Getting Around Paris With Kids: Métro, Buses and Strollers

The Paris métro is quick and cheap, but most stations are stairs, stairs, and more stairs — Line 14 is the one line that's reliably step-free, with lifts at all of its stations, while many older stations have no elevator at all. With a stroller that means carrying it (and the child, and the bag) up and down — doable solo for a light buggy, miserable for a big one.

Two ways to make the métro work with little kids:

• Wear the baby/toddler in a carrier on métro days and skip the stroller entirely.
• Or go with the métro and a plan — pick your line and stops above ground, and accept the help that's almost always offered on the stairs (see the rules below).

At the ticket barriers, you don't lift a stroller over — ask staff to open the wide side gate (portillon), or go through in arms.

And don't dread the stairs as much as the reputation suggests: Parisians are kinder than their cliché, and someone will almost always grab the other end of the stroller to help you up or down — it happens constantly, so accept it with a « merci ». The one catch: that crowded stair-and-barrier moment, hands full and distracted, is exactly when pickpockets work — keep your phone zipped away in a closed, secure pocket or bag, not in your hand or a back pocket.

The métro is usually the fastest way across Paris — the trick is to go down with a plan, not wing it.

• Know your route before the stairs: your line, your direction, and the number of stops. Decide it above ground, where you can see.
• Download the RATP / Bonjour RATP app to check for closures or strikes before each trip — a shut line is the one thing that wrecks a plan.
• If you get separated, everyone meets at the next stop. Say it out loud before you board.
• Make your child the "métro captain" — give them the number of stops and let them call when to get off. It turns the boring part into their job.

Paris buses are step-free at most stops, with a designated stroller space in the middle — you don't even fold it unless it's crowded. They're slower, and they crawl in car traffic at rush hour (~7:30–10:30am, ~5–9pm) — but you see Paris go by, which keeps kids happy. Two ordinary city lines double as the best cheap sightseeing tours in Paris, both for the price of a single ticket.

The bus is the scenic, step-free version — when you have a stroller and no rush, it's the kind way to cross town.

Bus 69 — west to east across Paris

The 69 runs from the Eiffel Tower to Père-Lachaise and back along a slightly different route, threading a remarkable number of sights. Sit on the right heading east and let a child spot them:

• Eiffel Tower / Rue Saint-Dominique — stops: Rapp–La Bourdonnais, Bosquet–Saint-Dominique
• Rue Cler market street — stop: Saint-Pierre du Gros Caillou
• Les Invalides & Pont Alexandre III — stops: La Tour-Maubourg–Saint-Dominique, Esplanade des Invalides
• Musée d'Orsay & Boulevard Saint-Germain — stops: Solférino–Bellechasse, Rue du Bac–René Char
• Rue du Bac — stops: Rue du Bac–René Char, Pont Royal–Quai Voltaire
• Pont Royal & Tuileries Gardens — stop: Pont Royal
• The Louvre — stop: Quai François Mitterrand
• Pont des Arts — stop: Pont des Arts
• Pont Neuf, Île de la Cité & Île Saint-Louis — stops: Pont Neuf–Quai du Louvre, Châtelet, Hôtel de Ville
• Marais & Place des Vosges — stop: Birague
• Bastille & the modern opera house — stops: Bastille–Rue Saint-Antoine, Bastille–Roquette
• Père-Lachaise cemetery — stops: Roquette–Père-Lachaise, Gambetta

Bus 42 — Eiffel Tower to the grands magasins

The 42 links the tower to the department stores by way of the Champs-Élysées — handy if you're pairing the Eiffel day with a Right-Bank afternoon:

• Eiffel Tower / Pont de l'Alma
• Avenue Montaigne — stops: Alma-Marceau, Montaigne–François 1er
• Champs-Élysées, Grand Palais & Petit Palais — stops: Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées, Champs-Élysées–Clemenceau, Concorde–Cours la Reine
• Place de la Concorde & Tuileries Gardens — stops: Concorde–Cours la Reine, Concorde Royale
• Church of the Madeleine — stop: Madeleine
• Grands Magasins — Galeries Lafayette & Printemps — stop: Havre–Haussmann (between the two stores); terminus Gare Saint-Lazare

For a day with kids, the Batobus is the secret weapon — a hop-on, hop-off river shuttle that turns getting around into the treat. No stairs, no stroller-folding (it rolls straight on), and the Seine does the sightseeing for you. It calls at nine stops in the heart of the city: Eiffel Tower, Musée d'Orsay, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Notre-Dame, Jardin des Plantes, Hôtel de Ville, the Louvre, Champs-Élysées, and Les Invalides — so you can string a whole day together by boat.

The catch: it's a separate ticket, not covered by your métro/bus ticket. A 1-day pass is about €23 (2-day ~€27); children 4–11 are about €13, and under-4s are free. Boats run roughly April to early November, about 10am–7/8pm, every 25–40 minutes, with a full loop taking around 1h45 if you stay aboard. On a fine day it's worth it for one leg alone — Eiffel Tower to Notre-Dame by water beats any métro hop for a tired, happy child.

• Under-4s travel free on métro, RER, bus, and tram (in arms, or ask for the side gate with a stroller).
• Ages 4–9 pay about half — a reduced fare of around €1.30 per ride, so buy the discounted ones.
• A single ticket is €2.55 (January 2026 fares) and now covers métro, RER, bus and tram across central Paris on one ride — the same ticket also works on the Montmartre funicular.
• Paper "t+" carnets are gone — load tickets onto a phone (Bonjour RATP / Île-de-France Mobilités app) or a reusable Navigo Easy card rather than juggling paper ones with kids in tow.

Transitions are transport, so this is where the three reset games earn their keep:

• Silly shakes on the platform before boarding, to burn the wait.
• The walk-like game for the walk to the stop — "tiptoe down the stairs like a cat."
• The five-senses pause on the bus — "what can you see out the window that tells you we're in Paris?" — turns dead transit time into the fun part.

• Short hop (under ~20 min walk)? Walk it. Central Paris is small and walking dodges the whole stairs problem.
• Crossing the city? Take the métro — usually fastest, and someone will help with the stroller on the stairs. Plan the line and stops first.
• Want the scenic, step-free version with a stroller and no rush? The bus — Bus 69 or 42 for the sights.
• Want it to feel like a treat? The Batobus on the Seine — no stairs, big views, and the boat itself is the fun.
• Out to the edges (Versailles, La Défense, the airports)? RER — check it's the right branch.

This is the least glamorous post in the set and maybe the most useful — because transport is pure invisible logistics, the exact thing that's hard to plan from home and the exact thing that decides whether a day flows or falls apart. It's also why an edited day routes you the easy way, not just the fast way.