Paris with a buggy?

I%26#39;m going to Paris next month (mid-August) for a week, with my partner and our two children aged five years and twenty months.

The twenty-month old can walk, of course, but there are times when he needs to be in his buggy. How easy is it to handle the metro with a buggy? It remains our best way of getting out to the areas we really want to go to.

We live in London, so we%26#39;re used to getting around the Tube, but they have things like wider ticket barriers here and I don%26#39;t know if the Parisians are so accommodating.

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I hope someone who has more knowledge will chime in. I have seen many people with young children on the metro. They tended to have those umbrella strollers and appeared to easily get ont an off of the metro with them. The problem is the stairs in the metros as I see it. You would have to fold up the stroller and carry it and the child up what is sometimes several stairs. I always thought I%26#39;d use one of those back-pack baby carriers if I had a baby in Paris.

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Everybody uses strollers. On metro stairs, completely anonymous Parisians will spontaneously pick up the front of your stroller with the kid in it to help you carry it up or down stairs.

On buses, stroller enter by the central door (which is usually the exit), and there is a place to park two of them.

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Hi --

I%26#39;m completely anonymous but not a Parisian, and I%26#39;m one of those folks who takes the front end of a stroller on the stairs, even when on vacation in Paris. It%26#39;s something that was much more common when I had a young child, but I%26#39;m glad to hear that at least in Paris it continues to be a practice. You don%26#39;t see it much anywhere else, any more, although I will continue to do it when the occasion arises.

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If there are two of you, it%26#39;s a non-issue --

Strollers can be a hassle, but they%26#39;re not impossible. A lightweight, folding stroller is most definitely a better option than a full-sized pram.

3Conils, in Canada and the US, it%26#39;s not that common because there are escalators and elevators...so there aren%26#39;t nearly as many women trying to struggle up three flights of stairs. Most folks hold doors, though -- which is a huge struggle with a stroller.

But there always seems to be a helping hand for women and their children on the Metro.

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Sorry, yes, I should have specified: it%26#39;s a lightweight Maclaren buggy, definitely more of a stroller than a pram.

Sounds like the situation is pretty much like in London. We have a lot of escalators here, but also a lot of stations with stairs (including my local stop), so my partner and I are used to struggling up the stairs together with Junior strapped into his seat.

Strangers in London will also offer to help a single woman trying to get a stroller up/down stairs. It%26#39;s funny how both cities have reputations for rudeness.

Thanks to everyone who replied; any more information would be most welcome.

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Take a look at the bus map on the ratp website www.ratp.fr You may find that for some journeys the bus is a viable alternative to the metro and will save you the hassle with stairs/escalators.

Buses have a wide seatless section in the middle which is intended for pushchairs - although at busy times of day this area can get very full of standing passengers.

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Pick up a copy of the little blue book %26quot;le Bus%26quot;, which has maps of all of the routes.

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We spent several weeks in Paris (4-yr and 18-mo) and utilized the metro quite a bit with our umbrella stroller. There are a handfull of metro stops that have escalators and elevators. Just look for them at each location since they could be a few walks away and easily missed (like them one next to the Notre Dame).

Here is what we figured out:

1. carry the child in the stroller up and down the stairs if he isn%26#39;t too heavy. Too much hassle taking them out and putting them back in after all that effort.

2. The RER stops have sliding ticket entries so your stroller should push through with no problems as long as it is standard and not wide.

3. Most metro stops do have a gate entry door so just ask the attendant. They%26#39;ll ask you to scan your ticket on an entry point first in most cases and then they will open it.

4. Buses are the easiest thing to do if it isn%26#39;t rush hour since they have nice locations to park the stroller with the kiddo in it near the back exit doors...but it is slower to get around the city.

5. Finally, what we figured out if all else fails is let your partner through the ticket turnstil first, tip the stroller back and push it through under the turnstil and your partner can grab and pull it through. Then you can walk on through next...works everytime!

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With smaller kids, I%26#39;ve also seen the adults just hand the stroller OVER the turnstile

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Just got back from Paris with our 2 kids (ages 3 and 22 month). We brought along 2 umbrella strollers - Maclaren Quest to be exact. In fact, most of the Maclarens we saw were the Quests.

We managed to use the metro system everyday we were there. Challenging the first day or two but once you get your own routine down it becomes quicker and easier to get around. The stations don%26#39;t all have escalators or elevators so yes, stairs are definitely the task. We found that we would just lock the brakes on one then carry the other down or up the stairs. We were very quick at it. Or we would take each one out, collapse the strollers and up or down we go. There were quite a few people that would kindly offer their help and that made our trip easier for us.

The escalators became very quick and easy for us.

Getting on the train was sometimes a pain because of the crowds. You find yourself scanning the train as it passes so you end up chasing after the cabins with the least people. We kept our kids in the strollers because it was way too difficult to carry the strollers, our bags, and hold our kid%26#39;s hands and make sure they didn%26#39;t lose their balance. Much safer with them in the stroller and we can also keep an eye on our bags, too! Sometimes the gap between the platform and the train was very uneven so you have to be careful when pushing the stroller off the train and on.

Going through the turnstiles was also a challenge. There was not always a door available to use. So we found it was easier to collapse the stroller, lift it over the turnstile, push your way through the turnstile, then through the half-door entrance you go. You have to be careful with the way you enter as once you feed your ticket through the entrance there is only one chance to enter. So if you turn the turnstile too much and are unsuccessful at entering with your bags, stroller, and child...then you won%26#39;t be able to re-enter unless there is a metro assistant at the window that can fix your ticket. You%26#39;ll need the ticket to exit at some stops.

All in all.....you%26#39;ll figure out your own routine and what works best for you. It%26#39;s definitely possible. We survived!