They only arrived in Venice last week, but it seems Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie already have itchy feet.

The couple and their six children were expected to stay in the Italian city for three months, but were spotted heading off to Paris yesterday.

Pitt and Jolie each clasped one of their 19-month-old twins as they boarded a water taxi to the airport.

Family trip: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt leaving Venice to go to Paris with twins Vivienne and Knox Jolie-Pitt

Also joining them were daughter Shiloh, three, Maddox, eight, Pax, six, and five-year-old Zahara.

It was a rare trip for Vivienne and Knox, who as the youngest of the brood often remain at home with nannies when their parents head out.

The twins looked almost identical under their woolly winter hats, both wrapped in blankets against the cold.

Daddy's in charge: Brad with his son Knox and daughter Shiloh

Their parents chatted happily to one another as they set out on the journey.

They recently threatened legal action after rumours that they are about to split.

But despite their flight to France, it seems likely that the family will soon return to Venice.

Jolie, 34, visited Paris to film scenes for her new movie The Tourist, with Johnny Depp. But the majority of the film is set in Venice.

Off to the airport: Brad and Angelina loaded their children one by one into the back of their private taxi boat

She and Pitt have rented a grand 15th-century palazzo where they will stay with their six children.

And to the surprise of many, Jolie's 71-year-old father Jon Voight was with them when they arrived last Sunday.

The star, still best known for his appearance in the 1969 movie Midnight Cowboy, left Jolie's mother Marcheline Bertrand when their daughter was only four years old.

In early film appearances as a child star, Jolie used her full name of Angelina Jolie Voight.

Working mother: Angelina was filming scenes for her film The Tourist in Paris

But, perhaps because she did not want to be seen as trading on her father's fame, she had dropped the Voight by the time she appeared as Lara Croft, a female version of Indiana Jones.

It is not known what caused her to fall out with Voight, who played her father Lord Croft in the movie.

By July 2002, however, she was applying to have her non-acting name legally changed to Angelina Jolie, losing the Voight.

In great shape: Angelina posed with a newspaper as she filmed her scenes

Hard at work: Angelina filmed her scenes in a French cafe

The following month, Voight gave an interview on U.S. television in which he claimed his daughter, who had just adopted a Cambodian boy named Maddox, had 'serious mental problems'.

'I'm broken-hearted... because I've been trying to reach my daughter and get her help, and I have failed and I'm sorry,' he said.

'Really I haven't come forward and addressed the serious mental problems she has spoken about so candidly to the press over the years, but I've tried behind the scenes in every way.'

Getting to know you: Voight is getting acquainted with his daughter's partner and his oldest granddaughter

Jolie responded by cutting off her father completely, saying that, as a new mother, she did not think it was healthy to associate with him.

Voight repeatedly tried to regain contact with his daughter, particularly after her mother's death in 2007.

And finally, with Pitt's blessing, she responded late last year.

A friend of the actress, who last month dismissed rumours that her relationship with Pitt was close to collapsing, revealed: 'Angie made the initial contact. Brad has been supportive - a key factor in her reaching out.'