Planning a trip to France

Hey there,

My name is Georgie and I%26#39;m 14 years old from Australia. My family (my brother, who will be 13 at the time of the trip and my parents) and I (I will be 15) will be going to Paris (along with Hong Kong and teh USA) at the end of the year, from December 28th to December 30th.

I was wondering if, apart from the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, there was any must-see destinations in Paris.

We will be staying in the Residence Hotel Foch (I always get the words in the wrong order :-P) in District 16.

Also, as I%26#39;ll be 15 at the time, I don%26#39;t really want to spend the WHOLE time with my parents. Is this unsafe? I know there%26#39;s some riot going on in France at the moment, but I%26#39;m assuming that they would have finished by December!

I can speak beginners French (I%26#39;ve been learning for 2 yrs) and have heard its best to try and speak it to waiters etc because its thought of as rude to speak only English. Only my accent is terrible and I frequently say the wrong thing (especially with the verb table, though I am getting better!). Is this true, and is there any other things that we should keep in mind?

Thanks,

Georgie

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Jorjee,

There%26#39;s lots to see in Paris besides the Louvre and la Tour Eiffel. You should look through some of the old threads on this forum to get some ideas. You could also buy a guidebook that has a youngish slant (eg, Lonely Planet. There are many museums that have things besides art. There%26#39;s even a museum for the city sewer system (you can take a smelly tour). Your brother will probably really like the Catacombes, where you can walk through miles of tunnels lined with artfully arranged bones of millions of long-dead Parisians.

Yes, you should try to use as much French as you can. The Parisians will appreciate your effort, and despite what you may have heard, 99.99 percent of them won%26#39;t make fun of you. If somebody does, then just figure they%26#39;re a jerk! People come to Paris from all over the world, and almost all of them have terrible accents. But then again, Parisians often think that other French people from the smaller cities and rural regions also have bad accents.

Paris is a remarkably safe city. If you%26#39;ve proven yourself to be trustworthy to your parents, as I suspect you have, then Paris would be a good city for you to explore a little on your own. Maybe you could work out a plan with your parents so you can have a cell phone and agree to check in with them at certain times.

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hi Georgie-

so you have 2 days in Paris, right?

I took my kids last year- they%26#39;re boys 12 and 16, and I can tell you about the stuff they really liked. We were there for a MONTH and didn%26#39;t see everything we wanted to see- so we%26#39;ll need to narrow your interests a bit for the folks in this forum to give you suggestions.

What do you want to see? are you interested in history? the Revolution? the Middle Ages? how about art? do you like ancient stuff, or Impressionism, or modern?

One very cool thing to do is take the Segway tour offered by Fat Tire Bike Tours. You can search that using Google or whatever and reserve it.

Anyway- give us more details about your interests and you will get a lot of input.

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Hi Georgie,

since you will only spend 2 days in Paris, you will be busy enough visiting the major sites. This would, in my opinion, mean to skip most big museums or attractions (louvre, Orsay, Versailles). A two day ticket with the open bus tour (yep might get cold...) will allow you to drive around the major sites and get on and off whenever you want to explore some neighbourhoods.

Being on your own is not really dangerous, a lot of kids do hang out in the afternoon or early evening, the only difference is that most of them are french and in their hometown. Besides a bit of shopping there is not really much you can do when you are 15 and on your own in a big city like Paris.

Major sites for first timers with limited time:

Notre Dame

Eiffel tower

Louvre (from the outside)

Montmartre

Arc de triomphe

Champs élysées

place des vosges

place de la concorde

Opera Garnier

Areas to walk around:

Le Marais

Bld Haussman(shopping)

Chatelet (shopping)

St Germain

St Michel

Montmartre

Extras

River Cruise after dark

open tour bus

Yes all this is very touristy but trying to put all this in two days will already be a challenge and you%26#39;ll get a pretty good sample of the city.

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Hi,

Thanks everyone for your advice... okay, things my brother and I like...

My brother is absolutely sports mad. Mainly soccer (football) and baseball.

I like fashion, shopping and a bit of sight-seeing. Lots of french history seems really interesting, just not a complete overload :) Also things that are really unique to Paris would be good! And of course- chocolate or food! My French teacher said there was a chocolate factory in France.

I%26#39;m not 100% sure what kind of things there are to do in Paris for someone my age, but I am so excited because all the brochures etc we%26#39;ve got on it sounds amazing!

Well, I hope this helps a little! Thanks for all your help so far, this is a great website! All of us (mum, dad, brother) have been looking on it, we were going to stay at one hotel until we read some pretty awful reviews and found that other hotel!

Georgie

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Georgie,

You will love Galleries Lafayette! And right close by is Printemps. Both stores have a fashion show, and it%26#39;s free!

http://departmentstoreparis.printemps.com/

http://tinyurl.com/mxzrt

Shows at Printemps are on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. on the 7th floor of Printemps de la Mode. Individuals don%26#39;t need to reserve.

You have to reserve for the fashion show at Galeries Lafayette, but you can do it online. Shows are on Fridays at 3PM in the %26quot;salon opéra%26quot;,on the 7th floor of the main store. %26quot;Booking date should be within one month from today.%26quot;

To reserve, send an e-mail to:

welcome@galerieslafayette.com

Have a great trip!

Sandy

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Hi Georgie -

You only have a couple of days, so like everybody says, you are going to have to be really selective about what you try to see or do.

I definitely think you should go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, but only if the weather is clear. if it%26#39;s foggy, there really isn%26#39;t any point in my opinion.

I agree that you should probably skip the Louvre. It%26#39;s absolutely enormous, and it could take your whole time when you are in Paris and you still wouldn%26#39;t have seen half of it. See if you can find a smaller museum that you would like and go there instead. The Cluny is really interesting. It has some fabulous medieval tapestries, and it%26#39;s in a cool building - one of the oldest in Paris.

There are a lot of museums that aren%26#39;t all about art too - like museums of science so if art isn%26#39;t your thing find another museum instead of the big, famous museums. You probably do want to see at least one of the good museums, if only because you might not want to be outside all the time, but therer are a lot - like more than a hundred - to choose from.

You should try to see the Sainte Chapelle and Notre Dame cathedral because they are very beautiful and because there is nothing like them in Australia.

The big department stores are great (Galeries Lafayette and Printemps) but there are a lot of trendy boutiques too. You%26#39;ll see tons of them around the center of Paris where you will probably be most of the time.

The l%26#39;Open Bus tour is a good idea because it takes you past all the main sights and you can hop on an doff. If you just sty on the bus for the whole tour it takes about 90 minutes. And the boat trip on the Seine is good too. I think your whole family would enjoy that.

You%26#39;re going to have a great trip - and you%26#39;re starting off right by asking all the right questions!