How to Avoid the Crowds at the Rodin Museum? Skip the Museum

Here’s the brief. It’s a glorious spring day in Paris. Too beautiful to be indoors. You’ve shopped, you’ve eaten, you’ve wandered … Its time to feed the mind but your appetite for culture is tempered by the all too perfect weather. Maybe you have a child in tow who needs a romp. And you want to avoid the crowds. So where should you go?

No Crowds favourite Paris destination for moments like this is the garden of the Rodin Museum on rue de Varenne in the 7th Arrondisement. In 1908, the writer Rainer Maria Rilke had this to say about the garden in a letter to Rodin. “You should, dear great friend, see this beautiful building and the room I live in … Its three bay windows fantastically overlook an abandoned garden, where from time to time one sees little rabbits jumping over the trellises, like something out of an old tapestry…” Rodin became so smitten with the place that he ended up renting rooms on the ground floor, coming nearly every day to meet with models and clients. By inhabiting the Hotel Biron until his death and with the donation of his works, his archives, and his collection, the establishment of a Rodin museum was secured.

In 2009, you could hardly call the garden of the Rodin Museum abandoned but it’s certainly not crowded. A visit to the atmospheric garden allows you to stroll around, eat an ice cream, contemplate some of the greatest masterpieces in the history of art and avoid the throngs who instinctively head indoors to see the collection. All for price of a euro which is what it costs for garden only access. And guess what? On a glorious day, its perfectly OK to skip the hot and crowded, although lovely, Hotel Biron because as a master of monumental sculpture, Rodin’s greatest works such as the Thinker, the Gates of Hell and the Burghers of Calais are all outside anyway. Use the money you saved on the entry ticket to rent an audio guide for a fantastic half hour or so of narrative and anecdotes on the life and work of this passionate artist all enjoyed au plein air.

Unfortunately, the museum does not have a separate line or entrance just for the gardens and the wait to purchase your ticket can take 15 to 20 minutes, although last Sunday, we waited for only five. Holders of the Paris Museum Pass, which we highly recommend, get in free and go straight to the head of the line, as you do at roughly 60 other museums in Paris.

Sometimes, carving out a piece of a great experience is the best way to enjoy it. On a perfect day in Paris, perhaps the best way to enjoy Rodin is to skip his museum and go straight for the garden.

Rodin Museum
79 rue de Varenne
75007 Paris
Tel 33 (0)1 44 18 61 10
http://www.musee-rodin.fr/

Opening times from Tuesday to Sunday
11 October to 31 March, from 9:30 am to 4:45 (park closes at 5:00 but ticket desk closes at 4:15)
1 April to 30 September from 9:30 am to 5:45 pm,(park closes at 6:45 but ticket desk closes at 5:15)

Photo from Mike Gadd's photostream on Flickr

Hunting in Paris

Paris is full of weird and wonderful museums. There’s a museum of the Paris Police Force (Musee de la Prefecture de Police), a Museum of Freemasonry (Musee de la Franc-Maconnerie), a Museum of Eroticism (Musee de l’Erotisme) and a Museum of Counterfeiting (Musee de la Contrefacon) but our current favourite for unusual subject matter is the recently reopened Museum of Hunting and Nature (Musee de la Chasse & de la Nature) on the rue des Archives in the Marais.

The Museum of Hunting is housed in the beautifully refurbished Hotel de Guenegaud. Built between 1651 and 1655 by the celebrated French architect, Francois Mansart, for the King’s secretary, the hotel is both a rare example of grand Parisian living in the middle of the 17th century and the perfect showplace for the collection. Even if you have no interest in hunting or nature, the building alone is worth a visit.

The collection, however, is a fascinating pastiche of everything to do with man’s relationship with wild creatures and nature: guns, paintings, a stuffed wild boar, stag horn cutlery, a Jeff Koons’ terrier and a phantasmagorical owl ceiling made out of heads and feathers are all part of the story.

We really like the way the museum does not engage in the current political debate on the subject. Hunting is neither promoted nor vilified. Even in the examples where animals meet a brutal end, the relationship between hunter and hunted seems more noble and humane than man’s current practice of industrial animal farming. Along the same line, the collection of guns and hunting accessories are so handsome and so beautifully displayed that one’s sentiments about the evils of all weaponry is also challenged.

This is a wonderful museum on every level: great location, fabulous building and fascinating collection. On the day we were there, we had the place completely to ourselves.

Museum of Hunting and Nature
62, rue des Archives
75003 Paris
Tel: 01.53.01.92.40
muse@chassenature.org

Image courtesy of the museum website

Ratatouille's Paris

We were in Paris last week and I had a really big idea about using film “hooks” to create better travel experience for children. In my role as children’s travel anthropologist, I would take Eloise to all the places immortalized in Pixar’s charming new film, Ratatouille, which is set in Paris, to see if the connection to the film could be used to enhance both the fun and the educational impact of travel.

We would visit the Eiffel Tower, the sewers, the Catacombs, the Alexander Bridge (where Remy forms his partnership with Linguini) and perhaps splash out on a meal at one of the restaurants the animators used as inspiration for the kitchen and dining room of Gusteau’s. All I can say is Pixar must have awesome expense accounts because the list includes the crème de la crème of Paris restaurants: La Tour d’Argent, Guy Savoy, Taillevant, Helene Darroze and Le Train Bleu. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that I was on to something. There was only one intractable problem. A problem I did not want to recognise or accept. Eloise had absolutely no interest in experiencing Paris from a rat’s point of view.

I should have figured it out early in the week when we descended twenty five meters underground and began our hour long tour of the Catacombs. There is some pretty cool stuff down there including the artfully arranged remains of about 6 million people and a warning over the entrance which states, “Halt, for this is the Empire of Death.” There are even Parisians called Cataphiles who are considered experts on the 300 kilometers (roughly 186 miles) of underground tunnels and special police called Cataflics who chase down and issue fines to any unauthorized visitors.

Now I would have expected this spooky netherworld to appeal to any child, especially ones imagining that they were part of Remy’s happy rat family scampering about, but what was Eloise’s reaction? “Mom, maybe we should have gone to the sewer museum.” It was all so disappointing, but I had much more rat magic up my sleeve. Or so I thought,

In fact, I was totally unsuccessful in interesting Eloise in another underground adventure (too smelly), or the Eiffel Tower (too crowded) or the Alexander Bridge (too boring). I was becoming quite desperate. My whole film hook concept was coming apart at the seams but then I noticed an ad for a museum that I had never heard of, the Palais de la decouverte, which claimed to have a L’Ecole des Rats.

Wow, I thought, a school for rats, how fantastic! Already wary of trying to sell the rat idea to my daughter, I pointed out that this science museum, located in the heart of Paris, was offering a special exhibition on volcanoes, a topic about which Eloise would shortly have to make a presentation for her class back in London. I argued that it would be a fun way to do her homework.

“Yeah right, Mom, the whole thing is probably in French.”
“OK, then you can practice your French at the same time.”
“Mom, we don’t talk about volcanoes in French class. We talk about the colour of my clothes and how many brothers and sisters I have and stuff like that.”
“OK, but they have this really great School for Rats. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
“Mom, you have rats on the brain but OK lets go to the science museum. How long do we have to stay?”

As it turned out, we stayed all day and had a fabulous time. The Palais de la decouverte was the big revelation of our trip. It’s a huge barn of a place, lost in time, but conveniently located right behind the Grand Palais. It is relatively unknown, virtually empty and has a 1960s Doctor Demento meets “Back to the Future” feel with museum staff who look like mad scientists in white lab coats. Some of the exhibits, such as the ones on volcanoes and tsunamis are state-of-the art, hands-on displays while other parts of the museum have been left in a dusty, old fashioned state.

Surprisingly, the highlight of our visit was getting the chance to see the rare 1932 film of Inuit life, Palos Brudefaerd (Palos Wedding), which tells the story of the rivalry of two contestants for the love of an Inuit woman. Filmed in Greenland and written by the famous anthropologist and explorer, Knud Rasmussen, the hour long docudrama bears poetic witness to the ancient customs and traditions of a lost way of life that completely captured the imagination of one 10 year old girl from London – and her mother. In a million years, we never expected to be swept away by a 75 year old black and white movie about Eskimos but such is the nature of the many unexpected pleasures of the Palais de la decouverte.

And what about the School of Rats? It was great too with more white coated staff getting rats to perform in front of an appreciative audience of school children. There were neat mazes and puzzles to play with that taught humans how to think like rats. We may not have had a “Ratatouille moment” but we sure learned a lot about rodents.

And it was in the School of Rats that I finally realised why my whole Ratatouille’s Paris idea was rubbish. Ratatouille may be a delightful movie. The way Pixar depicts Paris may be stunning. The French may have embraced this film as their own and I may want badly to eat at the Tour d’Argent, but no little girl wants to follow in the footsteps of a rat. More importantly, no child on a school holiday wants to be a guinea pig for a rat obsessed mother determined to raise every child’s “sentimental” education through better travel experiences.

On the drive back to London, Eloise did her best to make me feel better. “It’s OK, Mom, it really was a good idea but just in case you want to put it in your blog, my favourite things were shopping and that weird Eskimo movie.”

Useful Information

The Catacombs of Paris
1, avenue due Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy
Tel: 33 (0)1 43 22 47 63
Fax: 33 (0)1 43 22 48 17
http://www.carnavalet.paris.fr/
Open Tuesday-Sunday 10 am to 5 pm
Metro – Denfert-Rochereau

Palais de la decouverte
Avenue Franlin Roosevelt
Tel: 33 (0)1 56 43 20 20
http://www.palais-decouverte.fr/
Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30 to 6 pm
Sunday and public holidays from 10 am to 7 pm
Metro – Champs-Elysees Clemenceau or Franklin Roosevelt

So How Was Your Vacation?

Labor Day in America has come and gone. School started today in Britain. The summer is over and after six weeks of non-stop travel, I’m back at my desk in London and even though the piles of unpaid bills and letters with bad news are bumming me out, home looks pretty good. It’s nice to be back.

Did I have a good time? You bet I did. Beaching and agri-tourism in North Carolina, driving through France, hanging out in Spain and Paris – all in all, it was a brilliant summer. Did I avoid the crowds? Well, I tried and here are just some of the things I learned this year about crowd-free summer travel:

1) Take your young children to Paris in August

Eloise and I spent 3 days together in Paris and once again I was blown away by how fabulous Paris is for young children.

On Day One we shopped for chic and inexpensive things for autumn and then headed over to the Conciergerie, a former royal palace and prison, to see Marie Antoinette’s last residence before she got the chop. There was lots of gory and vivid stuff from the Revolution’s “Reign of Terror” which Eloise enjoyed and no crowds which pleased me. (n.b. – A combo ticket is on offer with the neighbouring Sainte Chappelle which we bought but for now, I would give that a pass. The chapel is being renovated, the crowds were oppressive for such a small space and the amazing experience that I remember from my youth was incredibly flat. “Nice chapel, Mom, was Eloise’s polite response.)

On Day Two, we spent the entire day in the Luxembourg Gardens. We sailed boats on the fountain and because we managed to conspicuously capsize ours (don’t tell my father the naval officer), we met lots of other children from all over the world. Eloise beat her record on the carousel with the rings, we had superb cotton candy ( according to Eloise) and we managed to squeeze in the 4:00 pm performance at the famous puppet theatre. I thought it was one of the best days I had spent with my daughter in a long time. It was relaxing for me, entertaining for her, absolutely beautiful and the price was right.

On Day Three, we went to the Jardin d’Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne. This old fashioned park with its rides and playgrounds and menageries is the nicest “amusement” park you can imagine and once again we spent the day in beautiful and relaxing surroundings which thrilled and delighted Eloise. If we had had a fourth day, we could have happily filled it at the Jardin des Plantes with its museums, zoo, maze and gardens.

It may seem counter intuitive to head for a big city with a small child and I’m sure you’ve heard a million times that no one goes to Paris in August but we had the most awesome time and best of all, we had the place all to ourselves.

2) North Carolina Beaches

North Carolina beaches in July and August are insanely better than anything in Europe. Yes, yes, I know the food and hotels in Europe are superior, but if the goal is blissfully warm water, consistent weather, mile after mile of empty, pristine beaches, no traffic jams, no parking problems and super polite natives during peak periods, North Carolina wins big time. Bald Head Island (my cousin has a great house there which she rents to nice people), Ocracoke Island, Atlantic Beach (getting built up but rent something at Pine Knoll Shores and you’ll be fine), and Duck are places you should check out for next summer if you are looking for very nice beaches with no crowds.

3) Fly Direct, Board Early, Boycott Northwest

This is a cautionary tale but what’s the use of having a bully pulpit if you don’t use it. To save a few dollars, my frugal husband flew to North Carolina with Northwest Airlines via Detroit. On the return flight, after checking in and being issued a boarding pass, the last 20 passengers in line were denied boarding because, according to Northwest, “the flight was overweight”. Now I’ve heard a lot of lame excuses in my time but this takes the biscuit. The whole scene was like a Mel Brooks movie with one enraged man being carried away by the police screaming “take some fat people off the plane and we can all fly!”

My husband was then re-routed over Cincinnati, missed the connection and had to wait 24 hours at a Marriott Courtyard before catching his flight to London.

And the compensation from Northwest? A $100 voucher on his next flight with Northwest- as if! Of course we’ll be taking this matter up with the management of what may be the world’s worst airline so watch this space.

Take your Parents to Paris

To borrow a phrase from John F. Kennedy, we are the parents who accompanied Eloise to Paris and we have enjoyed it.

According to Eloise, Paris is Europe’s most parent-friendly city. She argues that parents are contented and easily distracted because the city is beautiful, the food is good and romance abounds. She goes on to say that contented, distracted parents make easy prey for the hidden agendas of children. Looking back on our recent visit, and the fact that we hardly ever disagree about what to do in Paris, I think she is on to something.

Take, for example, our visit to the Jardin des Tuileries. On the surface, this expanse of formal, neo-classical greenery smack dab in the centre of the city between Concorde and the Louvre feels like a place built for grownups. You might imagine that we strolled around enjoying the aesthetics, and we did. But we also ended up financing several carousel rides on a lovely belle époque “work of art” and several sessions of enthusiastic jumping on the in-ground trampolines. We did get to sit on the benches in the autumn sun while Eloise played in the action playground with all the children who were also on their school holidays and Jeff got to admire their mothers. Everyone was happy.

You can also take as an example our lunch at the Grand Colbert where we retreated after the morning in the Tuileries. Again, you might think the Grand Colbert, housed in a historic monument with a fabulous belle époque interior that was featured in the movie “Something’s Gotta Give” with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, is best for geriatric trysts, but, Eloise knows that a renowned and bustling brasserie is always a fine place to take your parents. While we were busy with our excellent lentil salads watching the midday show, Eloise was able to do unmentionable things to her plate of snails (one of which flew across the room) without invoking the attention or irritation of her parents or the maitre d’hotel who took rather a shine to her.

This was also the case the morning we devoted to shopping. “Mom, why don’t we go to Bon Marche?” (the most fabulous and exclusive department store in Paris). Of course, I’m a sucker for that approach. The fact that we spent most of our time in Bon Marche in the toy department buying these little animals known as Sylvanians (Calico Critters in the U.S. and “Sill van knee yan” in Bon Marche) is not surprising. The fact that later on we also managed to find a very chic and inexpensive Christmas dress down the road at Du Pareil au Meme also speaks to how well a girl can do when her mother is carried away by the elegant retail experience that is Paris.

In the Luxembourg Gardens, Eloise also managed to keep us busy. We got to watch her set a new record on the carousel where children collect rings on a stick as they go around. We got to enjoy a perfect Gallic display of pique as the British school children on holiday took over the action playground from the beautifully dressed pre-schoolers and even better dressed Mamans. Afterwards, when we suggested going to Polidor, (where a three course lunch during the week will only set you back €11), she conveniently reminded us to be sure and go to the bathroom before hand as “this is the place where you have to go standing up”. She also, conveniently, ate the desserts from our three course menu.

And finally, it was Eloise who suggested that we make a special visit after Polidor to see the Unicorns at the Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages. Unlike my not-so-brillant idea to try and get into the Branly ( the new museum of tribal art) where the line wound around the building and down the street, the Cluny was an oasis of calm, no lines, no crowds, just impressive architecture, a good gift shop and some very good unicorns.

So if you are looking for a city where it is easy to keep your parents contented and entertained, where they will be well treated in restaurants and where spending money in stores comes easily, Eloise strongly suggests you look no farther than the City of Light.


The Grand Colbert
2, rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
Tel: 01 42 86 87 88

Cremerie Restaurant Polidor
41 rue Monsieur-le-Prince 6e
Tel: 0143-26-95-34No credit cards

Le Bon Marche
24, rue de Sevres
Tel: 01 44 39 80 00

Du Pareil au Meme has branches throughout Paris

National Museum of the Middle Ages – the Baths and Hotel de Cluny
6, Place Paul Painleve
75005 Paris
Tel: 01 53 73 78 00

Au Revoir Kate & Eloise

At 7:00 yesterday morning, Eloise bounded out of bed, eager to return to school, her friends and her life before the Kate/Eloise Project. On our walk to school, I asked her to recap the highlights of what we had done over the last 21 days. “Do you want the truth, Mom?” Probably not, I thought. “Of course”, I replied.

“The Chinese exhibition at the Royal Academy (China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795 at the Royal Academy of Arts which closed on April 17) was the best thing we did.” There was stunned silence from me as I surely had not expected that answer. Eloise explained. “It was the kid’s audio guide. It was fabulous. The stories were really interesting and I liked looking at the stuff they were talking about. It’s the first time you and I took the same amount of time to finish a museum. I liked the place too. You can get a nice cup of tea there.”

We discussed the other highlights:

The Palaeontology Museum in the Jardin des Plantes was fun because it is so old and funky. We hope they always leave it that way.

Basildon Park, where they filmed the recent Pride and Prejudice movie, was OK but not as much fun as Jane Austen’s real house and, thanks to the filming, way too crowded .

Musee Jacquemart Andre was a nice museum and had done everything right by offering a treasure hunt in English but the prize for completing the treasure hunt was disappointing.

The treasure hunt at the Cabinet War Rooms & Churchill Museum was good and so was the prize. Eating lunch at Inn the Park in St James Park afterwards was fun.

The Jardin d’Acclimatation was excellent and some of the rides were good enough to make Mac (Eloise’s older brother) feel really sick.

Re-reading the first post from the Kate/Eloise Project, I am reminded that we promised to deliver an epic piece of writing that would improve the family travel experience and now I am scratching my head as to how to deliver on that commitment. OK, here goes.

The Collecive Wisdom of the Kate/Eloise Project

Reverse the Roles - Eloise and I worked best when I presented the options of what we could do and she made the decisions. What she learned is that not all choices work out exactly as you think they will (the disappointing prize at the Jacquemart Andre or the lack of Keira Knightley at Basildon Park) but if you own the decision, you can always find something to like if you are in the mood to look for it. What I learned was to reverse the roles. It occasionally made me nuts but it was very rewarding.

Play it by ear – We had more fun when we took our decisions on what we should do on the day. Chopping and changing our plans was a welcome relief from life during school term. We followed our whims and it was fun. Also, there’s something to be said about only doing things you can do on short notice. Activities that demand lots of advanced planning tend to be crowded.
Children should write the reviews - It’s a blindingly obvious observation but in looking through the 4,973 travel guides for children on Amazon and dozens of the 69,300,000 websites offering advice on travelling with kids, I couldn’t find a young author. Thinking back on the fact that I would never had predicted that Eloise’s favourite activity during the Project would be a sophisticated and immense exhibition of Chinese art nor that her favourite West End show would have been the Blue Man Group, I’m beginning to think that the reason children often are bored and disagreeable when travelling is that we don’t have much of a clue of what they like, although, as Eloise pointed out, we think we do. I’m also beginning to think that what the world needs now is a children’s version of Trip Advisor. Maybe the Kate/Eloise Project has a second life.

Children prefer apartments – OK, there should be full disclosure here. We have a fabulous apartment in Paris which we rent to vacationers via the excellent agency, Rentals in Paris. But that is precisely where Eloise and I learned that renting is the best way to go. From Eloise’s perspective, it feels more like home, there is normally more space and most importantly, when Eloise has had enough of being a tourist, we can stay in our temporary home and eat a “home cooked” meal. I like the apartment option for similar reasons plus it gets you closer to the lifestyle of the country and is almost always cheaper than two rooms in a hotel.

Children like contests – Eloise will agree to do almost anything as long as there is a treasure hunt, a maze or a contest attached to it. The English are really the masters at this and it is the rare museum or stately home that does not offer an activity for young visitors. In a pinch, you can make up your own. For example, thanks to good advice from J.G. Links in “Venice for Pleasure”, Eloise and I furiously competed for the “Who Can Find the Most Madonnas” during our visit to Venice. This simple device gave us both a lot of satisfaction. I was shocked at how many churches she was willing to visit to win the contest.


So I guess that’s it. One child, 21 days of holiday, 2 cities and a budget. Eloise is now back in school. I am now back at my desk. Thank you, Julie Powell of the Julie/Julia Project for the idea and thank you Eloise for your enthusiasm and high spirits. As the old Italian proverb goes, “Good company on the road is the shortest cut.”

Jardin d'Acclimatation

I hate amusement parks. Eloise loves them. For her, they are pleasure palaces of excitement and gratification. For me, they are money grubbing, soul destroying hell holes. Yesterday, as we were driving around a blissfully empty Easter Monday London, a representative of the Global Association of Theme Parks (or something like that) was on the radio extolling the virtues of her employer. “Theme parks are wonderful places for multi-generational experiences … where families have a chance to communicate … if you calculate your spend per hour, it represents excellent value for money.

“Dear God”, was my agitated response, “as a species, we are doomed.”

But then I remembered our experience last week in the Jardin d’Acclimatation. Located just outside the walls of Paris in the northern part of the Bois de Boulogne, the Jardin d’Acclimatation offers exactly what that disturbing woman on the radio suggested parks could provide. It’s the kind of place where lovers of nostalgia (me) and fans of Nintendo (Eloise) and everything in between can enjoy themselves. Even our 18 year old son, Mac, had a pretty good time accompanying his sister on this expedition.

Let me set the scene. The park was opened in 1860 by Napoleon III and his Empress Eugenie and if you squint a bit, you get a sense of the original belle époque atmosphere. There are canal boats in a “Peter Pan like” lagoon, elegant wooden horses which “canter” along a large ring, an old fashioned house of mirrors, a puppet theatre, zoo animals and more thrilling rides such as a roller coaster, bumper cars and twisters for the older children. Even the ubiquitous “shooting gallery” seemed more benign, and the attendants less like “carni folk", than in other places. The landscaping is lovely, the atmosphere bucolic.

As was the case all week, Eloise was impervious to either the aesthetics or the history lesson but she thought the Jardin d’Acclimatation was first class. She enjoyed the rides, ate some junk and tried to win something in the shooting gallery, which, of course, she did not win. Mac sauntered along, sucking on his beloved Coke, demonstrating a jolly tolerance for the old fashioned quaintness of it all. Jeff paid the bills in a better mood than he normally is in when shelling out cash( after all, this is France and the place is subsidised by the state – well, what isn’t in France?) We were there when the French children were in school. The place was empty. It was fabulous.

After our visit, we drove out to visit friends in the lovely western suburb of Villennes-sur-Seine. “So what did you do today, asked Claude?” When he heard we had visited the Jardin d’Acclimatation his eyes grew misty. “I love it … ah, the little canal boats … it reminds me of my childhood … how charming.”

And so, dear disturbing lady of the airwaves, I’ll buy your argument in so far as it extends to one old fashioned amusement park on the outskirts of Paris. Spare me and my family the pre-packed “multi-generational” experience. Give me, instead, a glorious afternoon in the northern corner of the Bois de Bologne that can remind us all of the delights of being a child, even if we have not been one for decades.

Jardin d’Acclimation
June to September daily 10 –7; October to May daily 10-6
Located in the Bois de Boulogne 16e
Tel: 01-40-67-90-82
http://www.jardindacclimatation.fr/

Admission €2.50 (rides are extra) free for children under 4

Take the little train from Porte Maillot through the Bois de Boulogne which leaves roughly every 10 minutes when the park is open

Paris Parks - The Love Affair Begins Here

In the spirit of the Kate/Eloise project, we spent most of our time last week in the parks of Paris and had a perfectly wonderful time. Both of us.

Like all parents, I made most of my mistakes with the older children. Back when my sons where small, I would never have agreed to “going all the way to Paris to lounge around in parks all day when we have perfectly nice grass and trees at home. We’re here to see and do something different.”

For the record, boys, I’m truly sorry, because I’ve now changed my approach to Paris parks. In fact, a key learning from the Kate/Eloise project is that Paris parks are the most instructive places for introducing children to the many pleasures and possibilities of the City of Light. For parents, Paris parks are living museums of French culture. For children, they are pure unadulterated fun. I’m sure now that the most effective way to begin a lifelong love affair with Paris is to have spent time as a child in a Paris park.

Take, for example, the Luxembourg Gardens which has succeeded in seducing both my husband as a child and my daughter. In this gorgeous setting, Eloise can:

Go to the marionette theatre and shriek, clap and boo the bad guys just like a native
Meet and interact with natives in the huge playground
Beat her previous record on the merry-go-round with the rings
Sail a boat in front of the palace built by a homesick Marie de Medici surrounded by statues of the Queens of France
Ride a donkey
Eat something bad for her or worthwhile – both choices are available
Visit the beehives and the orchards
Find the bronze replica of the Statue of Liberty
Use a clean, nice bathroom (it’s nice because there is a small charge)

While Eloise is having the time of her life, I can:

Enjoy the fact that she is hearing and speaking some French and meeting French children
Be happy that she is getting plenty of exercise
Introduce some feminist history via the Queens of France
Talk about how the Statue of Liberty got into the Luxembourg and some of the history of Franco-American relations (It wasn’t always strained)
Watch the best mother and child fashion show in town (after all this is the Left Bank)
Get a decent cup of coffee
Read a good book
Use a clean, nice bathroom

The culture and history lesson can continue by taking lunch at one of the historic and traditional bistros in the area, either at Aux Charpentiers or our new favourite, the Cremerie Restaurant Polidor, a French restaurant still frequented by students and artists and once favoured by Andre Gide, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway and Jack Kerouac. The straightforward food, bustling atmosphere and excellent prices make Polidor a great choice when dining with children. Lunch should run you about €20 per person. Be sure and bring cash as credit cards are not accepted.

It should be said that while I revelled in the historic atmosphere, imaging where Joyce or Hemingway would have sat and what they would have ordered, Eloise, of course, took no notice of it.

What she found memorable and quite shocking about Polidor was the plumbing, which probably hasn’t changed much since the restaurant’s inception in 1848. Upon her return from visiting the toilet, she regaled us, and the neighbouring tables, with news of her cultural adventures. And yes, when you look at it from a certain angle, even the plumbing at Polidor is an important part of the living history of Paris.

Cremerie Restaurant Polidor
41 rue Monsieur-le-Prince 6e
Tel: 0143-26-95-34
No credit cards

Aux Charpentiers
10 rue Mabillon 5e
Tel: 01-43-26-30-05

The Kate/Eloise Project Takes Paris

According to Eloise, it’s simple. The problem with most museums is that “you don’t get to do stuff”. In response, the Kate/Eloise Project spent most of last week doing cool stuff in the fabulous parks of Paris, oblivious to the millions of students marching across France for the right to retain their impressive 25% unemployment rate.

First on our list of favourite Paris destinations, and a winner with children every time, is the Jarden des Plantes. Founded in 1626 by Louis XIII’s physician as a medicinal herb garden, this huge public space located in the 5th District has enough things to keep a child happy and busy for a whole day.

On the pedagogical side, there are a collection of museums focussed on Natural History which despite being educational, Eloise loves. At the Gare d’Austerlitz end of the park is the funky “Jules Vern-esque” Palaeontology museum (Musee Paleontoloqique), where collections of skeletons of Siamese twin animals and brains in jars compete with the bones of brontosauruses, woolly mammoths and sabre tooth tigers for your attention. There's not much to do here, but the stuff is so weird and wonderful that it somehow charms everyone.

At the other end of the garden is the spectacular, newly renovated palace devoted to Zoology (Grande Galerie de l’Evolution) which has exciting, modern exhibits of every kind of animal and habitat. There is the latest hands-on technology for younger audiences but this being the same country where Chirac stormed out of an EU Summit because Frenchmen were speaking English , you can imagine that no concessions are made for little English speakers. Still, this does not seem to interfere with Eloise's affection for the place.

As well, there is a politically incorrect Zoo (Menagerie) (bored animals in small spaces) which we think is great, dating back to the time of the French Revolution. Residents include a newborn orangutan whose antics kept us entertained for a long time, a very old Seychelles tortoise named Kiki and an alligator someone left in a Paris hotel room.

If that weren’t enough, there is also a maze, a merry-go-round of endangered species, greenhouses of exotic plants, an alpine garden, an aquarium (never found it) and more.

For lunch, Eloise and I always eat at the bistrot L’Ecureuil Oie et Le Canard across the street from the Jussieu Entrance to the Jardin des Plantes. This restaurant which, features the specialties of Southwest France, is run by a fabulously grumpy, rugby-loving curmudgeon who renews ones faith in France’s ability to ignore any effect of globalisation. The food is traditional and excellent, the décor is funny and Eloise seems totally oblivious to the glaring gargoyle behind the bar. Lunch should run you about €25 per person. For a cheaper and faster alternative, there is a pretty good café in the Grande Galerie de l’Evolution.

Jardin des Plantes
http://www.mnhn.fr/
Entrances on rur Geoffroy-St-Hilaire, rue Civier and rue Buffon
Metro: Jussieu or Gare d’Austerlitz
Tel: 01-40-79-30-00
Museums open Wednesday – Sunday from 10 – 5
Zoo open daily June – Aug from 9-6, Sept-May from 9-5

L’Ecureuil Oie et Le Canard
3 Rue Linne
75005 Paris
Tel: 01 43 31 61 18

Photo taken in the Musee Paleontologique by Eloise

The Kate/Eloise Project

Once upon a time, there was a bored New York secretary who needed a change. She decided to spend the next year of her life cooking her way through Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and writing about it in her blog, the Julie/Julia Project. Now, she’s a published author of a best seller. Boy, do I need a project. And so, here it is.

One child, 21 days of holiday, 2 cities and a budget

The idea for this project came out of a discussion with my sister, the Roman one – well I only have one – about the fact that there are lots of guidebooks out there focussing on children and they are, for the most part, crap. Ask any child. Or any parent.

My poor daughter does not know it yet, but she is the “one child” mentioned above (the other two in the photograph are her cousins) and we are going to spend her Easter Vacation collaborating on an epic piece of writing that will help improve the family travel experience. When Eloise marches back into Fulham Prep School on Wednesday, the 18th of April, the Kate/Eloise project will have delivered to NoCrowds the first really decent information on travelling with children in London and Paris.

We will tackle things from two points of view, parent and child, being sensitive to Eloise’s goals of sleeping late, spending her pocket money on rubbish and avoiding anything that smells like school as well as my need to prime the “get into a good University” pump while developing her appetite for Ingres and Hogarth. In addition, we will need to agree on things that we can both at least tolerate. No Disneyland Paris for me. No opera for her. The idea is to meet in the middle, where all good compromises and family vacations begin.

We will also be careful with our money. It’s part of the NoCrowds ethos. Anyone can buy their way out of a crowd, (well, some can) but when you do, you tend to be around people you don’t want to be with. So for those of us who can’t or don’t want to buy our way out, we’re going to have to think our way out. Being the Easter term break, it presents a special challenge as armies of families across Europe compete for cost effective ways to keep their darlings occupied.

One child, 21 days of holiday, 2 cities and a budget. In exactly 30 minutes, Eloise will be released from school. It's time to begin.

With special thanks to Julie Powell, from whose blog and book Julie & Julia, I shamelessly stole this idea.

A NoCrowds Kid in the Luxembourg

Eloise arrived Friday night on the Eurostar looking quite smart in her English school girl uniform. The next morning, she woke early and encouraged me to get dressed quickly. “Come on, Mom, we need to get to the Luxembourg before all the tourists arrive.” She was right, of course. Morning is better as the competition for some of the best activities increases as the day wears on. So off we went to the Luxembourg Gardens, the fabulous backyard of all self-respecting children of the Left Bank.

Every child can find his bliss here. There is a huge action playground which has never heard of litigation, a carousel where children collect rings on a stick as they go around (the more rings the greater the glory), a wonderful old fashioned marionette theatre, donkey and pony rides, swings, sandboxes, wooden sailboats to rent, a beekeeping school, and kiosks selling sweets, toys and, according to Eloise, delicious cotton candy which the locals know as "barbe de Papa (your father's beard).

My husband claims that the Luxembourg has changed little from when he was a boy living down the street on Place St Sulpice. He’s quite sure the horses on the carousel are the originals and they look it. Magical things can happen in the Luxembourg Gardens. Once when Eloise was riding the donkeys, a small American boy heard us calling Eloise and turned to his parents. "See, I told you she would be here." As it turned out, he had just finished reading "Eloise in Paris" and was sure that his favourite "enfant terrible" would be waiting for him in her preferred Paris venue - and she was. When we are in Paris, Eloise goes every day and has never run out of interest or enthusiasm. If you are looking for something that can give a GameBoy a run for its money, the Luxembourg has it.

Unlike financial and experiential nightmares like Disneyland Paris, taking children to the Luxembourg is as delightful for the parents as it is for the child. Parents will appreciate that you can check your child into the huge enclosed playground and sit happily outside reading the papers. The children will appreciate that they can pursue their “Lord of the Flies” behaviour without your intervention. If you look carefully, you will even see old men in black berets playing boules with Gauloises hanging out of their mouths. It’s perfect.

My restaurant suggestion after a hard morning of activites in the Luxembourg would be to head for Aux Charpentiers, an unpretentious bistro that has been in operation for more than 130 years. The food is hearty provincial French. The prices are correct and the atmosphere reminiscent of the Left Bank of yesteryear. My mother-in-law returned recently after a 45 year hiatus and pronounced Aux Charpentiers "still pretty good" which tells you alot about Paris, its restaurants and my mother-in-law.

Aux Charpentiers
10 rue Mabillon
Tel: 01-43-26-30-05
Open daily
Metro: St-Germain-des-Pres or Mabillon