France with kids

Lifts to the second floor with the summit as an option. Timed entry and it sells out weeks ahead in summer.

Nineteen dollars, 284 steps, and the twelve avenues radiating out below are the best explanation of the city's shape.

Vast. Pick three things and leave — the Egyptian rooms and the Apollo Gallery hold children better than the Mona Lisa scrum.

Impressionists in a converted railway station, with the great clock face to look through. Smaller and far more manageable than the Louvre.

Two oval rooms of Monet's water lilies, wrapped all the way round. Sixteen dollars and about forty minutes.

The best children's science museum in Europe, with a Cité des Enfants built for under-twelves. Seventeen dollars and sessions must be booked.

A parade of taxidermy animals marching through a glass-roofed hall. Fifteen dollars and genuinely spectacular.

Machines, aircraft and Foucault's pendulum in a deconsecrated church. Fourteen dollars and criminally overlooked.

Under the Trocadéro gardens, opposite the Eiffel Tower, with a shark tank and a children's area. Thirty-one dollars.

At Val d'Europe, the mall next to Disneyland. Twenty-three dollars, and useful as a half day between park days.

The Vincennes zoo, rebuilt around large open biozones. Twenty-six dollars and a metro ride from the centre.

A drive-through safari park an hour west, thirty-nine dollars. You use your own car, which children find much more exciting than a bus.

A newer bird and primate park east of the city, twenty-two dollars, with free-flight aviaries you walk through.

The Paris wax museum, in a gilded nineteenth-century hall that is half the appeal. Thirty-two dollars.

Fifteen metres of thirteenth-century stained glass on one ticket with the prison where Marie Antoinette was held. Go on a bright day.

Foucault's pendulum swinging under the dome, and the crypt below. Nineteen dollars.

Two kilometres of tunnels stacked with the bones of six million people. Genuinely unsettling, and honestly not for a younger child.

Enormous, and the gardens are the part children actually enjoy — hire a bike or the little train. Book the timed slot.

The Trianons and the model farm village at the far end of the Versailles gardens, seventeen dollars. Quieter, and a better story.

Lived in by French rulers for seven centuries, an hour south, and almost empty compared with Versailles. Twenty dollars.

A moated castle with the great stables and a horse show, forty minutes north. Ten dollars.

Two parks, and the castle is the prettiest of all the Disney ones. Fifty-six dollars is cheap by Disney standards; go midweek and out of French school holidays.

The French alternative half an hour north — bigger coasters, far fewer queues, and a Gaulish village instead of a castle.

A nineteenth-century pleasure garden turned children's park in the Bois de Boulogne, with rides on an unlimited ticket.

A Robin Hood-themed adventure and ropes park north of the city. Thirty-seven dollars and a whole afternoon outdoors.

A science and cinema theme park near Poitiers, an hour and a half by TGV. Odd, dated in places, and beloved by French families for forty years.

Optical illusion rooms built for photographs. An hour, and a reliable wet-afternoon hour at that.

The museum plus a workshop where children temper and mould their own bar. Fifty-eight dollars and you leave with it.

Open-top loops of the main sights. Paris is walkable but the distances between the big five are longer than they look.

A hop-on boat with nine stops along the Seine, twenty-seven dollars for the day. Transport and sightseeing in one.

An hour past Notre-Dame and the Louvre from the water, twenty dollars. The cheapest good hour in the city.

The same river after dark with something sweet, twenty-seven dollars. The Eiffel Tower sparkles on the hour.

Backstreets and parks on quiet routes with a guide. Paris traffic is not gentle, so this is the safe way to cycle it.

Dressing rooms, tunnel and pitchside, twenty-one dollars. Cheap, and it works even for a child who follows no French team.

The lily pond and the green bridge, exactly as painted. April to October only, and the garden is small — go early.

An abbey on a tidal island, four hours west. A very long day from Paris and one of the most extraordinary places in Europe.

Chambord and Chenonceau in a day with the driving handled. Chambord's double-helix staircase is the bit children remember.

Fifty-plus museums and monuments on one card. Remember children are already free — this is an adult purchase, and it still pays over three days.

A pink villa with nine gardens on the Cap Ferrat headland, and a musical fountain show every twenty minutes.

Europe's deepest canyon with turquoise water at the bottom. The lavender is late June to mid-July and not before.

A small, shaded animal park at Sanary-sur-Mer with a strong conservation slant. Seventeen dollars.

A Roman town excavated out of a valley at Saint-Rémy, ten dollars. Small, legible and rarely crowded.

An open-top loop of the Promenade des Anglais and the hill above the port. Twenty-eight dollars.

Monaco, Monte Carlo, Eze, Antibes and Cannes with the driving done, forty-one dollars. The best-value day on this coast.

A three-tier Roman aqueduct across a river, and you walk over the bottom deck. Nine dollars with the museum, and you can swim below it.

The best-preserved Roman amphitheatre anywhere, thirteen dollars, and still used for events. Climb to the top tier.

Opposite the arena, and it explains what you have just walked around. Ten dollars.

The island prison from The Count of Monte Cristo, reached by boat from Marseille. Eight dollars, and the crossing is the fun part.

A full-scale replica of a painted cave whose real entrance is now underwater. Twenty-two dollars and you tour it in a moving pod.

The Mediterranean museum on the waterfront, joined to a fort by a high footbridge. Thirteen dollars.

A seaside aquarium with a shark section and a sea lion pool, twenty dollars. Straightforward, and welcome on a hot afternoon.

The largest Gothic palace in the world, built when the popes left Rome, plus the famous half-bridge.

A ruined castle on a limestone spur with working siege engines, plus the Roman town below. The best Provence day with children.

Gordes, Roussillon and the ochre cliffs. Slow, beautiful, and a day of looking rather than doing — judge your child accordingly.