OK! I see where you're at! You will like that location. Here are a couple things close by that your family will probably enjoy....
Playground in the Champ de Mars: Look at your map. The playground is about 1/2 way between the Ecole Militaire and the Eiffel Tower when you're walking up the Champ de Mars. I'm pretty certain that it is even with the "cut through" that connects the Rue de Grenelle on the east side of the park and the Avenue du Gal. Detrie on the other side. There are 2 playgrounds, one only for toddlers, and one for everyone (used by toddlers on up and seems to be the most popular). This is a great place to interact with other families. It is lovely in the evening when you can watch the Eiffel Tower twinkling from the playground (first 5 minutes of every hour starting at dusk.....so either at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m.). It used to twinkle for 10 minutes, but 2 weeks ago they cut it to 5 minutes to save electricity. It is also fun at night to go up and stand UNDER the Eiffel Tower and look UP into it. Kind of makes you dizzy and kids love it!
Restaurants Close By That Work for Kids:
La Varangue 27 rue Augereau (Closed on Sundays). THis is how it is described by Rick Steve's guidebook "An entertaining one-man show featuring English-speaking Phillipe, who ran a French catering shop in Pennsylvania for three years. He lives upstairs, and clearly has found his niche serving a mostly American clientele, who are all on a first-name basis. The food is cheap and basic, the tables are few, and he opens early at 5:30 p.m. Norman Rockwell would dig his tiny dining room." We've eaten there on two different trips, and often his kids are helping out (taking orders, etc). Food was simple, very very tasty food. Different than your usual cafe options that you will find yourself shuffled into with kids. GET THE CHOCOLATE CAKE if it is on the dessert menu!!!! Get there right at 5:30 or not to long after and you will have him and the whole place to yourself for awhile. Here is a link to a map showing the location.
http://maps.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTE...2.302752&zoom=16&q1=27 rue Augereau, Paris FR
Cafe du Marche Yes, you can actually go someplace hip with a kid in tow in Paris! This is right on the corner of rue Cler and rue Champ de Mars. They are also open earlier for dinner. Always always always make room for a dessert, we can vouch for the petit gateaux (those little chocolate volcano cakes....yum!). Dark and loud and has booths. Here is a map to where they are
http://maps.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTE...lon=2.306205&zoom=16&q1=38 rue cler, Paris FR
Rue Cler This is a street near where you are. It is 2 blocks east (towards Invalides) from "your" Ecole Militaire Metro Station and the street runs up towards the Seine River. Walk up it in the morning to soak up the scene of the street farmers' market. Pop into a boulangerie for breads. Go into "the cheese shop" (you'll see it, I think it is on the right hand side of the street as you walk toward the river, makes a great photo outside of it). Take your daughter in the cheese shop and see how much her nose wrinkles up! PEEE-EW!
The Louvre If you go in the Louvre, realize it is HUGE! Look around at the building itself as it was once the royal palace. Find the basement....down underneath the Louvre underground are the old castle walls from what it stood here BEFORE the Louvre Palace was built. The old one looked like Cinderella's castle (there is a scale model in the basement of it). It is a good place to let kids run for a few minutes on these boardwalks around the old castle walls. It is kind of other-worldly because you are underground and it's like you were walking in the castle moat. It is also BLESSEDLY COOL if you're sweating buckets up in the main part of the museum in your winter clothes.
The Eiffel Tower If it is at all cool or windy, DRESS REALLY WARMLY if you go up it with your little one. We were there in February and went up, and I was about as cold as I have ever been in my life(and we live in Michigan!). Because it is all open ironwork, the wind whips right through it and comes at your from all directions. My feet were so cold they HURT from the cold wind hitting them from underneath. Forget fashion, put on an extra layer of socks, hats and gloves for the whole family. There is really no place to warm up once you are in the Tower (there is a tiny post office which is kind of heated on one level, but that's it). In fact, overall in November, assume it will be cold and wet. Have little umbrellas that you can always carry without being too bulky. Dress warmer than you might think because you will be outside A LOT and the metro stations are not heated (or at least not very much!). Cafes are always nice and warm! Pop in for a cappucino and some onion soup when you get too cold!
Notre Dame
Go up the Bell Tower. Very very cool. Go "all the way up" and walk around the big bells and then ALL the way up to the tip top of the towers. WOW!
Stuff some croissant or baguette pieces in your pockets the day you go there (or any day you'll be in the vicinity). When you're looking at Notre Dame in the plaza in front, the bushes that are BEHIND you about 2/3 of the way back on the plaza are filled with birds that will come and sit all over your arms and head if you have bread. My one son LOVED this!
My kids actually liked the D'Orsay museum when they were little. The sculpture area (you can't miss it) they found to be very cool, and the paintings were "pretty". The big clock is neat! And somewhere there is a street-model of Paris that is under your feet (you look down through glass) that had my youngest son crawling on the floor looking at it.
If you get the Paris Museum Pass, you can pop into museums and monuments and see what you want and pop back out again. You don't feel like you have to go in and "get your money's worth". You can get a one day pass for adults. Kids are free with adults. You can get them in the Metro Stations at the manned tickets booths (yes, they speak English).
Hope this helps!
