A 5-day Paris plan for families (kids ~6 & 9)

Go in the morning, before the queues and the heat build, to the tower finished in 1889 for the World's Fair. With young kids you don't need the top: the first or second level gives plenty of view for a fraction of the queue and the price. Afterwards, let everyone loose on the long lawns of the Champ de Mars, where the tower looks better as the light changes.

The terrace frames the classic photograph of the tower, and below it are fountains and wide steps to climb, with no line to stand in. It's a satisfying half-day without setting foot inside.

Rent a little wooden sailboat and push it across the big central pond with a long stick — the formal 17th-century Jardin du Luxembourg is, in practice, one big playground. There's a historic carousel and one of the city's best playgrounds, with real climbing structures (small entry fee). Shaded and easy to rotate — sailboats, playground, a walk past the fountains — it fills two or three hours without anyone getting bored. Bring a picnic and claim green metal chairs by the pond.

Inside the same gardens, the little Guignol puppet theatre has staged traditional French puppet shows for generations, and the slapstick lands with young kids even without much French. It's the sit-down reset for when the sailboats have run their course but nobody wants to leave.

Water tables to splash at, a construction site where kids operate the cranes, exhibits on the body and the senses they can actually touch: the Cité des Enfants is built for ages 2 to 12. It sits inside the Cité des Sciences in Parc de la Villette, one of Europe's largest science museums, whose planetarium runs shows through the day — worth timing around a space fan. Entirely indoors and air-conditioned, it's the reset day for rain or heat. The Cité des Enfants runs timed sessions: book online ahead or on arrival.

If the queue is long or the kids need to burn energy first, it is right outside the door and free.

To a young kid, it's simply a boat ride — and it happens to glide past the Louvre, Notre-Dame and the Eiffel Tower in about an hour, with no walking and no queue to get in. Afterwards, walk the Île de la Cité for Notre-Dame's façade and flying buttresses, dramatic enough from outside, then cross to Île Saint-Louis, a quiet residential island of narrow streets famous for its ice cream. Cruise docks cluster near the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame and the Louvre; buy tickets at the dock or online.

If the boat times don't line up, Sainte-Chapelle on the same island is a small 13th-century royal chapel whose upper level is wrapped almost entirely in stained glass. Walk in, jaws drop, walk out: it rarely takes more than half an hour.

The white basilica of Sacré-Cœur, completed in the early 1900s, crowns Montmartre, and an antique carousel by the steps up makes a good excuse for a break partway. The terrace in front gives one of the widest views over Paris, free and unticketed. Behind the basilica, old Montmartre's cobbled lanes and small squares, with artists at work in Place du Tertre, make an easy wander now the climbing is done.

If a last-day climb doesn't appeal, head west to the Jardin d'Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne, a long-established amusement park and garden built for young children: gentle rides, a small farm and playgrounds spread through parkland. It's flatter and lower-key, and it still feels like an outing.