Doing Paris With Teenagers and Somehow Everyone Had Fun

Paris is amazing but a lot of the "must see" stuff is genuinely boring if you're 15 and would rather be on your phone. So this itinerary isn't about skipping the big stuff, it's more about doing the big stuff in a way that doesn't make everyone want to cry by 2pm. Six days, London to Paris, then a quick hop to Bruges at the end. Here's how it went, or how it's supposed to go, plan ahead people. Basically the trick is you don't just look at things, you do things. Instead of standing there staring at Notre Dame for two minutes and moving on, you climb the actual tower. Instead of shuffling through the Louvre bored out of your mind, you turn it into a competition.



Take the Eurostar over, it's honestly the easiest part of the whole trip, a couple hours and you're just there. Check into wherever you're staying and actually unpack, don't be one of those families living out of suitcases the whole trip, it's not worth the stress later.



Once you're settled head over to Île de la Cité to see Notre Dame, which is back open now after the fire and all the restoration work. This is the one thing you actually need to book ahead of time: the tower climb. It's back open too. 424 steps up (yes someone will complain around step 200) but you end up basically face to face with the gargoyles and the view over the city is unreal. Way more interesting to a teenager than just walking around inside looking at stained glass, no offense to stained glass.




For dinner, skip the generic tourist spots and cross the bridge to Crêperie de l’Île Saint-Louis. It's an intimate, unassuming little shop serving incredible authentic galettes made right in front of you. Pick up a fresh, warm crêpe (or grab a table if you're lucky enough to score a seat), then wander across the water into the Latin Quarter for a night walk along the Seine.




Go early if you can, before it gets packed. Walk up to Sacré-Cœur (yes there's a lot of stairs, no you can't avoid it) and check out Place du Tertre where all the street artists set up and do portraits.





End the day at Trocadéro for sunset, right across from the Eiffel Tower, watch it sparkle when it gets dark. Everyone gets the same photo but it's a classic for a reason.






The Louvre by itself can be brutal for a teenager, it's huge and if you just wander it turns into a slog fast. For lunch just grab stuff from a bakery, baguette, cheese, some pastries, and go sit in the Tuileries Gardens for a picnic. Easy, cheap, nice atmosphere.








Evening, we do a Seine river cruise, it's nice at night when everything's lit up and you can just sit and not walk for once.






Book the stairs plus lift ticket, don't just take the elevator the whole way. Climb to the second floor yourself then take the lift up to the top from there. Burns off energy, feels like an actual accomplishment, and the stairs line is usually way shorter than the elevator line anyway so you're not standing around forever.






Evening, head over near the Champs-Élysées for dinner at Miss Kô, it's this Asian fusion spot done up by Philippe Starck, huge colorful murals, sushi, dumplings, that kind of thing. It's loud and a bit over the top honestly but that's sort of the whole point, feels nothing like the typical French dinner you've been having all week and teenagers tend to love it. Book ahead though, it fills up fast.




Keep it slow. Last stop should just be a bakery for pain au chocolat to eat on the train, still warm if you time it right. Then train up to Bruges for the afternoon.



You're not skipping anything major, Notre Dame, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Versailles, it's all still there. The only real difference is how you approach it, climb instead of just looking, turn it into a game instead of a lecture, let them get a little lost on their own instead of following you around all day. Small changes but it's the difference between a trip they complain about and one they actually bring up years later without you asking.