France for three generations: Paris, Burgundy, Provence and the Riviera

1. Day 1: Arrive in Paris

   Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to your hotel in central Paris

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Early welcome dinner
   • Stay in Paris
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) at any time. A driver meets your family in the arrivals hall, with child seats if you ask for them at booking, for the drive into the city, 45 to 75 minutes depending on traffic. The hotel is central and has a lift, and we ask for family or connecting rooms so grandparents sleep next door. Rooms are usually ready by mid-afternoon; if you land early, leave the bags and walk to a nearby park or café, or simply sleep off the flight. At 5:30 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets everyone in the lobby for a short briefing: how the days work, where the easy and active options are, and what to pack for the river and the beach. Then we walk to a neighbourhood bistro for an early welcome dinner at about 6:30, so the youngest are in bed at a sensible hour.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Early welcome dinner at a local bistro

   Free time: Free until the 5:30 pm briefing

   Activity: Land by about 3 pm to reach the briefing comfortably; later arrivals are met and join the group at dinner.

2. Day 2: Paris: the Eiffel Tower, the Seine and the Luxembourg Gardens

   The Eiffel Tower, a Seine boat, then the Luxembourg Gardens

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Paris
   Day 2 details

   We start at the Eiffel Tower on the first lift slot of the morning, before the queues build, and ride up to the second floor, about 115 metres, where the whole city is laid out and children can pick out Notre-Dame, the Arc de Triomphe and the Seine's bridges. From the foot of the tower a boat takes us along the river for about an hour, past the Musée d'Orsay, the Louvre and the Île de la Cité, seated the whole way, which suits tired legs. Lunch is your choice near the river. Then the afternoon is free to rest at the hotel. At about 4 pm the vehicle takes anyone who wants it to the Luxembourg Gardens, where children have sailed wooden toy boats across the Grand Bassin with a stick for generations, while grandparents take the green metal chairs in the shade. There is a carousel and a playground too, and the evening is free.

   Included

   • The Eiffel Tower by lift to the second floor, first slot of the day
   • A one-hour boat on the Seine
   • Toy sailboat hire on the Grand Bassin in the Luxembourg Gardens

   Optional experiences

   • The Eiffel Tower summit, when open, for a supplement
   • The puppet theatre in the Luxembourg Gardens on the days it plays

   Easier option: Skip the gardens and rest at the hotel; the vehicle runs everyone else there and back.

   More active option: Walk back from the gardens through Saint-Germain and along the Seine to Notre-Dame with your guide, about 2 km.

   Free time: Lunch, early afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3 to 4 km on foot over the day. The tower's lifts take you up; the stairs are optional.

   

3. Day 3: Versailles and the Queen's Hamlet

   Paris to the Palace of Versailles and its gardens, and back

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Paris
   Day 3 details

   The vehicle leaves at about 8:15 for the 40-minute drive to Versailles, so we are at the palace for the 9 am opening with a timed ticket. A local guide used to family groups takes us through the State Apartments and the Hall of Mirrors in about 90 minutes, with stories of kings, queens and royal pets that hold a 9-year-old's attention. Then we leave the crowds for the gardens. The little train carries everyone, grandparents included, past the fountains to the Trianon palaces and on to the Queen's Hamlet, Marie-Antoinette's play village of thatched cottages, with a working farm of goats, sheep and hens. Lunch is together in the park. Afterwards families can hire a rowing boat on the Grand Canal in the warm months, or sit by the water. We are back in Paris by about 3:30 for a rest and a free evening.

   Included

   • The Palace of Versailles at opening with a local guide: the State Apartments and the Hall of Mirrors
   • The little train through the gardens to the Trianon and the Queen's Hamlet
   • The Queen's Hamlet and its farm
   • Lunch in the park of Versailles

   Optional experiences

   • A rowing boat on the Grand Canal (warm months)
   • The musical fountains show on the days it runs

   Easier option: Stay on the little train for the full loop and sit by the Grand Canal while the others walk the Hamlet.

   More active option: Hire bikes and ride the paths round the Grand Canal, about 5.5 km, flat and traffic-free.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Paris

   Activity: About 4 to 5 km on foot. Versailles is closed on Mondays, so this day never falls on one. Free entry for young visitors depends on age and residence (the 18 to 25 rule is for EU residents only), so we include every ticket and confirm the children's rules when we book.

4. Day 4: TGV to Dijon and on to Beaune

   Paris Gare de Lyon to Dijon by TGV, then the Route des Grands Crus to Beaune

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Beaune
   Day 4 details

   The big cases leave by road after breakfast, so families board a mid-morning TGV to Dijon with day bags only, about 1 hour 40 minutes in reserved seats together. In Dijon your guide walks a short loop through the old capital of the Dukes of Burgundy to the stone owl on the wall of Notre-Dame, which everyone touches with the left hand for luck. Lunch is your choice, and on market mornings the iron-roofed Les Halles is full of food stalls. Our vehicle and driver meet us early in the afternoon for the Route des Grands Crus, the road through the vineyard villages to Beaune, about 50 km. Before checking in we visit a working mustard mill, where children see the seeds crushed and everyone tastes the result. There is time for the carousel in Place Carnot, and dinner is Burgundian at about 6:30, with plain dishes for small appetites.

   Included

   • TGV from Paris Gare de Lyon to Dijon, reserved seats
   • Cases moved by road from Paris to Beaune
   • Dijon on foot with your guide and the owl of Notre-Dame
   • The Route des Grands Crus to Beaune
   • A mustard mill visit and tasting in Beaune
   • Early Burgundian dinner in Beaune

   Easier option: Stay on a café terrace near Notre-Dame in Dijon while the group walks the loop.

   Free time: Lunch free in Dijon; time before dinner in Beaune

   Activity: About 3 km on foot. If moving the cases by road is not possible on your date, porters meet the group at both stations.

5. Day 5: Beaune and the vineyard villages

   Beaune to Pommard, Volnay and Meursault, and back

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Beaune
   Day 5 details

   We start at the Hospices de Beaune as it opens. Built in 1443 as a hospital for the poor, it has a courtyard roofed in glazed, multicoloured tiles and a long Great Hall of the Poor still lined with red-curtained beds, which children find both strange and fascinating; the visit takes about an hour. Then the vehicle takes us a few kilometres south through Pommard and Volnay to Meursault. These vineyard plots, the climats, have been on the UNESCO list since 2015, and a short, flat walk between their low stone walls is enough to see why one slope makes a different wine from the next. In a family cellar a winegrower pours small tastings for the adults and grape juice for the children. Lunch is in a village restaurant, and we are back in Beaune by about 2:30. The afternoon is free for a nap, the hotel garden or an ice cream in town.

   Included

   • Hospices de Beaune (Hôtel-Dieu) at opening
   • A short vineyard walk in the Côte de Beaune with your guide
   • Cellar visit with a winegrower: tastings for adults, grape juice for children
   • Lunch in a Côte de Beaune village

   Easier option: Skip the vineyard walk and wait in the village square before the cellar visit.

   More active option: After lunch, cycle back from Meursault to Beaune on the Voie des Vignes, a flat, mostly traffic-free path through the vineyards, about 8 km and 40 minutes; bikes with child seats or children's bikes arranged at booking.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Beaune

   Activity: About 3 km on foot. Tastings are small pours and there are soft drinks for anyone not drinking.

6. Day 6: Lyon for lunch, then south to Avignon

   Beaune to Lyon, then Avignon

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Avignon
   Day 6 details

   This is the trip's longest road day, about 4 hours in total, chosen over a one-night hotel change in Lyon and split in two by a long stop. We leave Beaune at about 8:30 and are in Lyon by 10:15, after 1 hour 45 on the motorway. A funicular climbs to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière and the view over the city's two rivers, and a second funicular brings us down to Vieux Lyon, where your guide shows the children the traboules, hidden passages that cut between the Renaissance houses, and the home of Guignol, the puppet born in Lyon about two hundred years ago. Lunch is in a bouchon, the Lyon bistro, at about 12:30. At 2:30 we drive on down the Rhône valley, about 2 hours 15 with a break, and reach Avignon by about 5:15, in time for a swim before supper.

   Included

   • Funiculars up to Fourvière and down to Vieux Lyon
   • Vieux Lyon's traboules with your guide
   • Lunch in a Lyon bouchon

   Easier option: Stay at the Fourvière viewpoint café, then take the funicular straight down to lunch.

   More active option: Walk down from Fourvière through the Rosary Gardens to Vieux Lyon, about 20 minutes of steps and slopes.

   Free time: Evening free in Avignon

   Activity: About 2 to 3 km on foot. The two drives are 1 hour 45 and about 2 hours 15, with a break on the second.

   

7. Day 7: The Palais des Papes and the Carrières des Lumières

   Avignon, then Les Baux-de-Provence and back

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Avignon
   Day 7 details

   The popes lived in Avignon for most of the 14th century, and their Palais des Papes is a Gothic fortress with walls metres thick. We go in at opening, before the heat and the groups, and each family gets a tablet guide that rebuilds the bare rooms as they were, with banquets and furniture appearing on the screen, which keeps children looking up. Then down to the Pont Saint-Bénézet, the bridge of the song that stops after four arches halfway across the Rhône, where nobody resists dancing a few steps. After lunch near Les Baux-de-Provence, about 40 minutes away, we spend the hottest part of the afternoon in the Carrières des Lumières, an old quarry where paintings and music are projected across walls and floor; it stays cool all year. A short wander in the village lanes, and we are back in Avignon by about 5 pm.

   Included

   • Palais des Papes at opening, with a tablet guide and your guide
   • Pont Saint-Bénézet
   • Lunch near Les Baux-de-Provence
   • The Carrières des Lumières show
   • The village of Les Baux-de-Provence

   Easier option: Stay in the lower lanes of Les Baux, which are gentler, and skip the climb through the village.

   More active option: Climb to the ruined castle at the top of Les Baux for the view over the Alpilles, about 30 minutes up.

   Free time: Evening free in Avignon

   Activity: About 3 to 4 km on foot, with stairs inside the palace. Bring a layer for the quarry. The show changes each year and the quarry closes for a few weeks in winter.

8. Day 8: A river day at the Pont du Gard

   Avignon to the Pont du Gard and back

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Avignon
   Day 8 details

   We drive half an hour west to the Pont du Gard at about 9, while the morning is cool. This Roman aqueduct bridge, built in the 1st century AD to carry water to Nîmes, stands about 49 metres high on three tiers of arches and has been on the UNESCO list since 1985. Your guide walks the group across the river beside it, then into the site museum, where children can see how the Romans levelled a channel for 50 km, and to the children's discovery area. Lunch is a picnic on the riverbank below the arches. In summer the Gardon is shallow and clear at the pebble beaches here, and families swim and paddle with the bridge overhead; out of season we walk the riverside paths instead. We are back in Avignon by about 2:30, and the afternoon is free for the hotel pool or a nap inside the cool walls.

   Included

   • The Pont du Gard, its museum and the children's area with your guide
   • Picnic lunch on the riverbank
   • Swimming time in the Gardon in summer

   Easier option: Stay in the shade on the riverbank with a book while the others walk to the upper viewpoint.

   More active option: Paddle a canoe down the Gardon from Collias to the Pont du Gard, about 8 km and 2 hours, in the warm months; children must be able to swim and minimum ages apply.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Avignon

   Activity: About 2 to 3 km on foot on gravel paths. Bring swimsuits, water shoes and sun hats. There is no lifeguard on the river.

9. Day 9: Aix-en-Provence and on to Nice

   Avignon to Aix-en-Provence, then Nice

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Nice
   Day 9 details

   We drive about an hour south-east to Aix-en-Provence, the old capital of Provence, and arrive by about 10. Your guide walks the group along the Cours Mirabeau, a broad avenue of plane trees and fountains, one of them a mossy spring that runs warm all year, and into the market squares of the old town. Children are given a calisson, the almond and candied-melon sweet of Aix, to try. Lunch is together on a shaded terrace at about 12:30. At 2 the vehicle sets off along the motorway past the red rocks of the Esterel, about 2 hours with a stop, so we reach Nice by about 4:15. The hotel is near the Promenade des Anglais or the old town, and the rest of the day is for the sea: a first paddle from the pebble beach, or a slow walk along the promenade at sunset.

   Included

   • Aix-en-Provence on foot with your guide: the Cours Mirabeau and the old town
   • A taste of calissons
   • Lunch in Aix-en-Provence

   Easier option: Sit at a café on the Cours Mirabeau while the group walks the old town loop.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Nice

   Activity: About 2 km on foot. The two drives are about 1 hour and 2 hours, so no leg is over the 3-hour mark.

10. Day 10: Monaco and the Oceanographic Museum

    Nice to Monaco by the coast road, and back

    • Drive about 1.5 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Nice
    Day 10 details

    A short drive along the coast, about 40 minutes, brings us to Monaco for the opening of the Oceanographic Museum, built into the cliff of the Rock more than a century ago. Its aquarium in the basement has a shark lagoon, tropical reef tanks and a touch pool, and upstairs are the old whale skeletons and a roof terrace looking along the coast to Italy. At 11:55 we are outside the Prince's Palace for the changing of the guard, which children watch from the front if they arrive a few minutes early. Lunch is together near the harbour, followed by a short drive past the casino and along part of the Grand Prix circuit. We are back in Nice by about 3, in time for a swim or a nap. Families who want more climbing can stop in Èze on the way back, a medieval village wrapped round a rock above the sea.

    Included

    • The Oceanographic Museum of Monaco and its aquarium
    • The changing of the guard at the Prince's Palace
    • Lunch in Monaco
    • A drive past the casino and along the Grand Prix circuit

    Easier option: Ride the public lifts up to the Rock and stay at the palace square café while the group walks the old town lanes.

    More active option: Stop in Èze on the way back and climb its lanes to the cactus garden at the top, about 45 minutes of steep steps; the vehicle then returns to Nice.

    Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Nice

    Activity: About 3 km on foot, with lifts up to the Rock. The Monaco Grand Prix weekend (late May or early June) is avoided on this day.

11. Day 11: Nice: the flower market, Castle Hill and the beach

    Vieux Nice and Castle Hill on foot, then the Promenade des Anglais

    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in Nice
    Day 11 details

    The morning starts slowly in the old town. Your guide walks the group across Place Masséna, with its chequered paving and red-ochre arcades, into Cours Saleya, where the flower and produce market runs every morning except Monday. We stop for socca, the chickpea pancake of Nice, eaten hot from a paper cone. Then we take the free lift up Castle Hill, past a tumbling artificial waterfall to the playground and the view over the Baie des Anges and the old port. Lunch is your choice. In the afternoon the loungers are ours at a beach club on the Promenade des Anglais, with umbrellas, showers and a café, so grandparents can stay in the shade while children swim. At about 6:30 we gather for the farewell dinner, with Niçoise dishes for the adults and simple food for the children, and everyone is back at the hotel by about 8:30.

    Included

    • Place Masséna, Cours Saleya and Vieux Nice with your guide
    • A taste of socca
    • The Castle Hill lift, waterfall and viewpoint
    • A beach-club afternoon with loungers and umbrellas
    • Early farewell dinner

    Optional experiences

    • The Matisse Museum in Cimiez (closed Tuesdays)

    Easier option: Go straight from the market to the beach club and skip Castle Hill.

    More active option: Walk down from Castle Hill by the steps to the old port, about 15 minutes.

    Free time: Lunch free; afternoon at leisure on the beach

    Activity: About 3 km on foot. The beach is pebbly, so bring water shoes. Out of the swimming season the beach afternoon becomes a free afternoon on the promenade.

    

12. Day 12: Depart from Nice

    Your hotel in Nice to Nice Côte d'Azur Airport

    • Drive about 15 min
    • Breakfast
    Day 12 details

    Your last morning on the Riviera is unhurried. After breakfast there may be time for a final paddle in the sea or a walk along the Promenade des Anglais while the bags are packed. Your See Sight Tours guide arranges the transfers and sees every family off. Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE) is about 7 km west of the centre, around 20 minutes by car, with direct flights to many European hubs and, in the busier months, some transatlantic routes. A driver takes your party there at the time that suits your flight, with child seats if you asked for them. Flights from about 11 am are easiest for families; for an earlier flight we arrange an early breakfast or a breakfast bag. To stay on by the sea, ask us for extra nights in Nice before you book your flights.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Nice Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)

    Free time: Free until your airport transfer

    Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 11 am for a relaxed morning.

Wildlife and weather: May, June and September are warm without the worst heat, and the river and sea are usually warm enough to swim from June to September. July and August often go above 35°C in Provence and are the busiest months on the Riviera, so sightseeing starts early and afternoons are for the pool, the river or the cool of the Les Baux quarry. In April and October the swims become riverside and Promenade walks. Lavender in Provence is only in flower from late June to mid-July.

• Paris3 nights
• Beaune2 nights
• Avignon3 nights
• Nice3 nights