Paris

But first a detour...
Three weeks ago we went to Paris, our first trip to Europe as a family.  Paris is really old, so I was ready to accept that not everything was accessible.  We found a city that really tried and often succeeded in making our family with a wheelchair feel welcome.

We began at JFK, where Air France brought us to the front of every line.  Our extra bag was not charged, since it contained the bed rails we would need for the hotel.  We found an over sized (for an airplane) bathroom on the plane that we plenty big for a mom and her son who can bear weight, but not stand alone.

Our hotel, the Hotel Left Bank - Best Western, had a room for us on the ground floor.  We had one small step to enter the lobby and everything else was accessible.  The bathroom was huge.  The bed for our son with the wheelchair had three sides, so we only needed one set of rails. (we brought two).  

The sidewalks can be very narrow in some spots.  There are posts along the curb for safety, but they sometimes narrow the sidewalk to the point where our wheelchair had to go in the street. The streets are bumpy, since they are often paved with individual stones, but every corner has a dropped curb, with a textured ramp.  The traffic lights have a button to press so that someone who is blind can listen for the light change.  There are some taxis that accommodate wheelchairs, but we didn't use them.  There is supposed to be one Metro line that is accessible.  It wasn't near our hotel or destinations. We walked everywhere, except for taking the bus home from the Eiffel Tower.  The bus had a ramp that dropped to give us a smooth transition to the sidewalk.

When we approached the Musee D'Orsay, we were approached by someone who immediately took us to the front of the line, because one of our party had a disability.  We saw a family with a child with Down's Syndrome standing with us at the front of the very long line.  We got this treament at every museum we went to.

Musee D'Orsay is supposed to be fully accessible.  It was mostly accessible.  They had closed off an area for construction, but they did not leave an access path, so half the 2nd floor was not available to our family.  It was clear that they could have left a path, since we could see that the area actually under construction was tented and the potential path wasn't. 

We went to see the Eiffel Tower, but didn't try to go in.  The park beneath it was all we needed.

We went to the Louvre twice.  The first visit we had trouble navigating with the elevators.  We would get almost to where we wanted to be and find just a few steps away was the exhibit.  So it's accessible, but you have to read the map very, very carefully and take detours.  I loved that the small lifts didn't require that we find a guard to unlock them, like they do here in New York.  I suspect that the elevator codes in Paris are more lenient than in New York, since elevators everywhere we went closed on us with apparently no safety stop.

When you enter the Louvre at the pyramid, there is a grand stair and a cool round elevator to bring you down to the entry level.  Unfortunately, this elevator requires an operator and they tend to wander off.  We waited for nearly ten minutes to get out, while people stood around shrugging that it was not their job.

We walked by the Seine.  It is hard to find, but there are a few ramps that bring you down to the walkway.  Very bumpy and not what we would call compliant, but easier than the stairs.

There are still places we needed to carry the wheelchair down (and up) flights of stairs.  Most notable is the park at the tip of Ile de la Cite where one of the boat tours leaves from.  Irony - we got down and our son realized it was too windy for him to enjoy, so we bumped back up.

Restaurants often have the restrooms downstairs and we found none that were accessible.  I typically left the wheelchair at the top of the stairs and carried him the rest of the way.  OK, since he is still about 43 pounds, but not for long.  On the plus side, every cafe has outdoor seating on the sidewalk, no steps there.

We went to the Pompidou.  Very accessible, but the accessible entrance is around back, as opposed to every entrance being accessible.  The plaza was almost all ramped, so we could only sit at the bottom or top, where it was flat.

The playground at Jardin de Luxembourg is free for a child with a disability and their accompanying adult.  Not much to do in there for a kid in a wheelchair, but still nice.

The Pantheon is lacking in ramps and elevators.  Steps everywhere, luckily it's only two floors and and some platformed areas.

Notre Dame is partially accessible.  There is is a raised walkway (3 steps) in the apse and no ramp.  The line is not as bad as it looks - moves really fast.

Sainte Chapelle is not accessible on holidays, when there is no staff to operate the accessible entrance.  We carried the wheelchair to get in.  The upper chapel, where all the good stuff is, is not at all accessible.  We carried our son up and down a narrow spiral stair and it was totally worth it.

Finally - the restrooms.  In Paris the handicapped stalls are left empty, awaiting a person who needs them.  When a person in a wheelchair comes to the long line at the ladies room, everyone steps to the side and you go to the front of the line.  Why can't people do that in New York?

We loved Paris and the Parisians were kind and welcoming to our family with a wheelchair.