… a lovingly curated selection of the essentials you need for living in the City of Lights – prepared by people in the know.
Metro: Marcadet Poissonniers (lines 4 and 12)
Adults and kids from 7 to 12 years old can learn how to cook the French way at Cook’n with Class. Classes range from market cooking to foie gras and wine and cheese pairing, to classic French desserts. The icing on the cake? Cook n’ with Class is one of the few schools in Paris that offer cooking classes in English. They’ll even organize private family classes in the kitchen with a translator in Spanish, French, Italian or Chinese!
The American School of Paris (ASP) in Saint Cloud, a western suburb of Paris, is a great place for families to find innovative activities and holiday camps in English. Through its Extension Program the private, international school opens its world-class facilities to external students aged 4 to 18 during school vacations as well as Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout the school year.
Camps and year-round activities led in English include basketball, tennis, soccer, coding, science, fashion design, filmmaking, theatre and more. Kids looking to improve their English skills have a choice of English immersion classes and even intensive workshops to prepare for the English BAC exam or the SAT American college entrance exam. At ASP, there’s bound to be a camp or workshop right for your child.
Check out their WEBSITE for all the details!
Metro: Duroc (lines 10 and 13), Vaneau (line 10)
A classical dance school whose unique philosophy combined with a high standard for its teachings have made it the largest private dance school in Europe. Created in 1997 by American, Brooke Desnöes, she brings joy to the discipline of ballet dance. The school opens its doors to aspiring dancers from ages 4 to 21 years old and offers recreational, pre-professional and trainee programs, as well as master classes, workshops and summer intensive programs.
Alannah is passionate about demystifying the world of website creation. She runs workshops to show ordinary, not especially technical people how they can create their own website or blog. Her books are available on Amazon (her latest, Create Your Own Website The Easy Way, will be out in Spring 2016) and you can visit her website at http://www.alannahmoore.com.
Metro: Alma Marceau (line 9), Franklin D. Roosevelt (lines 1 & 9)
American Childrens Theatre is a theater company for children ages 3-16 with classes during the school year, camps (stages) during school holidays, and occasional specialized workshops. With a little acting, a little singing, a little dancing, a little silliness, your child will have a LOT of fun! They only use material that has positive values and messages. A highlight of the Fall and Spring sessions is performing in a professional theater here in Paris! The children get to experience the thrill of a real stage performance with lights, sound, effects, and a full audience. ACT can also bring their program into schools, birthday parties, and other events!
Metro: Alma-Marceau (line 9)
The largest English-language lending library on the European continent, the ALP is more than just a library. It hosts popular evenings with authors and singers, organizes reading groups for toddlers, children and adults as well as offers writing workshops for teenagers. The super friendly staff serves more than 2,500 members from more than 60 different countries.
Founded in 1982 to bring together families in the Chantilly area who speak English as a mother tongue or as a cultural language. It’s primary function is to organize classes in English within the schools in Chantilly.
When Parisian Cecile Birgand Ayasse couldn’t find original workshops for her own four kids, she set up Apprends et Rêve (“To learn and dream” in English) to create her own solution. From singing lessons with a coach from “The Voice” to Flamenco, computer coding or graffiti art, they offer imaginative weekend workshops and holiday camps where children aged 3 to 15. Activities are taught in French at various locations around Paris.
PERK FOR INSPIRELLE READERS! Mention INSPIRELLE when you sign up for a holiday camp or year-long workshop at Apprends et Rêve (“Learn and Dream“) and get a free yearly membership PLUS 15% off any one-day reservation.
This modern cooking school has 16 locations around France, including 5 in Paris, which offer cooking courses for adults and children, and a professional training center in Rueil Malmaison. You can drop of your kids for a 1-1/2 hour Graines de Chefs workshop or share the fun with a parents and kids session on Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout the year.
For more after-school and weekend activity ideas check out our ultimate guide to kid’s activities!
Metro: La Tour-Maubourg (line 8)
Offering numerous art classes during the school year, plus additional school vacation-time creative art workshops to children and adults. Bonus, English-speaking artists offer a selection of art classes from Tuesday-Saturdays during the school year.
Find out all the scoop in our ultimate guide to kid’s activities!
Metro: Dupleix (line 6)
For their next birthday party, kids 6 and up can invite their friends to become patissiers for 90 minutes as they don chef’s aprons and learn to bake bread. They leave with the yummy fruits of their labor and a diploma in hand.
Wednesdays – Sundays
Metro: Les Sablons (line 1), Louise Michel (line 3)
One of the nicer fully-equipped aquatic centers around Paris, with multiple pools for leisure and for training, as well as an outdoor pool, two solariums and a “beach” in the summer. Clean and well-organized, they also have a spa, hammams, saunas, and UV cabins.
Metro: Cardinal Lemoine (line 10), Place Monge (line 7)
A cultural and education center providing a vision and profile of the personality of Ireland. Offering student accommodations, events and activities in the heart of Paris.
Metro: Hôtel de Ville (line 1)
The Centre Danse du Marais offers over 40 different dance disciplines for children and adults, from beginners to the most advanced dancers. Choose from Classical ballet, African, Bollywood, Balinese, Belly dancing, Tap, Flamenco, Salsa, Tango, Hip Hop, Martial arts, Pilates, Yoga and much more. English is spoken.
Get more ideas about after-school and weekend activities in our ultimate guide to kid’s activities!
Metro: Corvisart (line 6)
Your kids can get limber, keep fit, gain confidence and improve their personal and physical expression while learning traditional circus arts like juggling, balancing, and walking across tight ropes. Cirqu-Aouette works with many schools around Paris and offer courses throughout the year at their center in the 13th arrondissement, as well as workshops during school holidays. For kids from 2 and up, and adults too!
Find out about more after-school and weekend activities in our ultimate guide to kid’s activities!
Metros: Cambronne (line 6), Vaugirard (line 12)
A wide offering of courses for adults and children of all ages, from Monday through Saturday. Children’s classes run the gamut from baby gym (1 year and up) to fencing and multiple martial arts disciplines (Aïkido, Judo, Karate, Kung Fu, Self Defense, Viet-Vo-Dao). They even offer dance classes (baby dance, street dance, hip-hop) and Circus/Acrobatics. For adults, all the martial arts, plus Zumba, Salsa, Classical Dance and Modern Jazz.
A friendly, private tennis and multi-sports club devoted to kids, with courses on Wednesdays and weekends through the year, and holiday sports camps for children from 3 to 14 years old. You can sign up your kids for any of their regular classes on a weekly, half day or daily basis. A convenient door-to-door minibus service shuttles kids from Paris to the club, which sits on 2 hectares of green space, 20 minutes from the Eiffel Tower in Bièvres.
Their Les Gymnases Parisiennes offers golf, gym, soccer and tennis courses for kids from 2 to 10 years on Saturdays in gyms in the 7th, 8th, 16th and 17th arrondissements of Paris.
They can even organize a sports birthday party for you. And, they speak English!
Gymboree, which some of you know from other locations abroad, is a great place for kids from 0 to 6 years old and their parents to have fun together while allowing the little ones to develop their motricity, English, gymnastic and musical skills in a colorful, padded play area. It’s also a fun birthday party venue. Ask for a FREE trial session!
3 locations in Paris (10th, 15th and 16th arrondisssments) and one in Lille la Pilaterie.
Metro: Rue de la Pompe (line 9), Trocadéro or Passy (line 6), Ave. Henri Martin (RER C)
Institut de la Tour is a private Catholic school offering an Anglophone section with over 500 students in the collège and lycée programs. Teachers and administrators aim to help their students develop intellectually, personally and spiritually employing their philosophy of “s’élèver ensemble” (raise them together).
See website for details on the Anglophone section application procedures, which begin in October for the following school year.
They also offer Wednesday afternoon English immersion programs for primary and pre-primary (maternelle) aged children.
Metro: Passy (line 6)
The International School of Paris (ISP) is the only school within Paris offering all three International Baccalaureate programs. From nursery school to high school, the educational program combining academics, arts and sports is designed to motivate students to become well rounded, sociable and open-minded. Classes are kept small (18-20 students) to encourage exchange between teacher and students. Its motto: “Educating for Complexity”.
Through their popular ISP Plus programs, also open to non-ISP students, they offer innovative and educational language and activity camps led in English on Saturdays during the school year and over the major school holidays.
Young children from 0 to 6 will have fun discovering music, rythym and dance with percussion instruments, theatre songs, gymnastic movements and puppets at the Jack N’ Jill Music Club. All classes are run in English and are limited to small groups. They have locations in Paris (17th arrondissement) and in the suburbs near Disneyland Paris, and will soon be opening another location in Paris (15th arrondissement). Contact them for exact locations.
Find out all the scoop in our ultimate guide to kid’s activities!
If you love some of INSPIRELLE‘s portraits and Paris photos, turn to professional photographer Alexis Duclos. One of our most fervent supporters, Alexis is an experienced award-winning photographer and video cameraman who can capture your individual and family portraits for business or personal use as well as produce corporate videos to enhance your company websites.
To consult his versatile work visit his website: http://www.alexisduclos.com
The American School of Paris (ASP) in Saint Cloud, a western suburb of Paris, is a great place for families to find innovative activities and holiday camps in English. Through its Extension Program the private, international school opens its world-class facilities to external students aged 4 to 18 during school vacations as well as Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout the school year.
Camps and year-round activities led in English include basketball, tennis, soccer, coding, science, fashion design, filmmaking, theatre and more. Kids looking to improve their English skills have a choice of English immersion classes and even intensive workshops to prepare for the English BAC exam or the SAT American college entrance exam. At ASP, there’s bound to be a camp or workshop right for your child.
Check out their WEBSITE for all the details!
Metro: Abbesses (line 12)
This cozy restaurant in Montmartre serves up refined, traditional Peking-style healthy cuisine in a friendly and zen atmosphere. Emphasis is on mostly steamed dishes prepared with fresh seasonal ingredients, no MSG, and less oil. Try their Mijoté de Poulet à la Marmite (Chicken served in a Tibetan stone pot) and Dao, assorted vegetables in five colors.
Metro: Blanche (line 2)
Hop onto Le Petit Train to weave through the picturesque streets of the charming Montmartre neighborhood, once home to the likes of Picasso and Modigliani. It’s a 40-minute guided tour from the Moulin Rouge to the Sacré-Coeur, with fabulous views of Paris.
To make the most of your tour of Montmartre, visit the Espace Dali museum and travel into a world of fantasy. One of the biggest artists of the 20th century, Dali’s more than 300 works are displayed here.
Metro: Pigalle (line 2), St-Georges (line 12)
Café Marlette is an adorable, quirky place where you can find homemade BIO food, gluten free cakes and delicious coffee. They also do incredible BIO breakfasts, brunches and lunches as well as snacks for l’heure du goûter
Read full review here of gluten-free bakeries in Paris by INSPIRELLE contributor Chloe Martin.
If you have a little gamer at home, why not enroll them in a class on how to create their own apps, computer games, music and cartoons with simple coding skills, so that they learn a new skill which is increasingly important in a numeric world?
MAGIC MAKERS offers classes from New Scratchers to Minecraft Coding and Drone Making for kids from 8 years and up in multiple locations in and around Paris. They can also host a coding workshop birthday party!
Dates: Regular-90 minute workshops afterschool, Wednesdays and Saturdays from October through June. Occasional one-off workshops and one-week intensive coding camps during school holidays.
Language: Most workshops are in French, but during school holidays, some of their locations offer selected workshops in English.
DON’T MISS THESE ROUNDUPS: Ultimate Guide to Kid’s Activities and 15 Indoor Activities for Children in Paris on Rainy Days!
Homesick Brits love this popular, English style bakery-cafe with four establishments around Paris serving a wide variety of homemade cakes, scones, quiches and fresh bread. A favorite treat is the carrot cake with icing made from organic quality ingredients. They also serve organic salads and soups and brunch on weekends. The original Rose Bakery is located on the rue des Martyrs in the 9th arrondissement, a street made popular by its numerous resident artisans and specialty shops.
For more brunch recommendations, read our article: “15 Best Weekend Brunches in and Around Paris”
Metro: St-Georges (line 12), Pigalle (line 2 and 12)
When INSPIRELLE recommends breakfast at Hotel l’Amour or “Hotel Love”, it should be a late romantic breakfast for two. In fact, why not get away for a weekend with your partner and reserve one of the intimate hotel bedchambers?
FIND MORE brunch recommendations in our: “15 Best Weekend Brunches in and Around Paris” article
Metros: Riquet (line 7) and Stalingrad (lines 2, 5, 7)
The unique and vibrant Centquatre (104) Paris, a multi-purpose hub of arts and culture (including cinema, culinary, dance, music, theatre, video, digital and urban art) whose Maison des Petits is a modern space dedicated to little ones up to 5 and their parents. You can sign up for FREE artistic activities en famille on Wednesday afternoons, as well as a variety of artistic workshops for kids 6 to 12 during school holidays.
Specialist children’s hairdressers with TVs at each seat, a playroom for waiting, and a small toy when finished. They’ve been a fixture in the 17th near Parc Monceau for 15 years and are now in the 7th and 9th arrondissements . Also, the owner recently designed her own children’s clothing line which is available for purchase in the salons.
Metro: Place de Clichy (lines 2 and 13), Rome (line 2), Europe (line 3)
An attentive English speaking dermatologist who specializes in esthetic surgery (botox and laser) to erase those imperfections such as moles, freckles, and tatoos.
Metro: Brochant or La Fourche (line 13)
Learn French cuisine in a cooking workshop, Les Secrets Gourmands de Noémie. Noémie Fournier has been passionate about food ever since her grandparents invited her to her first gourmet restaurant at the impressionable age of 12. After graduating from the reputable Lenôtre Cooking School in Paris, Noémie opened up her kitchen, where she offers French pastry classes and cooking workshops in English, and visits to a quintessential French market to learn how to select the best seasonal produce. Classes and workshops are available to both novices and connoisseurs, and perfect to do in groups of two or more!
Metro: Grands Boulevards (lines 8 and 9), Le Peletier (line 7)
Wondering whether you really have space in your closet for another Halloween party costume? No need to worry. Just rent it for the night! Au Fou Rire has two floors packed with costumes and accessories to get you dressed to impress for almost any theme. Or, if you want to add another costume to your collection to whip out for the next fancy dress party, you can shop online and have everything delivered to your home. Rental for adults, sales for kids and adult costumes.
Metro: Europe (line 3), Liege (line 13)
A lung specialist who also specializes in sleep apnea. With obstructive sleep apnea, your breathing pauses while you are asleep because your airway has become narrowed or partly blocked. Book an appointment and start getting some proper sleep.
One of the largest and most varied selection of white porcelain pieces, plus more, with 5 locations in Paris.
Metro: Porte de Clichy (line 13 and RER C)
Located on the largest public school campus in Paris, Lycée Honoré de Balzac offers, in addition to the traditional classes, international sections open to students who speak fluently and write in one of the following languages: Spanish, German, English, Arabic, Portuguese or Italian. Within this dynamic, culturally enriching international environment, these students pass one of the French general baccalaureate programs, with an international mention (Option Internationale Baccalaureate).
Entrance exams in the student’s “mother tongue” are required in order to ensure their language level is high enough to meet the rigors of the additional hours and subjects taught in these special international sections.
Be My Nou Nou offers different childcare options for 3 to 12-year-olds in the Parisian region. They recruit and pre-screen native or bilingual English-speaking nannies and babysitters for after school, Wednesdays, school holidays, occasional babysitting, shared childcare with another family, or just to help with homework. They also hold creative activity-based English workshops for children and young adults.
Extensive menu of sushi, sashimi, bo bun, and yakitori. Fast and friendly delivery all over Paris.
Metro: Jacques Bonsergent (line 5)
Holybelly is owned and operated by Sarah Mouchot and Nico Alary, who together create a new menu every month – a mix of classic French and Western comfort food, based on what products are in season. Their staple: Sunday breakfast.
Metro: Grands Boulevards (lines 8 and 9)
This restaurant and épicerie (grocery) offers a unique and tasty experience for those gluten-intolerant, yet discerning gourmets. Some of their dishes are also lactose-free and/or vegetarian.
Read full review here of gluten-free bakeries in Paris by INSPIRELLE contributor Chloe Martin.