Paris with Kids: It Really is Everything They Say
Written by Brittany Britten, Founder of Mimu & Me, with input from Dr. Calli Studebaker our amazing pediatric occupational therapist!
If you're dreaming of Paris but wondering whether it's worth tackling with young kids, let me reassure you: it absolutely is.
Before our trip, I worried that Paris might feel too busy, too crowded, or too focused on museums and sightseeing to truly enjoy as a family. But what we found was a city full of little moments that felt surprisingly magical through our children's eyes.
Yes, there are iconic landmarks. The Eiffel Tower really is as impressive as everyone says. The pastries are every bit as delicious. And seeing the city sparkle at night feels like stepping into a movie.
But what I remember most are the simple moments. Sharing a crêpe in a park. Watching our kids race toward a carousel. Wandering charming streets with no agenda other than seeing where they led. Taking breaks at playgrounds. Sitting at cafés while our children coloured and snacked beside us.
Paris isn't a destination you need to "survive" with kids; it can be genuinely enjoyable with kids.
This guide includes our favourite family-friendly activities, practical tips that made our trip easier, and a few things I wish I'd known before we arrived. My hope is that it helps you feel a little more confident planning your own Paris adventure and reminds you that you don't have to wait until your children are older to experience incredible places together.
Note from Brittany: This guide is everything I wish someone had told me before our first trip. The places we loved, the restaurants our kids actually sat through, the hard moments we didn’t see coming, and the strategies that genuinely helped. I’m a travel agent, a former teacher, and a mom who has taken her kids to multiple countries. I built Mimu & Me because I couldn’t find tools that actually helped kids cope with big feelings on the go and not just distract them from those feelings.
Before You Go
Things That Made Paris Easier With Kids
Things to Do Before Your Trip
- Book the big things early: Eiffel Tower, Seine cruise, and any must-do restaurants.
- Download an offline map and save a few playgrounds, cafés, and restaurants near your hotel.
- Talk through the “hard parts” before you go: airport security, passport lines, elevators, jet lag.
- Plan one anchor activity per day, not five.
- Make a loose food plan for tired moments.
Things I'd Pack (or Buy Before You Go):
- Lightweight stroller, even if your child barely uses one at home.
- Familiar snacks with protein.
- Small activities for lines, cafés, and airport waits.
- Portable charger.
- Comfortable shoes for everyone.
Bonus Tip from Dr. Calli: When you travel, you often have long lines so regulation tools are important.
Pack snacks with protein, a small fidget, sticker books, and even ice water. Playing I-spy, having something to look forward to when they are done waiting, and positive affirmations "I love how patient you are being," "I love how your body is keeping to itself," or "My body feels tired too" are helpful to practice before you go.
Preparing Your Child
The trip goes better when Paris isn’t a surprise. This sounds obvious, but most travel preparation with kids focuses on logistics: what to pack, where to stay, which museums to book. Emotional preparation is different. It’s about making sure the hard moments don’t arrive as surprises.
Before Paris, talk through:
- Airport security: bags on the belt, bodies through the scanner, beeps are normal.
- Passport control: the line may be long, and that doesn’t mean anything is wrong.
- The Eiffel Tower: big crowds, scanners, small elevators, big views.
- Jet lag: their body clock may feel confused, and that’s not their fault.
OT Tip from Dr. Calli: Preparation is regulation. Rehearsing new experiences through play, books, visuals, or pretend scenarios helps children build familiarity before the real event happens. The brain perceives predictable experiences as safer experiences.
For many children, especially those who are sensitive, anxious, or highly routine-oriented, previewing what to expect lowers stress significantly. It allows children to mentally practice transitions, sensory experiences, and sequences ahead of time, which can improve flexibility and reduce emotional overwhelm during the actual experience.
Sometimes the most powerful regulation strategy is simply helping a child feel prepared.
Books to Read Before You Go
We LOVE to read books about places we are visiting. It's another great way to help your child feel prepared, but it also builds excitement!
The Kids Who Travel the World: Paris — Read this one first. It builds genuine excitement for what’s coming and gives kids a framework for the adventure ahead. Pairs with Lila the Fox: pure curiosity and the joy of discovering somewhere new.
Babar’s Guide to Paris — The classic preparation book. Babar knows Paris and now your child will too — the landmarks, the neighbourhoods, what to expect. Pairs with Ollie the Owl: calm, prepared, the one who’s been before and knows it’s going to be wonderful.
Mishi & Mashi Go to France — For the child who is uncertain about the newness of it all. Navigating somewhere unfamiliar, feeling wobbly, and finding your footing anyway. Pairs with Hazel the Hedgehog — this one is specifically for your Hazel child.
Lily & Baa in Paris — For the child who is already so excited they can barely sit still. Meets that energy and channels it beautifully into the adventure. Pairs with Pip the Squirrel, obviously!
Download your free Paris Activity Book before you leave! Includes a CDG airport bingo, simple French phrases your kids will actually use (bonjour, merci, s’il vous plaît, un croissant s’il vous plaît), a pre-trip drawing and question page, and a Calm Crew Paris coloring page.
Getting There: The Airport, The Flight, and Arriving in One Piece
Getting to Paris with young kids is very doable, but it helps to go in with realistic expectations.
Most direct flights from Canadian cities like Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax arrive in Paris late morning or early afternoon. In theory, this is great. You land with a full day ahead of you. In practice, everyone may also be tired, disoriented, hungry, and operating on very little sleep.
Both can be true.
The Flight
The overnight flight is its own kind of parenting math. You hope they’ll sleep. They might sleep two hours. They might sleep none. Going in prepared for either scenario is far more helpful than assuming the plane will magically do the work for you.
This is where having a small calm kit or activity bag makes such a difference. Not because it guarantees a perfect flight, but because it gives your child something familiar to reach for when they’ve watched everything, touched everything, eaten everything, and still have hours to go.
For us, that looked like the System Bag open on the tray table, visual routine cards showing what came next, Calm Links for busy hands, and a waiting card ready for delays, queues, or the moment everyone was simply done.
Arriving at CDG
Passport control at Charles de Gaulle can be hard with tired children. On our last trip, the line was long, everyone was exhausted, and nobody was their best self.
If you’re travelling with kids, prepare them for this part before you go. Let them know there may be a long line after the flight, and that waiting does not mean something has gone wrong.
A simple script might be:
“We landed in France. Now we have to wait in a line so someone can check our passports. It might take a while, and then we’ll get our bags and go to the hotel.”
If you’re a solo parent travelling internationally, prepare a notarized permission letter from your partner just in case. It may not be checked every time, but it’s worth having.
Arrival Day: Do Less Than You Think You Should
Here’s the honest truth about arrival day: don’t try to do Paris.
Just try to do the neighbourhood.
We arrived, checked in, and walked to Luxembourg Gardens. Not the Eiffel Tower. Not a museum. A playground, fifteen minutes from the hotel, where our kids could run in circles and we could sit on a bench and feel the city around us without having to perform enjoyment of it.
That was the right call.
Do less than you think you should on day one. Find a playground. Get snacks. Walk a little. Let everyone’s body catch up.
The city will still be there tomorrow.
Booking Tip: Check out DayTrip for your transportation from/to the airport. As a travel agent I use them for all of my clients. English-speaking drivers who meet you in the airport and provide car seats free of charge.
Bonus Tip from Dr. Calli: Waiting in crowded spaces like airports is incredibly demanding for young nervous systems. Children are being asked to stand still, tolerate noise, manage excitement, stay close to their adults, and cope with uncertainty all at once.
That’s a lot.
Sensory tools can help because they give the body organized input during dysregulating moments. Pulling, squeezing, chewing, pushing, and fidgeting can all help children stay more regulated while they wait.
It also helps to avoid vague time language like “soon” or “almost there” if the wait may still be long. Try concrete language instead:
“We still have a lot of waiting left. Then we’ll show our passports. Then we’ll get our bags. Then we’ll go to the hotel.”
Family-Friendly Picks for Where to Stay
We’d Actually Book These Again!
Paris hotel rooms are small. This is not a rumour.
Planning for that ahead of time makes a huge difference, especially with young kids who need space to decompress at the end of a long day.
For families, we love the 5th and 6th arrondissements. You’re close to Luxembourg Gardens, walkable to a surprising amount, and slightly removed from the most intense tourist areas.
Hôtel des Mines
Best for: Families who want a quieter, practical base near Luxembourg Gardens.
Why we liked it: It’s in a genuinely calmer pocket of the 5th, close enough to walk to the gardens, and they accommodate families well. Rooms that fit four, cots and cribs available on request, and warm service that really stood out. At Easter, they gave our kids little treats without being asked, which is a small thing that made a real impression.
Know before you go: Ask about cot or crib availability when you book, not when you arrive. They were also able to store our luggage and stroller, which made a big difference.
Hôtel Louis II
Best for: Families who want more space and are comfortable spending a little more.
Why we liked it: The suite was spacious, the location was excellent, and the extra room mattered enormously at the end of long sightseeing days. When you have small children, a bit of space to reset is not a luxury. It changes the whole rhythm of the trip.
Know before you go: It’s a step up in price from Hôtel des Mines, but if the budget allows, the suite configuration is worth considering.
Hôtel des Grandes Écoles
Best for: Families who want charm, a courtyard garden, and a quieter Paris feel.
Why it’s on our list: It has family rooms, a hidden garden, and the kind of reputation that makes it sell out quickly. It was already booked when I tried to reserve it for our last trip, and I’m still thinking about it.
Know before you go: Book this one the moment your dates are confirmed.
Note from Brittany: Confirm whether the lift reaches your floor before you arrive. Many Paris buildings have charming old lifts that may stop one floor short of certain rooms. And if the hotel will store your stroller at reception, let them. Your back will thank you by day three.
Booking Tip: Hôtel des Mines, and many other hotels, will store your luggage when you check out before a day trip (we left ours here for a Saint-Malo overnight and it was perfectly handled), and they’ll keep your stroller at reception so you don’t have to haul it to your room. The metro connection is easy and getting to the Eiffel Tower or Trocadéro area and back was straightforward.
Get Outside: Parks, Playgrounds, and Room to Run
Paris is better outdoors than most people expect.
The parks are beautiful, the playgrounds are genuinely good, and some of our favourite memories came from simply letting our kids run, climb, wander, and notice things. Budget more time for outdoor breaks than you think you’ll need.
Luxembourg Gardens
Best for: Your first full day, jet lag recovery, and the picnic you’ll talk about forever.
This is our favourite place in Paris with kids. Full stop.
The paid playground is excellent and worth the small entry fee, but the real magic is the model sailboat pond. For a few euros, you rent a wooden sailboat and a stick, and your child spends the next half hour nudging it across the water and losing their mind with joy every time the wind catches it.
There’s also an old-fashioned carousel, a puppet theatre, plenty of chairs, and space to let the day unfold slowly.
Jardin de Tuilieries
Best for: A sightseeing reset near major attractions.
This is one of our favourite places to spend an hour or two in Paris. In winter, you’ll find a Christmas market with rides, and in summer, there’s a carnival.
The northwestern corner has an excellent playground for climbing, plus a carousel and trampolines. Bring euros, bring snacks, and let this be the place where everyone stops trying so hard for a bit.
Square Paul Langevin
Best for: A quiet playground-and-coffee morning.
This one barely makes the tourist maps, which is exactly why we loved it. There’s a good neighbourhood playground, Noir coffee directly across the street, a bakery nearby for croissants and picnic supplies, and Flor de Café close by for lunch.
We stumbled into this area one December and stayed for two hours, then I brought the kids back in April and it was bursting with cherry blossoms! That’s Paris working exactly as it should.
Palais Royal
Best for: Free play, beautiful photos, and a low-effort stop that still feels special.
Let them run.
The striped columns are irresistible for kids. They’ll jump between them, climb on them, hide behind them, and turn the whole place into a game without you needing to plan a thing.
Go in the late afternoon if you can. The light is beautiful.
Centr’Halles Park, Les Halles
Best for: Burning energy in the middle of a sightseeing day.
There are two playground areas here: a paid area for older kids and a free climbing playground for younger kids. Our kids loved the free area, and it was exactly what we needed between more structured stops.
Plenty of dining options nearby, too!
Saint-Séverin Church Playground
Best for: A tiny Paris discovery that feels almost too good to be true (for younger kids).
The little playground beside the church has tiny free scooters, which our kids loved. The church itself is also stunning and free to enter, so you can pop in for five quiet minutes, look up, and then let the kids scoot outside.
This is the kind of afternoon Paris gives you when you stop trying to see everything.
OT Tip from Dr. Calli: Children often seek sensory input when their nervous systems are overloaded, under-stimulated, tired, or trying to stay organized in stressful environments. Resistance-based tools provide proprioceptive input — the type of sensory input that helps the body feel grounded, calm, and more regulated.
This is why pulling, stretching, squeezing, climbing, pushing, or carrying heavy objects can be so organizing for children. During travel, where movement is restricted and sensory demands are high, small regulation tools can make a surprisingly big difference in helping children maintain emotional balance.
Where to Eat: Restaurants Our Kids Actually Sat Through
Paris dining with small children requires two things: realistic expectations and snacks in your bag for the gap between ordering and food arriving.
Everything else is manageable.
These are the places we’ve actually been with kids and would happily go back to.
Francette
Best for: Eiffel Tower views without standing in another crowd.
This was our favourite dinner of the trip and the restaurant I recommend to every family going to Paris. The rooftop terrace has a direct Eiffel Tower view, so book a table there as soon as your dates are confirmed.
We were rained out and had to eat inside, but the staff were genuinely gracious. They still let us have drinks on the terrace while we waited, so we got our golden-hour Eiffel Tower moment before heading inside for dinner.
Tip: Book early. Book the terrace. This one fills up.
Les Fondus de la Raclette Paris
Best for: A fun, interactive dinner kids will actually care about.
This was the dinner our kids and my parents still talk about. It’s an Alps-themed restaurant with electric raclettes built into the tables, so you melt your own cheese, cook your own meat, and build your own little meal right in front of you.
The kids were completely absorbed.
Nobody had a meltdown. Everyone ate. It’s not fancy, but it is genuinely one of the most fun dinners we’ve had anywhere.
Also consider: Pain Vin Fromages in Le Marais for a similar experience.
Les Patios
Best for: A beautiful, relaxed patio dinner that feels very Paris.
I’m always drawn to the quintessential Parisian patio: an awning, bistro chairs turned outwards, people-watching built into the whole experience. This little restaurant, tucked into a square with views of Chapelle Saint-Ursule de la Sorbonne, completely drew me in.
The kids played in the courtyard while we had happy hour drinks outside in the evening air. I had the best chicken cordon bleu I’ve eaten anywhere in my life. We ordered another drink because nobody wanted to leave.
A. Lacroix Patisserie
Best for: A mid-afternoon pause with a Notre Dame view.
Order something beautiful, rest your feet, and let the kids watch the cathedral while you drink your coffee. It’s a perfect twenty-minute reset when everyone needs to stop moving.
Bouillon Racine
Best for: A beautiful room that makes dinner feel special without being too precious.
The Art Nouveau interior is stunning and genuinely worth visiting for the room alone. The food is good, the pricing is reasonable for the setting, and kids will look up at the ceiling and forget to complain about waiting.
Brasserie des Prés
Best for: A relaxed patio drink or early evening reset.
This is a reliable option on the cutest tucked away street when you want the atmosphere of eating outside in Paris without making the meal feel too intense. It’s good for decompressing at the end of a long day.
Know before you go: Dinner service starts at 7:00 PM, so this may work better for lunch, drinks, or a late afternoon stop.
Coffee for Parents Who Need It (Like Me) The Coffee and Noir are both excellent. Order the nutty latte at The Coffee. Trust me completely.
The Noir location across from Square Paul Langevin is especially well-positioned for a playground-and-coffee morning, which is honestly one of the best combinations in family travel.
Terres de Cafe Saint-Germain-des-Pres is a hidden gem that changes their roasts daily and truly serve amazing coffee!
The Big One: The Eiffel Tower with Kids
Go. But go prepared, because this is one of the highest sensory-load experiences Paris offers.
We’ve visited in December, late March, and summer, and each season feels different. December was the easiest for tickets and the coldest at the top. Late March felt like the sweet spot. Summer is beautiful, but busier and hotter.
Getting Tickets
Book as early as you can (60 days ahead). If you want the summit, you’ll need to be especially organized in peak season.
If summit tickets are difficult to get, don’t panic. The second floor is still an incredible experience with kids and often gives you more flexibility.
If you miss the booking window entirely, skip-the-line options through tour operators may be worth the extra cost when you’re travelling with small children.
The Security Queue
There are security scanners to enter the Eiffel Tower grounds, not just to go up the tower.
Prepare your child for this separately from airport security. Bags go through a scanner, bodies go through a scanner, and there may be a line. Same process, new context.
Tell them before you arrive.
The Elevator
The elevator is small, glass-sided, full of strangers, and moving.
For children who are sensitive to enclosed spaces, heights, or crowds, this may be the hardest part. Talk about it ahead of time. Show them videos if that helps. Give them a simple job, like holding the ticket, spotting the Seine, or counting elevators.
A job gives kids something to focus on when the experience feels big.
At the Top
The summit gets crowded, and somehow children are much better than adults at wiggling their way to the railing.
Pack an extra layer in winter. Expect heat and crowds in summer. And once you’re up there, slow down enough to let them take it in.
The view really does live up to the hype, and your children will know it even if they can’t explain it yet.
If you child doesn't enjoy large crowds, heights, or small spaces, prepare them ahead of time. Show videos. Talk through each step. Sometimes knowing “it might feel squishy and loud for a few minutes” is enough to reduce fear. Giving kids a simple job - holding the ticket, spotting the Seine, counting elevators - can also help them feel grounded and involved.
The Sparkle: The Best Free Thing in Paris The best Eiffel Tower moment with kids is completely free.
Find a spot with a clear view at dusk and wait for the sparkle. In December, we watched it from the Christmas market at the base with truffle fondue, mulled wine, and two completely transfixed kids. In late March, it happened around bedtime. In summer, it may be too late for younger children, but even a glimpse from a restaurant terrace counts.
The sparkle makes believers out of everyone.
Don’t miss it.
The Picnic
Rue Mouffetard to Luxembourg Gardens
This is the afternoon we’d do on every Paris trip forever.
The route:
Start on Rue Mouffetard, a market street in the 5th arrondissement that feels like the Paris of a film: narrow, cobbled, fragrant, busy, and alive.
Walk it slowly. Let the kids look at everything.
What to Buy:
Stop at Fromagerie Androuet for cheese, pick up a baguette from Boulangerie Guyot Ferreira, and add whatever else catches your eye along the way: olives, fruit, charcuterie, something sweet, maybe a bottle of wine.
Then stop at Ladurée near Luxembourg Gardens for macarons. This is non-negotiable.
Let the kids choose one each. Add them to the picnic bag. They will eat them with the focused seriousness the occasion deserves.
Where to Go:
Walk to Luxembourg Gardens, find a spot, and eat everything.
Cheese, baguette, macarons, Paris happening all around you.
Our kids ate more enthusiastically from a picnic blanket in a Parisian garden than they did in most restaurants. Maybe it was the fresh air. Maybe it was the informality. Maybe it was the fact that they’d chosen their own macaron and carried it there themselves.
Whatever it was, it worked.
Do this. Don’t skip it for another restaurant.
OT Tip from Dr. Calli: Dysregulation can often look like whininess, silliness, clinginess, emotional meltdowns, and hyperactivity. Including plenty of rest breaks throughout the first few days will be key. Lowering expectations, keeping things light, having low-stakes experiences like a picnic, and providing them with more emotional/sensory support in the first few days will be helpful in the long run.
See Something Else: Museums and Landmarks Worth the Effort
Skip the Louvre.
I mean this kindly and completely. The Louvre is extraordinary and also enormous, crowded, and genuinely difficult to navigate with small children. Save it for a trip when your youngest is at least 8.
Musée d’Orsay
Best for: A first Paris museum with young kids.
The Musée d’Orsay is the right museum for families with younger children. It’s a manageable size, the building itself is stunning, and the Impressionist collection gives kids something immediate to respond to: colour, light, people, movement, and familiar scenes.
We’ve been twice with our kids. The first time our son loved it. The second time he got impatient partway through, which is honest and normal.
Know before you go: Some upper-level areas have awkward stair configurations with a stroller, and crowded exhibits can become overwhelming quickly. If you feel everyone starting to unravel, move on.
Go early. Stay for what they love. Leave before they stop loving it.
Église Saint-Sulpice and Église Saint-Séverin
Best for: A free, beautiful, low-pressure stop.
Both churches are stunning, free to enter, and manageable with children because the scale and light do the work for you.
Five minutes inside is enough to make an impression. Pop in, look up, and come back out.
Paris’s churches are some of its most underrated family-friendly spaces.
OT Tip from Dr. Calli: Museums are high sensory-load environments: bright lights, crowds, hushed expectations, and a lot of ‘don’t touch.’ Prepare your child before you walk through the door: tell them what they’ll see, what the rules are, and agree on a signal they can give you when they’ve had enough. Leaving early because your child asked to is not failure. It’s co-regulation working exactly as it should.
The Seine Cruise
An Hour on the Water Worth More Than Two More Hours Walking!
A Seine cruise is genuinely restorative for kids who have been walking, waiting, and looking at things all day.
It’s contained. It’s moving. It’s visually interesting without requiring much from them. Everyone gets to sit down, breathe, and watch Paris slide past from the water.
We booked the pirate picnic cruise option for the kids, and they each received a cute pirate-themed snack box with a postcard, donuts, juice, and other treats. They loved the unboxing of it.
Honest note: I’d book the pirate box for the kids again, but not the full picnic for everyone. You’re on the same regular cruise either way, and the children’s snack box is the charming part.
Booking Tip: We much prefer departing from Pont Neuf and taking Vedettes du Pont Neuf over other cruise options we’ve tried. Book in advance, go in the late afternoon if you can, and let this be one of the gentler hours of the trip.
Getting Around: Navigating Paris with Little Ones
The metro is genuinely manageable with kids once you accept that it will sometimes be crowded and occasionally require carrying a stroller down stairs. The 5th and 6th arrondissements are well connected - we took the metro back from the Eiffel Tower and Trocadéro area to near Hôtel des Mines without difficulty, and the journey was short.
The Stroller Situation
Paris pavements are uneven, metro stations vary in accessibility, and some of the most beautiful streets are cobblestoned in ways that make strollers genuinely difficult. A compact, travel-friendly stroller is worth its weight.
ErgoBaby Metro+
We’ve travelled with the Ergobaby Metro for three-plus years and it’s been on more flights than I can count. On this trip we added a Hoppie attachment for our 3-year-old. It clips onto the stroller frame and gives a second child a small standing platform without needing a double stroller. It was one of the best decisions we made for this trip. She loved it.
Hoppie:
There is, however, a learning curve. Specifically: the brake. On the way to Laurée, a few blocks from the hotel, the green sign already visible, my daughter pressed the brake approximately five times in three blocks. I gave her an ultimatum I wasn’t entirely proud of. She stopped pressing the brake. We got to Ladurée. The macarons were worth it.
Note from Brittany: This is what traveling with small children actually looks like. Beautiful city. Perfect destination. Completely ordinary standoff on a Parisian pavement on the way to a patisserie.
The Hard Moments
What gets tricky, and what actually helps
Let’s be honest about Paris with small children, because the highlight reels don’t help anyone. Dr. Calli breaks down some specific situations you might come across in Paris.
Challenges:
- Waiting in crowded spaces is incredibly demanding for young nervous systems. Children are being asked to stand still, tolerate noise and close proximity, manage excitement, and cope with uncertainty all at once. That’s a lot.
- Children reach sensory saturation faster than adults, especially in visually crowded, noisy, or highly stimulating environments like museums. Once a child’s nervous system moves into overwhelm, pushing through often makes the experience harder for everyone.
What Can Help:
- Sensory tools can help because they give the body organized input during dysregulating moments. Pulling, squeezing, chewing, pushing, and fidgeting can help children stay more regulated while they wait. But emotional co-regulation matters just as much. Calm, confident language helps children borrow regulation from the adults around them.
- It also helps to avoid vague time language like “soon” or “almost there” if the wait may still be long. Young children experience time differently than adults. Concrete language feels safer: “We still have a lot of waiting left, then we’ll go through security, then we’ll see the tower.”
OT Tip From Dr. Calli: Executive functioning demands during travel are enormous for children. There are unfamiliar expectations, long periods of waiting, constant transitions, and very little predictability. Visual supports reduce cognitive load because children no longer have to hold all the information in their working memory.
Visual routines also create a sense of safety. When children can see what’s happening next, their nervous systems often stay calmer and more flexible. Independence increases too - children are more likely to participate successfully when the environment itself is organized in a clear and accessible way.
Jet Lag Is Real and Day Two Is the Hardest
We arrived on a direct flight from Calgary around noon. The passport control queue was long. Everyone was exhausted. The kids had barely slept on the plane. We powered through arrival day with a Luxembourg Gardens playground visit and a stroller walk, which was the right call - fresh air and movement genuinely help more than lying in a dark room fighting sleep.
And then my 3-year-old woke up at 2am and didn’t go back to sleep for three hours.
I forgot to set an alarm. We woke up at 1pm the next day. I was frustrated with myself in a way that took most of the non-existent morning to shake. The afternoon was grumpy and slow until we found a playground and let the kids run wild, at which point they were fine. My daughter had middle-of-the-night wake-ups for four nights. This is normal. This is jet lag. It is not a reflection of your parenting or your preparation.
What I’d do differently:
- Set three alarms for day two.
- Accept that the first two days are recovery days with good moments in them, not full Paris days.
- Incorporate playgrounds and movement generously - it works better than almost any other strategy.
OT Tip from Dr. Calli: Natural light in the morning, heavy movement during the day (climbing, running, pushing a stroller, playground time), hydration, protein snacks, and a predictable bedtime routine are some of the most regulating supports you can offer. Children often need specific sensory input to help their bodies organize after long flights and overstimulating travel days.
Note from Brittany: Jet lag isn’t misbehaviour, it’s biology! Your child’s circadian rhythm is genuinely disrupted and their body is trying to recalibrate. Natural light in the morning, movement during the day, and a consistent bedtime routine even in a new place are the three things that help most. The Calm Cards jet lag sticky situation card has specific language for explaining this to your child in a way they can understand, and the new bed card goes on the hotel pillow the first night.
The Memories
Every Paris trip has hard moments. Jet lag, queues, a toddler and a brake, a museum room that went twenty minutes too long. These are the true ones and they belong in the story.
- Dinner at Francette. We were supposed to be on the rooftop terrace with the Eiffel Tower directly in front of us, and it rained. They brought us upstairs anyway for drinks while we waited, so we got the view in the golden hour light before retreating inside for dinner. The food was excellent. The kids were charming. Paris was doing what Paris does when you stop trying to control it.
- Dinner at Les Patios, in the square, with the Chapelle Saint-Ursule de la Sorbonne glowing in the evening light. The kids played in the courtyard. I had the best chicken cordon bleu of my life. We ordered another drink because nobody wanted to leave.
- Luxembourg Gardens on a Tuesday afternoon. No agenda. Sailboats on the pond, macarons from Ladurée, cheese from the market, a baguette in pieces on a blanket. My 5-year-old asked “Can we live here?” and I said “I know” because it was the only honest answer.
These are the moments Paris gives you when you stop trying to see everything and start letting the city find you.
Note from Brittany: When you feel yourself losing patience on a beautiful street in a beautiful city, that’s not a parenting failure. That’s exhaustion plus logistics plus a child who found a button and pressed it because that’s what children do.
Build a Calm Kit for Your Paris Trip
These are the Mimu & Me tools that came with us and what they were actually for:
Instead of searching for solutions in stressful moments, having a ready-to-go calm kit can make all the difference.
- Calm Cards — The waiting card came out at passport control, at the Eiffel Tower security queue, and at every restaurant where the gap between ordering and food arriving exceeded a 5-year-old’s patience. The jet lag card gave us language for the 2am wake-up that didn’t make our 3-year-old feel like something was wrong with her. The new bed card went on the hotel pillow the first night.
- The Water Magic Book — The night before the flight. Murphy went through the airport pages three times. He knew what was coming. That mattered more than I expected it to.
- Calm Links — The Eiffel Tower queue. The metro when it got crowded. The moment on the flight somewhere over Greenland when everything had been touched and watched and eaten. Something with resistance in small hands is worth more than almost anything else in your bag.
- The System Bag — Open on the tray table, raised edge keeping everything on the surface, visual routine cards showing the flight sequence. We set it up at takeoff and it ran itself.
OT Tip From Dr. Calli: Young children often cannot independently identify why they feel dysregulated — they just know something feels “off.” Tools that normalize emotions and connect sensations to experiences (“your body thinks it’s nighttime right now”) help reduce anxiety and shame while supporting co-regulation between parent and child.
Your Free Paris Activity Book: Download Before You Go
Everything your kids need to feel ready for Paris - before, during, and after the trip.
Inside the free download:
- A Paris bingo card
- Simple French phrases your kids will actually use
- A pre-trip drawing and question page (“what do you think Paris looks like?”)
- Calm Crew Paris coloring pages featuring Pip at a Parisian café
Note from Brittany:
Plan Your Paris Trip
If you’d like help planning your Paris trip, I’d love to be in touch.
Let’s Build Your Family Adventure Together
Paris is one of the most requested destinations I book for families, and one of the most rewarding to plan well. Direct flights from Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax and many cities across the USA make it a natural first European destination, and the city rewards families who know where to look.
As a travel agent who has taken my own kids to Paris twice, I can help you build an itinerary that works for your children’s ages, your family’s pace, and your budget: flights, accommodation, airport transfers, tickets for the Eiffel Tower before the booking window fills, and everything in between.
A Routine That Works
Simple steps for calmer moments on-the-go
When emotions rise, structure helps.
Pause Together
Sit with your child and acknowledge their feelings.
Choose a Tool
Let them pick something from their calm kit.
Guide the Moment
Use breathing cards or simple prompts.
Reset Gently
Give time. No rush. No pressure.
Consistency matters more than perfection. Even small routines create big change over time.