Background
In May 2022, our family took a fun trip to Paris. On our last full day in Paris, we spent the morning at the Louvre museum and the afternoon enjoying the Luxembourg gardens and making macarons at a fun family class. Read more about our day!
Read all of our Paris posts at the following links:
- Flight details (free using points!) Jetlag with kids, packing tips, and more.
- Hotel stays: Versailles, Hyatt Paris (free using points!) & Disney
- Itinerary and Logistics (phone, metro, language)
- Versailles Palace and Gardens & an awesome Chartres light show
- Paris Day 1: Eiffel Tower, Arch De Triomph, Boat Tour
- Paris Day 2: Sainte Chapelle, Musee D’ Orsay, Montmartre
- Paris Day 3: Louvre, Luxembourg Gardens, Macaron Class (This post)
- Disneyland Paris: Best rides, shows and activities
Day 3: Louvre, Luxembourg Gardens, Macaron Class at Galleries Lafayette
After another delicious hotel breakfast (Yay for free breakfast!), we took the metro to the Louvre Museum. We had made timed reservations and joined the long lines at the pyramid entrance. The Louvre is huge and spread out over different wings. Prior to our visit at home, we watched some videos that the Louvre website put together on some of the more well-known pieces. We knew that we needed to follow the crowds to the Mona Lisa first as it would only get more crowded. We also passed briefly by highlights such as the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Iran artifacts, and other cool paintings and sculptures. Like the Orsay museum, even the building itself was really cool to look at. The center of the Louvre area under the pyramid is a good place to stop for bathrooms and snacks and to reorient yourself.
After a few hours, we went in search of a kid’s studio I had read about only. I thought it was the petite gallery but that was just a gallery of small things lol! The studio is the name of the kid’s area and had some games, coloring, and just a low-key large room for getting some kid-focused time before we continued some brief exploring in the Richelieu wing. Overall we spent 4 hours at the Louvre and the mini-break was key.
After the museum, we walked towards a sit-down lunch and then spent some time at the Luxembourg gardens. Our time was too short at this fun park. There was a pond for renting boats, pony rides, and multiple large playgrounds. We did have to pay a small fee to enter the playground which felt silly but the kids enjoyed it and I enjoyed having time to sit and relax.
One of the highlights of our trip was a family macaron baking class at the department store the Galleries Lafayette. In the 1.5 hour class, the instructor showed us how to whip up the shells, let the kids pipe them, and we worked together to make the fillings for the macarons. The class was the perfect amount of hands-on but still foolproof patience for kids. Each kid required an adult partner and we made 6 macarons, pistachio and chocolate. Everything was provided and the class was a lot of fun. There are lots of cooking classes offered throughout Paris. The department store itself has lots of floors with a really cool domed ceiling and a rooftop bar.
After our class, we did some clothes shopping at H&M and ate some dinner before heading back to the hotel to pack for our last section of the trip, Disneyland!
More Paris Posts
Read all of our Paris posts at the following links:
- Flight details (free using points!) Jetlag with kids, packing tips, and more.
- Hotel stays: Versailles, Hyatt Paris (free using points!) & Disney
- Itinerary and Logistics (phone, metro, language)
- Versailles Palace and Gardens & an awesome Chartres light show
- Paris Day 1: Eiffel Tower, Arch De Triomph, Boat Tour
- Paris Day 2: Sainte Chapelle, Musee D’ Orsay, Montmartre
- Paris Day 3: Louvre, Luxembourg Gardens, Macaron Class (This post)
- Disneyland Paris: Best rides, shows and activities
