I highly recommend Paris Greeters. These are free tours (you’re expected to make a small donation to the organization but guides take no tips) by volunteer Parisians and they can be personalized for just your family.
I would do either Paris-London split if you’re a big city fan, or Paris and a few days trip to Brittany and/or Normandy if you like small cute towns. Or you can absolutely find things to do in Paris for the whole time.
IF you think you might want an apartment, consider an aparthotel like Citadines. If you decide to rent a regular apartment or use Airbnb, the place must have a registration number to be legal. If it doesn’t, you run the risk of being canceled out or showing up and not having a place to stay. Even my favorite, Paris Perfect, doesn’t show reg numbers for all of the places they manage. (The onus is on the owner, not the manager)
Fodors and Rick Steves forums will have suggestions of areas and accommodations.
JohnTalbottsParis, a blog, has many, many restaurant reviews. (I spend a lot of time eating while in Paris)
I would absolutely only stay in Paris for a week. The first time I was there I spent 10 days and still so much to see and do. Versailles is a half day trip itself, the same with Chartres. My last trip to France was 10 days to Paris and Normandy and we rented a car upon arrival at CDG and drove first to Rouen where we overnighted before visiting Honfleur, Etrat and the amazing WW2 musem in Caen, then arriving in Bayeux where had a half-day tour with a guide for the Normandy beaches and the Bayeaux tapistry. Both Bayeuax and Rouen are foodie kinds of towns. Our only mistake in this trip was then driving to Mont St Michel and staying overnight. The amazing thing about the Mont is actually seeing it from a distance. The site itself isn’t all that interesting and the walk up to the abbey is full of touristy shops and restaurants along with zillions of other tourists. If I went again I would have stayed in Bayeaux another night and done the Mont as a half-day trip. We then headed back to Paris and stopped at Chartres, had seen it before but it is an amazing cathedral to see. We didn’t go to Giverney as in October at the end of the season, landed back in Paris, returned our rental car and had a wonderful 4 plus day trip in Paris.
Clarification, we did the Normandy beaches half day tour with a guide- Omaha, Pont du Hoc, the American Cemetery. You can opt to tour the beaches and all the other historic sites on your own. DH walked to the British Cemetery right in Bayeaux which is an absolutely delightful place. You can do full day tours with a guide to the Normandy beaches as well as 2 day tours. It depends how much you want to see and do. For example our tour group included a Canadian couple and they were adding a private tour of the Canadian Forces landing zone.
Understand that time is needed. When we were at the Eiffel Tower and we went late afternoon, early evening, there was a huge line for whatever levels of the tower you wanted to visit. We opted to walk up to the first level viewing platform instead of waiting for the elevator.
We finally went into the Musee de Cluny on our last visit to Paris. We had walked by the 14th century building on previous trips to Paris and this time since we had the museum pass we actually went in for a couple of hours. It is a museum with medieval artifacts including some famous tapestries with unicorns.
Just do Paris. You can alternate between exploring on your own and day or half-day organized walks/tours suggested on this thread. Then throw in a couple of day trips to outside the city, day trips you can easily do by trains. Besides Versailles, I’d recommend you check out the magnificent castles at Chantilly and Vaux-le-Vicomte, the inspiration for Versailles, or explore the medieval town of Senlis.
The difference in what you will experience between spending 2-3 days in Paris, and a week in Paris is exponential… one will be a blurry whirlwind, the other will give you real insight into the city and its environs.
Haven’t read all the responses so some of this might be repetitious, but we did 3 countries in 2.5 weeks last summer and it was a lot, so you definitely have too much! I would say Paris for sure! We stayed at a lovely pied a terre via Airbnb, which was less expensive and oh so nice–you really feel immersed in the neighborhood. We stayed in the 6th arrondissement and loved that area. Day one we did a river tour and spent a few hours at the Louvre (only able to see the top attractions, but that was fine). Day two was the Pantheon (highly recommend, especially the tombs, my kids loved those), Luxembourg Gardens, also lovely, Musee D’Orsay, do not miss, amazing. The following day we trained to the coast and did a D-Day tour. Our last day was Notre Dame and Sainte Chappelle. Just walking the streets and along the Seine is a lot of fun, eating at the outdoor restaurants, drinking in the scenery.
Paris by Mouth food tour and Paris Muse walking tours were both highlights of our visit last year. Easy train to Bayeux and full day tour of DDay beaches with Dale Booth ending in the American cemetery. My husband was weeping most of that day - tremendously moving.
@yauponredux food tours?! Adding that one, for sure!
OP, chocolate tours, bakeries, dinner at the home of a local volunteer. But for 4 people, can be pricey.
Eh, D16 and I will take advantage. HA!
Another vote for one week in Paris.
Rick Steves really is helpful…but mix up his advice with pursuing your own interests and going off on your own to see smaller things that are of special interest to you. Maybe that’s coming up with a list of great bakeries, and going to ones that are near things that you are planning on visiting. Maybe it’s visiting small churches, or looking at WWII history, or exhibits about film history, or checking out grocery stores, etc etc etc. Any of these things will give you a more intimate view of Paris than you’ll have if you feel that you are obligated to do only the “top” attractions. You can’t possibly see the entire city in a week, so be at peace with that.
Have everyone in your family make a list of two or three things that they really really want to do/see, to make sure that everyone is happy (or equally unhappy!).
I like to invest some time and effort in my travel planning into finding restaurants that I really want to try, both $$$$ and $. $$$$ places turn into $$$ places if you eat there for lunch.
If you go to Versailles, I highly highly recommend spending some time riding bicycles around the grounds. It gets you away from the crowds (do this first, before touring the palace), and it’s a lovely way to have a picnic. Eat your heart out, Sun King!
Chevk the average weather.
I have been to Paris quite a few times and still feel like I am seeing something new every time I am there. I think London and Paris are 2 good cities to go to in a week.
I am also a believer of working with good private tour guide when I am in a city for the first time, especially if I don’t think I would go back there again. You could see so much more with a tour guide, at the same time going with a large tour group can be frustrating and time consuming.
Such great advice here. As you can tell, Paris is a great city with so much to do. We took the kids years ago and my suggestion is to make sure you figure out what you want to do and then see what things can be booked in advanced, are closed certain days, it’s suggested you go on a certain day or time of day to minimize crowds, etc. The one that comes to mind is the Eiffel Tower. It was years ago so maybe it’s different now but we went over spring break and, when I checked a couple months in advance, tickets were almost sold out for our dates. There’s a restaurant at the ET and, if you ate there, you didn’t have to wait in line, IIRC. It required advance reservations and I think it was bought in conjunction with our Eiffel Tower ticket. Anyway, details are fuzzy but if the Eiffel Tower is a ‘must’, check the website to see how soon you need to get your tickets.
We were in Paris with friends a couple years ago and loved http://www.musee-orangerie.fr/en which had some of Claude Monet’s work displayed so beautifully. Not sure if you’ll have time for it but we loved it.
You’re going to have a wonderful time!
I took my kids to Europe a few years ago, and because I wasn’t sure when we’d get back we hit up two countries. We spent six nights on the south coast of Spain, just eating and relaxing on the beach, and then spent four days seeing as much as we could in Paris. Four days wasn’t enough time to see and do everything of course, but we did see a lot.
We spent most of a day at the Louvre, went to the catacombs (go early - the lines are long), Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower - among other sights - and ate a lot of food. For my kids who were 14 and 18 at the time, it was enough, probably because we walked everywhere. They were tired! We even chose to take the stairs up the Eiffel Tower, which I highly recommend to avoid the lines.
If you aren’t sure you’ll get back to Europe any time soon as a family, consider seeing two countries. Lots to see in London!
Another vote for Paris. Day trips to Versailles (use a full day and make sure to see the gardens and Marie Antoinette’s little farm village) and maybe Bruges in Belgium. When I accompanied a student group, one couple did make a day trip to Amsterdam but they said it was a little too much and they were exhausted.
What you really want to do is have a list of a couple/few places to see each day, and then take the time to wander around, stop in a café for a coffee, etc. There are many walking tours, including one that covers street art/graffiti.
Yes, London is a city worth seeing, but maybe not on this trip.
Sorry I haven’t had time to respond. I was swamped at work today. I didn’t have a minute to do any research. There is so much info here. I cannot wait to sit and look over all the places mentioned. That is my weekend job. Thank you all!!
Have fun researching! There are so many good suggestions here 
If you do decide to do London/Paris, we can offer many good suggestions. As for Bruge it is quite charming but it would take several hours as you need to train to Brussels and then change. We did a trip to Bruge from Amsterdam, and stayed two nights.As DH and I drove, we stopped in Antwerp to see the famous cathedral. I’ve been to Brussels before so didn’t have time to fit that in. I have friends who did train from Amsterdam which is of course a great destination in itself for another trip.