There are a lot of things to see and do in Paris, and to squeeze it in 1 and a half days, excluding Disneyland Paris, is not easy. We spent the first half day at the Eiffel tower, on a river cruise and on a Paris Illumination Tour. On our full day in Paris, we managed to see the major attractions like the Louvre, the Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees.
Getting around Paris
The most convenient and economical way to get around with kids is via a hop-on-hop-off bus tour. The tour stops at all the popular tourist attractions, and travellers can choose whether or not to alight. It beats having to figure out which trains or buses to take to get to the next destination. There are also informative multi-language commentaries via headphones that tell us more about the attractions we see along the way.
There are many hop-on-hop-off bus tours in Paris. The one we took is the Paris Grand Tour by L’Open tour. It covered Palais Royal, the Louvre (below), Notre Dame, Musee d’Orsay, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Trocadero, Eiffel Tower, Madeleine and many more.
Louvre
Our first stop was at the Louvre which is home to many famous artwork, the most famous being the Mona Lisa. We didn’t get tickets to the Louvre as the queue to purchase the tickets were extremely long. You would need one full day just to wait in line and explore the entire museum, or you could pay extra to skip the queue.
Notre Dame
Our next stop was Notre Dame, which was one of the largest and most famous church buildings in the world. It has one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Entrance to the Notre Dame was free.
The garden just outside of the Notre Dame was a good place to sit down and take a break before continuing to the next destination.
Champs Elysees
Champs Elysees is one of the most famous streets in Paris. It joins to the Arc de Triomphe. There are many luxury shops, eating establishments and hotels along the street.
Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe is another famous monument in Paris. It was built between 1806 and 1836 in honour of those who fought for France.
An Evening in Paris
Even though we took the Paris Illumination Tour the day before, we could not take any good pictures because of the windows on the minivan and because the vehicle was moving most of the time. We decided to explore some of the sights in the evening on foot.
The Arc de Triomphe looked stunning in the evening when the lights are on.
The Eiffel Tower was equally stunning in the evening especially when it twinkles on the hour every hour.
NEXT DAY: Paris Disneyland
The trip to Paris was part of our 10-day Switzerland and Paris adventures which included the medieval city of Bern, a scenic train ride to Zermatt, climbing up Matterhorn and Jungfraujoch, and a fabulous alpine view at Murren and Lauterbrunnen. You may also like to see how we plan a family vacation to Switzerland and Paris.
