To us, nothing says a fairy-tale Europe like exploring historic stunning castles. We’ve visited several stunning castles in Europe and we’re always on the lookout for more. We’ve listed all of the castles, chateaux, palaces, fortresses, and citadels we’ve mentioned on Tapped Out Travellers.
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Paris is incredibly kid-friendly. Here are our top 10 tips for having an amazing family-friendly vacation in the City of Light.
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Such a beautiful, fast-paced city with so land landmarks, spread out across such a large area; it would be easy for kids to be overwhelmed with Paris. Kids’ Paris Travel Books are meant to prepare them for the concepts they will see in the City of Lights, and hopefully, give them a few tidbits of information to pass along to mom and dad during a tour.
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Munchkin had a mid-term break ( I know, I fell like he just started the other day but hey, vacation is vacation) and hubby had some leftover vacation days so we finally got to take the Normandy road trip that I have been planning for months.
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We decided our second to last stop, Nantes, was going to be all about the kids. Having done the hiking thing, and the castle thing, even the museum thing, their time was now here. Driving 2 hours from Mont St Michel to Nantes, we parked the car and walked to the Island. No one was sure what to expect; Nantes was recommended from a traveling friend of mine when she toured Normandy with her family last year. Her kids, similar ages and likes, had a great time, so I figured, why not, it looks cool enough.
It’s no secret that the historic and famous island of Mont St Michel is all stairs. There were a handful of inclines but for the most part, just stairs, stairs and more stairs, until you reached the Abbey at the very top. So before we even arrived at the site, there were a few things I needed to do in order to be properly prepared.
The first thing I did was make sure I had a functioning system to carry the baby. She is 18 months, roughly 25 lbs (13 kg) and stubborn as her mother. The baby bijorn was mailed to my sister shortly after Munich in September, she is way too heavy to be on my chest for that long and refuses to sit so low on my back. A friend gave me her hiking toddler backpack. We used it with the munchkin on a long walk once and it was great. We threw that into the car, made sure to bring the canopy and packed a few snacks, juice pack and a diaper into the little compartment and forget they existed… they will come in handy one day.
Secondly, what were we going to wear on our feet? The weather network said it was only a 20% chance of rain but I wanted nothing to do with chances, not this far from home, not on this terrain. Everyone wore waterproof footwear with great ankle support. We also all had waterproof jackets with hoods, scarves, gloves, and hats in the diaper bag and wore pants we could actually move in – no skinny-jeans today. Today was not a fashion show, today was functionality over aesthetics.
Starting as a small church in the 11th century, Mont St Michel had been in the minds of church and state since 709 ad when they say the Archangel Michel requested its commission. During the French Revolution, the Abbey was temporarily turned into a prison; according to Walt Disney, this was the site where Mickey from “the Three musketeers” was imprisoned.
Back in 1879, the tidal causeway was converted into a dry causeway. This had the unpredictable effect of building up silt by the bay. Pasture land was also created at this time. In 2006 the French Prime Minister signed a 164 million euro project to create a hydraulic dam to remove the built up silt and make Mont St Michel an island again. Construction began in 2009; the dry causeway was removed and the parking lot was moved 2.2 km away from the island in April 2012.
We drove the whole 4 km from our hotel to the parking lot, made our way over to the bus stop and tried to find the horse and buggy line. The Horse and Buggy didn’t start until 1030 am… it was 930 am. Nope. We will try again on the way back.
The bus was packed. The parking lot is the first stop on the line, which was great, but everyone kept pushing and cramming into the bus. No one left their seats to allow my young children to sit so munchkin got to stand and I had to hold baby girl while trying not to take anyone’s eyes out with my carrier. Definitely not safe.
A few also felt the need to push my son around while they were exiting the bus on the second or third stop. There was no need for this. Eventually, the hubby found a seat and yelled at the guy trying to sit down while my son was headed for it. Not cool guys, not cool.
Because the bus was so full, it had to stop at the other stations along the way anyways. Many tried to get on, and many were pushed right back off the bus. Like I said, a few got out along the way, I guess there was something to see and do there, but we were not interested. Word of warning; if you are going to get out here, might be best to walk back to the parking lot or just finish the journey to the mount by foot, because it looked nearly impossible to catch the bus from these locations.
As the bus was pulling up to the island, I noticed another bus pulling away and it was full of passengers. I was thinking, ‘it is only 945 am. Why are you leaving already? Surely you all didn’t stay at the hotels on the island?’
Sure enough, they were leaving because the causeway was flooded. According to the website, the tide comes up twice a day, and lowers twice a day. OK, common knowledge. What I failed to read was the height of these tides. 3 days per year the tides overtake the causeway and makes it impassable for roughly 1 hour at a time. Crowds were forming on the bridge, and on the island side as hotel guests wanted to leave or just take in the view. One brave family took off their shoes, hiked up their pants and walked across. Poor guys still got their knees wet; the waves are stronger the closer you get to the island.
We waited 10 minutes, and made the walk ourselves. Hubby carried the munchkin, I’m already wearing the baby and we walked quickly and carefully to the other side. I took a pinch too long and got a good splash near the end but I quickly dried. A few others tried their luck but it was a long 15 minutes before the others were able to cross dryly.
I have to say though, some of the footwear I saw these people wearing made me cringe. I can’t imagine the pain and blisters they are going to care for when they get back home.
The climb up to the Abbey, the icon at the top of Mont St Michel, was definitely a hike. Pretty sure it was harder than climbing Etretat a few days before. I knew I was practicing for something. There were gift shops everywhere, which I refused to enter for a number of reasons; I am not carrying souvenirs up the hill, then back down, there was a cheaper option across from my hotel that I found the night before, and the baby carrier would be akin to bull in a china shop.
As you can see from my photos below, the streets are not super narrow but they do make for close quarters. Keeps the kiddos close and keep an eye out for hidden stair ways. We found a few, the boys went exploring and I took a rest. Those alleys are rarely wider than one person and most do not have hand railings. Hiking Boots! Always wear Hiking boots!
There were many restaurants and hotels along our walk, though several of the hotels entrances were along these smaller alleys. I spied a few of the price charts near the doors and they were definitely pricier than the one we stayed at; 250 euro per night. Maybe if it was just the two of us, but with the kids, I prefer the cheap and close-enough hotels.
The cost to get into the Abbey differs based on employment status and citizenship but for us, it was 9 euro each and the kids were free. We choose not to get the audio-guide since they cost extra and we probably wouldn’t hear half of what they were saying anyways. Thanks kids!
Again, there was a wicked climb to get to the main lobby, but also a few wrap around walk ways with a spectacular view of the town and causeway. At the end of the walk, there are stairs leading down. We quickly turned around and made our way back to the Abbey – no sense going in the wrong direction.
So we paid, munchkin had a little freak out over snacks and potty breaks. Which in turn got the little lady all worked up. Once we climbed even more stairs – God help us walk back down – we made it to the main Abbey area where we let the both walk around and have a snack. Pretty sure no food was allowed but we did it outside (where the birds can eat any crumbs) and made sure to discourage crumb-making. The whole tour took about an hour, there was a lot of stopping, looking and sitting. Munchkin was getting tired. Baby girl walked as much as she could. I carried her in the smaller stairways, and finally put her back into the carrier when it was time for the big stairs down to the lobby again.
It didn’t take long for baby girl to fall asleep. We made our way out of the abbey, walked around a little and started the giant climb down the hill. The stairs weren’t hard to climb, per say, but my centre of gravity was all off so I took my sweet time. Munchkin, on the other hand, wanted to fly down the stairs. Not sure where he wanted to go exactly but he was in a rush to get there. Another beauty of my hiking carrier; it has independent legs so I could just take her off and place her on the floor while we ate.
Parking; 11,70 euro
Not stroller friendly at all – found a few people try to bring their umbrella stroller. Fail. Others carried the kids free in their arms – too heavy for me. No thank you.
An excellent resource for planning all of Germany can we found with the Lonely Planet Normandy Guide
For more information on the gear, we wear during cold-weather vacations, check out a recent post on the Proper Gear to wear in a European Winter.
Do you have any Tapped Out Tips?
Questions or Comments? Join the conversation below.
With mid-term break around the corner, I needed to find something that the whole family could enjoy and not break the bank; we have been travelling a lot lately and we enjoy it, my bank account, however, has a different opinion. A one week tour of Normandy, including the cliffs of Étretat and Mont St Michel, was first on our long list of one-week road trips we NEEDED to do before moving back home in a few years.
Our first road trip in 6 months took quite a few tries before finalizing the final trip. Changing dates, narrowing down the cities we explored and how much time each location required to properly explore. All of this, while trekking along our 18-month-old and 4.5 year old kids.
After driving nearly 6 hours from home just to reach the cliffs, we offloaded at our hotel and went into town for dinner. Most everything didn’t serve dinner until 7 pm so we ended up eating fairly late, but we had a chance to walk around the town of Fécamp, which was nice after being in a car for so long.
The hotel was pretty awesome too. The property is a farm in the middle of no-where; we ended up driving up a dirt road for a while and narrowly missed the driveway. In the front yard, hidden from view by thick trees, we saw a Yurts and a Tipis. We rented the Tipis. The kids got a kick out of it; there was a shared bathroom so my son had a great time walking through the “woods” to get there, a wallaby was parked at the fence directly in front of our tipi and the peacocks helped keep the kids occupied while we packed the car. Review to come shortly.
Regardless of the time, these kids go to bed, their internal clock always wakes them between 6/7 am. Munchkin woke first, played on our phone for a little while but we had left the majority of our luggage in the car since there wasn’t much room in the tipi for non-essentials, this means toys were left behind as well.
We packed up the car when the kids were done sitting around, waiting for the sun to come up. We decided to visit the cliffs first and check out our breakfast options afterwards. This is why I always pack an assortment of snacks when we road trip; you never know when a meal is going to be postponed. In this case, it was Sunday morning and none of the cafes or restaurants served food beyond croissants until 11 am.
We arrived at the parking lot as the sun was starting to rise. There were a handful of keeners and their dogs but for a tourist site on a weekend, it was pretty empty. We changed into our waterproof hiking boots, threw some splash pants on the kids and went for a hike. The baby girl was strapped nice and tight into the hiking back-pack; I gave my baby carrier away after Munich – she is way too heavy to be strapped to my chest and refuses to sit that low when it carry it on my back. This backpack allowed her to rest higher on my shoulders and therefore had an unobstructed view of the area. P.S If your baby refuses mitts like mine, wash and tumble dry a pair of $1 gloves – instant infant gloves.
It didn’t take long to realize that Munchkin has a lot more courage than me when it comes to heights and he was walking much faster than me too. Hubby kept him in his sights and I just worried about not falling backwards – I probably should have practised walking up steps and hiking up a cliff with this pack before attempting it in the field. Oh well, practice now for Mont St Michel?
Once we were finally at the top, which really didn’t take that long, the view was amazing. The sun was rising onto the cliffs and even the kids were expressing their aww.
Way at the top of the cliff there was a fenced path; it looks like a bridge until you get to it and realize there is solid ground underneath, but nothing around it. After this bridge/path, there is another large ledge/lookout. Walk down a few steps around this ledge and you’ll come across yet another path/bridge that leads to this beautiful rock formation. If you look closely to the second image, you can see the hubby in the blue jacket, peering through a hole in the rocks, looking out over the beach. I didn’t make the journey; someone needed to photograph if from my end – sure, let’s go with that excuse.
We were all starting to get a little hungry and our two-hour parking window was going to run out soon so we started making our way back down the cliff. The hike was much easier, obviously, but the rocks were much more slippery on the way down. Because I had a baby strapped to my back, I walked along the rough shoulder of the path. Munchkin decided to be a dare-devil and walked along the slippery centre “I would never fall, mommy, I’m big and strong”. It wasn’t steep enough for him to roll down anywhere if he did slip, he would just have a bruised butt – and ego – so I let him be. Keeping him from running down the hill was a real test of parenting; since he had yet to slip, I must be wrong about the slippery-ness of the rocks, and therefore running was the acceptable speed to climb down a giant cliff.
Once at the bottom, we took a second set of stairs to the beach floor. The baby girl desperately wanted out of the backpack and munchkin wanted to explore the cave that was around the corner. While Hubby took him to the caves, I unloaded the baby and let her play in the rocks and sand.
There is a decent sized sign at the top of the stairs that warns visitors; access the beach at your own risk because the waves are higher than expected (I can vouch for that, my shoes got overrun with water in an area I thought was safe), no dogs allowed, and do not take even a single pebble. They are scattered throughout the beach and don’t look like much but the pebbles help keep the sand on the beach, as well as keep the town from flooding. It took a few conversations to get the kids to drop the pebbles and not grab another when I wasn’t looking.
Food wasn’t exactly easy to find. Every restaurant and cafe we walked into either didn’t serve food until 11/noon , or they only served croissants. 2 out of 4 of us refuse to eat croissants so that wasn’t going to work for us. We did manage to find a nice bakery that had a mix of sandwiches, treats and bread. I also grabbed an eclair for the road; I only have 1 week to eat as many of these guys as I can, I won’t let something as silly as ’10 am’ get in the way.
The cliffs of Étretat was an amazing experience for us all. My son loves to tell his friends that he could ‘see the world’ from the top of the cliffs. Baby girl loved racing away from the oncoming waves.
The day was still young so we made our merry way to Honfleur, roughly 45km away. Be sure to check back with us in a few days, or better yet – sign up for the email – to keep up with the road-trip updates.
For more information on the gear, we wear during cold-weather vacations, check out a recent post on the Proper Gear to wear in a European Winter.
An excellent resource for planning all of Germany can we found with the Lonely Planet Normandy Guide
Do you have any Tapped Out Tips?
Questions or Comments? Join the conversation below.
While the French Riviera might conjure up images of celebrities at the Cannes Film Festival and cars zooming around the streets during the Monaco Grand Prix, the South of France is still a great destination for families. But what do you do with kids when you visit France’s Southern coast?
After spending the day at Marineland in the next town over
We stayed at the Ibis Style Vieux Port; the location was awesome – close enough to everything that we could walk but far enough away that we didn’t hear the nightlife outside. There is also a few great pizza places around the corner since we were too tired to eat out the next night.
As an avid Hard Rock Cafe fan, we went straight to their location along the Promenade des Anglais. We took the 2 km scenic route instead of taking the bus, mostly because we wanted to look around but also because we had no idea where the bus stop was.
One of the nicest things to do in Nice with kids is a trip to the beach. If you’re lucky enough to visit during the warmer months, you could plan an entire day around the shore.
We walked across the street to check out the Promenade properly, as well as step in the water for a little bit. It was cooling down but still warm. Turns out, Nice only has rocky beaches. I never would have thought it, considering the amount of people in the water and others sunbathing, but not a speck of sand to be seen.
Tip – Bring water shoes, Crocs or Teva’s to protect yourkids’s sensitive feet on the pebbles.
During the warmer months, you’ll even see street performers in the evening. Take a minute to listen to the music, watch the roller bladers skate around cones or buy chocolate covered peanuts from a vendor.
This idea was to go home after this, but we got distracted by some more sites. There were Bouncy Castles beside the Carousel at the Monument du Centenaire, so I bought enough tickets for all. Turns out they are not related and needed two different tickets. I found a guy in line and sold him my unused ones, slight lose but better than nothing. He mentioned my accent sounded Canadian, I told him I was, so he tried to give me Canadian currency. No thanks buds, I need Euros, good try though. Baby girl did have a good time, but her smile disappeared every time the camera came out, of course.
Like any other day, these little monsters had trouble sleeping in the same room, especially after having napped on the way from Marineland to the hotel. They were also up nice and early. I don’t understand how they can run off so little sleep, and so little food. Click here for our hotel routine and our vain attempts to survive time change. I find they never have much appetite when the hotel offers free breakfast. We took a few pieces on the road and made our way to the Vieux Port. We were under the impression that a cruise was leaving for Monte Carlo at 930. Turns out, it was a few days ago. Oh well, we were already there. We found Le Phare de Nice to walk to, a few monuments along the way and the view was pleasant.
Walk or take the elevator (ascenseur), if you have a stroller, up to Parc du Château for spectacular views. It’s also a great spot to let the kids run free. You can go up on the Promenade side and down on the Port side to see more of Nice. The area is great place to enjoy a picnic lunch or dinner, in a relaxed, family environment.
The Petite Train also goes up to the Château and gives you 10 minutes at the top, just enough time to take pictures. If the little ones like trains and can’t make the walk up, take the train. The train also drives by the tourist spots, so it’s an easy way to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time.
As we are walking towards the Promenade to find the splash pad from yesterday, we came across these beautiful stairs. We didn’t know what they were for, or where they lead, so we looked around for some information or plaques. A big sign said it was for a castle. Perfect. Hubby and munchkin went up the stairs.
I did see a small white sign that said “ascenseurs” and I know that means elevator but I was probably too tired to register, because it took me a good 5 minutes to realize I, too, could visit the castle. I don’t even know what I was planning on doing while the boys were climbing up and down, I just knew that the baby’s harness was in the car and I was not going to climb those stairs.
At the entrance of the tunnel to the elevator is a nice guard that waves at you when you enter. Follow the corridor to the elevator. Signs everywhere say not to touch anything. The guard can see you through their not-so-hidden cameras and they are in control of the two elevators. So I went in, and was released at the main viewing platform at the top of the hill. As a person that is terrified of heights, I was not prepared to the landing. The doors opened and Bam! there was the city. The only thing between it and me was a metal railing and just enough floor space to maneuver my beast of a stroller around the corner. At the back of the elevator, I needed to walk over a bridge to get to “main land”. As far as irrational fears go, I am much better at facing them when I am alone, or at least not faced with the possibility of judgement or ridicule. When I walked up the Arc du Triomphe in Paris, it was just the kids and I so I managed to hold it together since my freaking out would only make the kids do something stupid instead of behave – this is what I need them to do when climbing epic amounts of stairs. Today was the same’ it was just me and the baby. I kept my mouth shut and just did it. She didn’t say a word, no one was around so I could take as long as I wanted, and make as many strange faces, scared noises and turn red-faced as I needed to get the job done. When I say I am afraid of heights, I’m not kidding. Climbing a step stool makes me nervous. Looking at the city from the “best advantage point” made my heart jump out of my chest.
According to the signs around the castle, the elevator shaft is the remodeled well for the castle, once called the “Devil’s well”, around 85 yards deep and dug in the 16th century.
Anyways, once I was at the base of the castle, it was much better. I met up with the boys, we climbed the castle, played in the park and had some (overpriced) Ice Cream at the little cafe before climbing back down. The Petit Train de Nice drove by us while we were walking around. I would like to say that if I had known, we would have taken that instead but they are 15 euro per person, and only stop for 20 minutes at the castle – this isn’t a Hop on Hop off style either, miss your train and good luck finding a seat on the next one that rolls by.
We had been promising them the splash pad since our failed attempt at a cruise this morning so we made our way in that general direction. Again, we got distracted and found ourselves at the Flower Market. The actual flowers were at the end of the market, the rest was a healthy mix of produce, dried meats and lavender soaps. Munchkin insisted on a soap shaped like a macaroon, such a boy. Sadly, no photos were taken. Too much fun exploring and keeping his hands off the food.
Finally found the splash pad. The baby was asleep so hubby went to play with him. It was nice. I got to sit in the shade and read a little while they played.
While I was relaxing and reading, I found the directions to the Russian Orthodox Church. I don’t imagine myself ever visiting Russia, mainly because the Baltic Cruise is so expensive, so I really wanted to visit this. We stopped for food and made our way to the bus stop. Baby woke up during lunch, which is great, and munchkin started to get bossy and rude, which meant he was tired. I don’t blame him, I was exhausted just watching him play, I couldn’t imagine what he felt like. Grabbed a bus, walked a pinch and found the church. There were signs everywhere so we didn’t even need our map once we found the right stop. There wasn’t a visible handi-ramp so we took turns sitting with him and baby girl got to visit twice. She was such a good girl too, her big brother taught her well about behaviour in a church.
The parks throughout Nice are awesome, so you can’t go wrong with taking a break and letting the kids run around in one.
They also have a splash pad nearby and we let the kids cool off.
Anyways, moving on. We left the Place Massena for the 2nd time today and started to walk back to the hotel. We snacked on crepes and slushies and wanted to see if we could find anything to eat along the way. We didn’t find anything that the kids would like to eat, in a setting that they would be welcomed in, but we did manage to find the old city. I say find; we were walking along the sidewalk next to the highway and we see stairs leading down, under beautiful archways and wonder where does this lead… wonder no more, we have no where to be at the moment.
Amazing streets of filled with shops. People everywhere. The centre square had yet another church and munchkin loves to explore churches. I love to indulge him. Église Saint Augustin
Finally, we were back at the hotel. Found a pizza place across the street and ate in our air-conditioned room. It was late, and we had a plane to catch in the morning. Despite the extra naps from both kids, they happily went to sleep when we asked.
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