 the calcified bodies at Pompeii and the 40,000 skulls in the cave cemetery of Fontanelle. We even took a tour bus ride around Rome, something we dismissed as too touristy before children. It's ideal – not only can you sit down, breastfeed and see the city all at once, but kids think public transport is brilliant: trams, tubes, buses, boats, funiculars... The enduring hit of Barcelona was the cable car up Montjuïc. It might as well have been a rollercoaster. There's a castle at the top, but with both sets of grandparents National Trust members we'd had our fill of castles, and went to the Miró Foundation instead. It's wonderful for children – the primary colours and childlike shapes. They're given headsets and can listen to a piece of music for each painting to experience a sense of it rather than long explanations. It's Barcelona's modernism that makes it a wonderland for kids – from Gaudí's fantastical landscapes in Parc Guell (even his cathedral appeals, with its rainbow-spectrum rays of light piercing the stained glass spires) to the family-friendly beach bars. Eating out with kids is a joy in Barcelona too, and indeed everywhere in Spain (Malaga is like Barcelona in miniature, for something more manageable). Waitresses love children, and restaurants are very much family affairs: sharing tapas and trying new flavours, eating late, strict bedtimes left at home (better still if you can get them to adopt the siesta), dancing in the plaza while musicians strike up beneath lights strung between the jacarandas. What a contrast to France, where mealtimes have always been something to get through, like tax returns. Fads such as dairy allergies and vegetarianism are frowned upon, if not completely ignored. Nantes has the most extraordinary fantasy world in its Les Machines de L'Ile – imagine a fairground created by the m){kind=link}
The arrival of kids need not mean the departure of urban breaks – so long as you follow these rules
Along with sleep, sex and sponaneity, the city break is one of life’s great grown-up pleasures you set aside when you become a parent. At least, that’s what I’d assumed.
The idea of city breaks with young children seemed like hard work, even a bit dangerous; we associate metropolises with adult pursuits, sybaritic and cultural and gastronomic – not to mention the crowds, traffic, and nefarious undesirables.
Yet in fact Europe’s richly diverse cities are playgrounds for children as well as for adults. Unexpectedly, I have found them easier in many ways than beach holidays, with their uncountable whatever-the-weather diversions and increasingly innovative activities. Cities engage minds and broaden horizons, not only with their big-hitting sights and museums, but through what you stumble across. Invariably it’s these unplanned, incidental bits that kids love best. Take them to the Acropolis in Athens, for example, and they’ll tell you their highlight was feeding stray cats in the cafe.
Perhaps the key to a successful family city break is managing expectations. Not your children’s, but your own. Cast aside your notions of what you should be doing, or what you want to do. That doesn’t mean hanging out at soft play centres – but considering how activities work for the whole family.