Paris & nearby-Things to do

We went to Paris, France in May of 2023. Our kids were 11, 9 & 4 at the time. We stayed in Vincennes. It was a great area to stay.

Paris

The Eiffel Tour

We got to go up the elevator to the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower. It was quite windy up there when we went. I swear the city never ends. Paris is massive. We could look 360 degrees and we couldn’t see the edge of the city. I am glad we bought our tickets ahead of time online. I liked that it was timed entry so we weren’t waiting in line forever. Across the street was a carousel. So we let the kids ride with an Eiffel Tower view. I thought that was pretty cool.

Vincennes

We stayed in Vincennes & liked it. It was walkable and much more relaxed than Paris. 

We had originally planned a Paris day; but decided to change things and just explore Vincennes one day. We were glad we did! We were able to walk everywhere we went.

Château de Vincennes

There was hardly anyone there! The castle was cool. Ironically the castle’s church was called St. Chapelle. We canceled our plans to go to the St. Chapelle next to Notre Dame in Paris that day. This one also had pretty stained glass. We went to the dungeons building and it also had the king’s rooms. There were lots of spiral staircases in the castle. We got to walk around the look out areas and see the bell tower. 

Bois de Vincennes & its zoo

It is a huge park that is 2,459 acres. We walked along paths to get to the zoo that is in the park. It was a beautiful walk. The zoo was in the shape of a triangle and the path led us around to everything. Some of our favorite parts of the zoo were the sea lions, zebras, a manatee, kudus, giraffes & the indoor jungle area was great. 

Versailles

The Palace of Versailles

We took trains from Vincennes. We figured out the train to Versailles a bit faster than we figured out trains the previous day in Paris. We knew we had to buy separate tickets and couldn’t use our metro cards. So we figured out the ticket machine. But when we got to the next station to switch trains we didn’t know how to get tickets. We had to go to the help desk.

We had to walk about 25 minutes from the station to the palace once we made it to Versailles. I think there was a bus, but we didn’t feel like figuring it out. 

If I had to describe The Palace of Versailles in 2 words I would use ‘gold’ and ‘crowded’. It was so gold. Just gold everywhere; the gates, the trim, the walls, just everything. It was also so crowded that we had trouble seeing anything on the walk through. Especially our kids who couldn’t see over people. 

My favorite room was the Hall of Mirrors. It was incredible. It was also more open that other rooms so we could see everything much better. 

The gardens were massive. We explored for over an hour and hardly saw any of it. I would definitely plan longer than an hour to see the gardens. We could have spent a whole afternoon just in the gardens.

Would I go back? I’m not sure. I would like to see more of the gardens; but I don’t know that I’d go inside a 2nd time. Am I glad I saw it though? Yes.