A rainy summer day with nothing to do?  Why not take your kids on a trip to France?  Make an indoor picnic of baguette, cheese, grapes, French cookies, and sparkling juice, then pop in one of these DVD’s set in France.  On some, you can change the language to French if you wish–but don’t feel guilty about simply enjoying a good movie in English.  Your kids can hunt for snippets of French language or sightings of monuments.  Bon voyage!

The Tale of Despereaux I have GOT to see this!  I’ve heard wonderful things and the mouse is just too cute!

Madeline  The live–action movie

Madeline: Meet Me in Paris  The cartoon.  I really love my old VHS animated film depicting the original Madeline book . . . appendix scar and all.  Can’t find a DVD version anywhere.  If it’s out there, let me know!

Passport To Paris  The Olsen twins!  

The Hunchback of Notre Dame  The Disney version.  Don’t you love how the creators named the gargoyles Victor and Hugo?

Beauty and the Beast (Special Platinum Edition) A classic French fairy tale set in France.  Thank you, Disney!

Ratatouille I love Ratatouille!  But a warning:  my boys picked up on words like “Stupid” and “Idiot” so it had to take a little rest.  Still, a good movie.

The Red Balloon (Released by Janus Films, in association with the Criterion Collection) A classic!

Rugrats in Paris – The Movie  I’ll admit it . . . I enjoyed this movie!

The Little Prince  One of my favorite stories of all time!

Ever After – A Cinderella Story  This one isn’t really for kids (it’s PG-13) but what a fantastic movie for tweens!  Drew Barrymore is Cinderella.

Have you seen any of these movies?  Feel free to comment with a review.

What other movies for kids are set in France?  Let me know what I’ve left out!