Paris rewards families who resist the urge to do all of it. Treated at a child's pace, the City of Light is full of small delights: the historic carousel and toy sailboats in the Jardin du Luxembourg, pony rides and a big playground in the same gardens, and the hidden caves and bridges of Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. The landmarks slot in around them. The Eiffel Tower is best paired with a picnic on the Champ de Mars, a Seine cruise shows off the city without anyone's legs giving out, and even the Louvre works with kids if you aim for the Mona Lisa and the mummies and leave before the goodwill runs out.

For rainy days, the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle lines up dinosaur skeletons and the Cité des Sciences at La Villette is built for hands to touch everything. Just outside the city, Disneyland Paris is the obvious headline, with Parc Astérix as the homegrown, roller-coaster alternative, and the Jardin d'Acclimatation handling gentler thrills closer in. The food does a lot of quiet parenting, since a city of bakeries, crêperies, and proper hot chocolate keeps small travelers content between sights. The hotels range from central properties with family rooms and connecting doors to boutique stays near the parks, many with babysitting and children's breakfasts. Done with restraint, Paris is not the stressful proposition parents fear, but one of Europe's most genuinely magical cities to share with a child.