I thought a blog post would be the most helpful.

they were in France April 7th through 15th. They spent four nights in Paris and four nights in Colmar. Their girls are 8 and 10 years old. This is their second trip to Europe with kids. they spent 2 weeks in Italy when they were 4 and 6 years old.

In this post I will share packing tips, Paris recommendations when you have young children, and tips for quickly transitioning your children to a different time zone.

PACKING FOR PARIS (PARTICULARLY IN APRIL)

First, I recommend one suitcase and one small carry on (like a backpack) for each family member. This is what they did for both two weeks in Italy and for 9 days in France. When you have kids, too much luggage makes navigating the airport and moving between cities much more challenging. they took each a large away suitcase and they packed each of the girls in a rolling carryon suitcase (that they checked). By packing them in carryon size suitcases, they were able to roll their own suitcase or they could easily pull their own, plus kids. This made getting through the airport and train station much easier.

I have to brag a bit – They absolutely nailed packing for Paris/France in April. They did a good amount of research and in the end they had everything they needed and nothing they didn’t use. Here’s their Paris / France packing list for April:

A pair of tennis shoes – their girls wore their Asics and they wore their allbird tree runners. I swear by Allbirds for walking around cities.

A pair of flats they could wear to dinner and comfortably walk all over the city in. I have loved Rothy’s for years and decided to get their girls each a pair before this trip. Because it’s often rainy and chilly in April.

Since spring is rainy in Paris, they each had a rain coat and they took two umbrellas.

they also each took a spring jacket (the girls are wearing theirs in the picture above) and I had a few lightweight scarves that we definitely used on cooler mornings.

As far as clothes, for their 9 day trip they each had 4 pairs of pants, a casual top for each day, 2 sweaters for layering, 2 dresses for dinners, a couple nicer tops for dinners, 2 pairs of pajamas, and their swim suits (their Paris hotel had an indoor pool). they wore layers each day – top, sweater, and jacket or rain coat. they carried their Away backpack packed with umbrellas, scarves, and a few protein bars and chomps sticks. Then they put layers we they off in there during the day.

They purchased this crossbody bag (oversized) and loved using it as their daily purse. It held my wallet, phone charger pack, and their little pouch that held bandaids, hand sanitizer, Kleenex, lipgloss, and earbuds.

Other items they highly recommend using/packing:

Kid travel journal-Their 8 year old wrote in it every night at dinner and the game pages also kept them entertained at dinners.

Bag trackers – They put one of these in each of our checked bags.

Portable phone charger – they came in handy multiple times.

European plug adapter– They actually took one that didn’t have a voltage converter and it was fine for phones, but fried their hair straightener … so make sure you get one that converts like the one they use.

Great kids travel pillow– this fit in their backpacks easily and we they put their toddler pillows in their backpacks and they used them on the plane and at the hotel.

Their girls didn’t need these for this trip, but when they went to Italy, we used these vests instead of boosters or carseats and they are awesome and super easy to pack.

FAMILY FRIENDLY PARIS RECOMMENDATIONS.

Paris pocket book is awesome. It helped them plan the trip and they carried it with them every day. On the first afternoon they were in Paris, they did Rick Steve’s walking tour that is in this book and they highly recommend it. They downloaded his audio version and just listened to it on their phone as they walked the tour.

There are a lot of river cruise options, but if you have kids they highly recommend booking Vedettes-De-Paris families in Paris river cruise. It allowed us to choose a time (11am), it was a great length, and the guide did a nice job balancing interesting info for adults and kids. Plus, the kids got crepes and the adults got champagne!

They talked to several people who told them to skip the Louvre with kids and instead visit Musee D’Orsay. They can’t compare their experience to the Louvre, but they would highly recommend Musee d’Orsay. It’s very manageable to walk through the entire museum with kids. They downloaded Rick Steve’s tour for this as well. They each put one earbud in and followed his tour which was great and not too much for the kids.

You should absolutely visit The Basilica of Sacre-Coeur de Montmartre. Walk through the church and pay the small fee to walk the 290+ steps up to the dome. Then, be sure to exit towards the shopping square. They met lovely artists and had their girls’ portraits sketched. After spending time in the artist square they walked down to a charming area with shops and restaurants on Rue Des Abbesses .

LET’S TALK ABOUT FOOD.

They ate plenty of good food (really only ate at one bad tourist trap), but four spots I think are truly worth mentioning.

L’Atelier Rouliere was delicious and the service was fantastic.

La Chalet deslles is a charming lunch location. You take a boat across the pond to get to it and the food was great.

Angelina Paris is definitely a tourist spot and they stood in a long line, BUT the line moved much faster than they ever would have anticipated, the hot chocolate was truly amazing, and the pastries were fabulous. The brunch/breakfast dishes they ordered were all good and the kids just loved this place.

Laduree has the most amazing macarons they’ve ever tasted. I am not actually a huge macarons fan, but they’ve been craving these ever since they popped in this place.

QUICK TIPS FOR SHIFTING YOUR CHILD’S SLEEP SCHEDULE.

When heading to Paris from the United States, most people fly overnight and arrive in Paris in the morning. This is ideal. Those of them on the east coast typically leave around 6:30/7 P.M. If that’s your situation, plan to feed your children dinner before you board the plane and then try to get them to fall asleep as soon as possible. When they flew to Italy when the girls were 4 and 6 years old they had both girls asleep before dinner was served and then they made their mom wake them to land. It was amazing. Now that their girls are a bit older, it was actually a bit harder. They took off at 6:30 P.M. and they think they were asleep between 8/8:30 P.M.

They landed in Paris at 8:30 A.M. (2:30 A.M back home) and they hit the ground running. They took a taxi into Paris (fixed rate so it’s an easy way to go), dropped their bags at the hotel, and headed straight out to lunch. Then they went right on their walking tour. they all caught a second wind after lunch. They ate dinner at 7 P.M. and then they all came back and collapsed into bed. They set an alarm to wake us up at 8:30 A.M. and they got outside to get natural sun exposure ASAP.

Those are the two key steps – power through that first day (spending time outside so you get lots of natural light exposure) and shoot for a normal-ish bedtime and then force yourself and your children to get up in the morning and get back outside. If you have children who no longer nap, this is the way to go.

If you have a napper, let them nap in their normal window when you arrive…. again, wake them at the time they would normally wake from a nap.

When they went to Italy, they did this same approach, but Ainsley (4 years old at the time) could NOT fall asleep at bedtime because her body thought it was afternoon. Her mom just laid with her in the dark hotel room from 8pm until she fell asleep at 1 A.M. and then her mom still woke her at 8:30 A.M. That next day she did take a stroller nap midday, but she didn’t let her sleep too long and she went to bed fine that second night and then was all set. If your child is having trouble falling asleep that first night, the key is keeping their body in the dark room and waking them in the morning to help shift their circadian rhythm.

There you have it – those are my friends Paris travel tips. I hope you found this helpful and I hope you have an amazing time exploring Paris with your kids.