The Eiffel Tower at dusk
Take the stairs to the second floor, then the lift to the top as the lights come on — the whole city glittering below.
Paris
Boulevards, bridges and the city of light
Best time
April – June & September – October
Gentle pace
4–6 slow days
Ideal for
City-break families · Art lovers · First-time France
Paris is a city that needs no introduction and still takes you by surprise — a place of grand boulevards and hidden squares, of riverbanks lined with bookstalls and cafés where the afternoon simply stops. It is walkable, well-organised and, despite its reputation, wonderfully gentle with children, who are folded into the pavement life as a matter of course.
With children, climb the Eiffel Tower at dusk, sail a wooden boat in the Tuileries, and spend a morning among the dinosaurs of the Jardin des Plantes. Keep the days loose, the snacks frequent, and let the city’s rhythm — a long lunch, a park, an evening stroll along the Seine — carry you.
Worth lingering over
The Tuileries & Luxembourg Gardens
Wooden sailboats to push across the pond, ponies to ride, and the best playgrounds in the city.
The Louvre, with a plan
Pick three things — the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Egyptian rooms — and leave before the children tire.
Hidden gem
The Coulée Verte and the Petite Ceinture
Most visitors never leave the grand boulevards, but Paris hides a pair of green ribbons for those who wander. The Coulée Verte — an old railway line turned elevated garden — runs for five kilometres from the Bastille to the Bois de Vincennes, a leafy walk above the rooftops. Better still, sections of the abandoned Petite Ceinture railway, threading quietly behind the streets of the 12th and 15th arrondissements, have been reopened as wild, flower-filled paths. Bring a picnic and you will have a secret Paris almost to yourselves.