Activities With Kids In Paris At Christmas

Have Fun for a Couple of Days with Kids at Christmas

Traveling with four children at Christmas sounds challenging. One of my readers is doing that. So I offered the following suggestions.

If you, my readers, have additional information, please share it with me and I will pass it on.

First, visit my Colleen’s Paris Web site for a list of activities available all year round.

Depending on the ages, the marionettes/guignols/puppets are sometimes in heated halls.

Check the Web site for l’Officiel des spectacles and click on “enfants” for the latest activities. Use Google Translate for their Web site. Buy their weekly, small format magazine for 35 cents. I have done a basic translation of  l’Officiel des spectacles‘s highlights.

What about puppet shows, marionettes or guignols – some are indoors (Luxembourg Gardens).

If it is cold, how about the Natural History Museum, the old paleontology one. There are actually nine different parts to this museum, including a zoo, hot houses and an insect museum.

If it is not slippery, walk up a couple of flights of the Eiffel Tower and look for a magazine called “Gus”.
Buy your tickets ahead of time on line.
They have the 58 Tour Eiffel Restaurant (picnic basket even!) or the buffet.

There is ice skating in Paris – at Trocadero across from the Eiffel Tower; and at the Hotel de Ville (Paris city hall).

FREE merry-go-round rides between the second Saturday in December and January 2.

A large Christmas market is going on along the Champs Elysées. Keep tabs on the latest Paris Christmas information with Paris Tourist Office.

Watch the video about the Manège Carré merry-go-round. Read more about “le Manège Carré Senart” (Use Google Translate) Ticket information for the merry-go-round  at 104 Cent Quatre (4 euros)
Directions to 104 on metro lines 2, 5 and 7 for the merry-go-round.
Thanks to Camille’s Baby’tems Blog for the idea.

Be sure to visit a Paris food market. They are colorful. The larges is the Bastille/Richard Lenoir market. On Thursday is half the size of the Sunday market. Or, you may have a market along the street where you are staying. One example in the south is in the 13th arrondissement:

Marché Auguste-Blanqui.
Boulevard Blanqui between Place d’Italie and rue Barr
7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday and Sunday
Métro : Corvisart, Place d’Italie

Consider visiting a Paris flea market for your souvenirs or the perfect decorative arts for your home or kids room. I personally prefer the Puces de la Porte de Vanves. This is a video of my niece and her friend and my nephew when they visited Paris and the girls and I visited the Vanves flea market.

Or you can find Paris-themed Christmas ornaments.

Note: For return visitors, the magic show, Metamorphosis, in Paris is no longer. They have opened a magic museum in Barfleur – Normandy.

On a transformed barge along the Seine with Notre-Dame as a backdrop, Metamorphosis, was a magic show. You can eat on board. Use Google Translate to read the French pages of Metamorphosis.

In the video you will notice that we took a tour of the Paris Sewers (des Égouts). It is a must do in Paris with kids as are the catacombs. The Paris city museums, which include the Carnavalet (Paris history) and Petit Palais, are generally free for permanent exhibits.

Click around the Paris mayor’s office (Mairie de Paris) for more ideas on visiting Paris.

This is probably 1/3 of the iceberg of things to do. Let me know what you find exciting for children in Paris!

A Day with Children in Paris

Blue Velvet Christmas in Paris