When a heat wave hits and the playground slide is too hot to touch, these are the indoor places with air conditioning where kids can still run, build and explore. Everything on this list is indoors and cooled, so you can plan a whole afternoon without checking the thermometer.
A science museum in a huge glass-and-steel hall on the edge of Parc de la Villette. Kids push, pull and test their way through hands-on permanent and temporary exhibitions, sit under the planetarium dome, and walk through the Argonaute, a real navy submarine.
The Cité des enfants has two timed play areas, one for preschoolers and one for school-age kids, built around water play, a forest and a building site.
Two hands-on play spaces inside the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie at Parc de la Villette, each split into themed zones. The younger side has a forest, an elastic climbing course, a building site and an air-and-water area.
The older side has water games, a tilted park full of soil creatures, a funfair of brain and body challenges, a tinkering workshop and a Weird House of puzzles.
An indoor play park built around giant soft-play structures, heated in winter and air-conditioned in summer. Under-4s get their own area with a motor-skills course, a ball pit and a slide.
Older kids get tunnel slides, a sled run, monkey bridges, mini motorbikes, giant Lego, a multisport court, a zip line and a small disco. Parents stay to supervise, with a snack corner and free Wi-Fi.
Seven Squares is a 5,000m² indoor leisure center inside the Boom Boom Villette mall, next to the Cité des Sciences. Its pirate-themed soft play, L'Île de Tortuga, has a separate toddler area with ball pits and foam blocks, and a big-kid maze of slides, tunnels, a pirate ship and a kart track.
Older kids can move on to the trampoline park, bowling, laser game, VR and the arcade.
When a heat wave hits and the playground slide is too hot to touch, these are the indoor places with air conditioning where kids can still run, build and explore. Everything on this list is indoors and cooled, so you can plan a whole afternoon without checking the thermometer.
A science museum in a huge glass-and-steel hall on the edge of Parc de la Villette. Kids push, pull and test their way through hands-on permanent and temporary exhibitions, sit under the planetarium dome, and walk through the Argonaute, a real navy submarine.
The Cité des enfants has two timed play areas, one for preschoolers and one for school-age kids, built around water play, a forest and a building site.
Two hands-on play spaces inside the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie at Parc de la Villette, each split into themed zones. The younger side has a forest, an elastic climbing course, a building site and an air-and-water area.
The older side has water games, a tilted park full of soil creatures, a funfair of brain and body challenges, a tinkering workshop and a Weird House of puzzles.
An indoor play park built around giant soft-play structures, heated in winter and air-conditioned in summer. Under-4s get their own area with a motor-skills course, a ball pit and a slide.
Older kids get tunnel slides, a sled run, monkey bridges, mini motorbikes, giant Lego, a multisport court, a zip line and a small disco. Parents stay to supervise, with a snack corner and free Wi-Fi.
Seven Squares is a 5,000m² indoor leisure center inside the Boom Boom Villette mall, next to the Cité des Sciences. Its pirate-themed soft play, L'Île de Tortuga, has a separate toddler area with ball pits and foam blocks, and a big-kid maze of slides, tunnels, a pirate ship and a kart track.
Older kids can move on to the trampoline park, bowling, laser game, VR and the arcade.
