We will be in Paris during Xmas week (kids too)- any great ideas for food, museums, day trips, cool neighborhoods to walk,etc?
Thanks!
Aw, come on now you guys! You must have SOMETHING for me! 
Specifically for Christmas or in Paris as a whole?
The two very cool things that I recommend that aren’t in many guide books are:
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touring the organ at San Sulpice after Sunday service and the recital
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visiting DEYROLLE which is a store/natural history museum where you could easily spend away your fortune on things you didn’t know you wanted until you went in the door. It is just 3 or 4 blocks south of the Louvre. Kids will absolutely blow their minds. I recommend letting them buying their own scarab beetle to show their friends.
Choral music!
Mrs Piper and I spent Christmas in Paris a few years ago, and one of things we did was take in as many choral events as we could. It seemed like every one of the major churches had some sort of choral events on: Notre Dame, of course, but also the Madeleine, St Germain de Prés, and so on. It was very high calibre and lots of fun.
Notre Dame had several different events in the week running up to Christmas. For example, a week before Christmas, they had a major choral event in the evening that was essentially a full dress rehearsal for the Christmas Midnight Mass. And then, there was the Christmas Midnight Mass itself. You had to be willing to go to Notre Dame around 8.30 or so to get chairs, and sit there until the service began after 11, but it was really worth it: plainsong, massed choirs, the organ, a sound & light show… and then, around 11.30, they opened the main portals onto the plaza and the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris came in to celebrate the Mass. The whole evening was one of the highlights of our stay. (And the Metro stayed open late that night, just to accommodate people who were out at the Midnight Masses, so easy to get back to our place).
Another thing that we really enjoyed was the outdoor markets. At various places around Paris, there were temporary Christmas markets - little huts and stalls set up to cater to the Christmas season. The one in the Montmartre area was one of the coziest, and there was also the one at St. Germaine which we enjoyed. The biggest one, though, was at the Grande Arche, way out at the end of the Metro. We spent an entire day there. Tremendous variety of goods and food for sale.
And then there were the street vendors for food: crepes, vin chaud (hot red wine with sugar and spices), chestnuts… just wandering around in the St Mich’ area was one of our favourites. The kids couldn’t have the vin chaud, of course, but the crepes and other street vendors food would probably be neat for them.
Oh, and for kids, there’s the old crypt under the plaza in front of Notre Dame - you go underground and see the archaelogical digs that they’ve done, going right back to the time of the Gauls and Franks and through the medieval period. I would think kids would find it a lot of fun.
There’s also the tours of Notre Dame, particularly going up the bell towers - but be prepared for long waits.
Same for the Eiffel Tower - waits could be an hour or two. We didn’t go up ourselves, but some friends were in Paris the year before, and they mentioned that that year, there was a small skating rink on one of the levels of the Eiffel tower. If the kids are prepared to wait, they might find skating way up high to be interesting.
For museums, there’s the orange museum pass that you can get nearly anywhere. One of the advantages of that pass is that it lets you skip to the head of lines for most of the museums and other sites it covers. (Not the Eiffel or Notre Dame towers, unfortunately.)
For the Louvre, the main entrance is now through the glass pyramids, which are neat, but there can be long lines. An easier, quicker way to get in is to take the Metro. If you get off at the the Louvre Metro stop, you can enter the main plaza directly, without having to go through the pyramids.
Père Lachaise Cemetary was one of the things we really enjoyed. Sounds a bit odd, but hunting for the graves of various famous people was a lot of fun on a sunny winter’s day. If you get the kids involved, sort of like a scavenger hunt, they might find it interesting.
Go find Jimmy Morrison at Pere Lachaise and possibly Oscar Wilde.
Paris is a beautiful city but is full of scammers and people willing to relieve you of your money. (speaking as a tourist).
If you go on one of those organized bus tours you may get a boat trip on the Seine. (The open top buses may be cold by now).
We often visit Paris
(what can I say? we live on the very south-east tip of England and it takes us 5 hours including tunnel crossing, free wtih Tesco vouchers and a stop for coffee and a wee! we are a lucky family)
One thing worth considering is the Paris Visite ticket. For various zones and various amounts of days it gives you unlimited metro, train and bus rides (including the MontMartre funicular) and also reduced admission to various attractions.
We particularly liked the Cite de Sciences and the Air and space museum.
Do your sums carefully, taking into account what activities you would realistically do anyway and how many metro rides you’d take and you might save yourself a good bit.
Fall in love! Enjoy.
And don’t step in the dog shit!
My kids are going to LOVE that! We have found similar shops/places in New York & elsewhere, and they were mesmerized- I mean, how many places can a kid buy a wolverine penis to take home? Or whatever that thing was… :smack:
Thanks you guys- we can’t wait!
how old are the kids, by the way? that might help with suggestions.
8 & 11, both boys, both seasoned world travelers who have been to Europe several times.
The catacombs?