Animals are the easiest win with kids, and the Paris area has them at every scale: farms where they can stroke goats and meet pigs, zoos with giraffes and red pandas, aquariums with sharks gliding overhead. Some are a métro ride away, others a full day out by car. Here's what we checked, from the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes to the drive-through safari at Thoiry.
A 5-hectare organic working farm run by the City of Paris inside the Bois de Vincennes. Kids meet sheep in the barn, Gascon pigs, goats and rabbits, then walk the meadows, an orchard of fruit trees and a vegetable garden full of herbs. It suits toddlers who want to see animals up close as much as older kids curious about where food comes from.
Opened in 1794, the Ménagerie is one of the oldest zoos in the world, set inside the Jardin des Plantes. It keeps about 500 animals from 122 species, mostly small and medium-sized: red pandas, snow leopards, orangutans, Seychelles tortoises, Malayan tapirs and keas.
The listed buildings are part of the visit, from the 1805 Bear Pits to the art deco Vivarium, the Singerie and the Great Aviary.
The Natural History Museum's zoo sits on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes, under its landmark Grand Rocher. Over 3,000 animals live in five biozones: Africa, Patagonia, Europe, Amazon-Guyana and Madagascar.
Kids watch giraffes and white rhinos on the African plain, penguins and sea lions in Patagonia, and lemurs up close in Madagascar. A tropical greenhouse with manatees makes a warm stop on a cold day.
A working farm, farmed by the Laureau family since 1746, beside the Versailles château park. A loop path passes pens of dwarf goats, sheep, cows, donkeys, Shetland ponies, pigs and hens, then winds through a small wood dotted with barrel huts.
Kids can stroke the goats, watch the animals being fed, and join short workshops making bread, butter, apple juice or recycled paper.
Thoiry has two parts. First, an 8 km safari loop that families drive in their own car, windows closed, past zebras, giraffes, rhinos, elephants and bears.
Then a 90-hectare walking zoo with more than 750 animals, a lemur island and a gorilla area, plus play areas: the Safari Air Park, a giant maze and the Île Mystérieuse. No car? Bush trucks run the safari loop, lions included.
The only amusement park inside the Paris city limits, set at the edge of the Bois de Boulogne. Around 45 rides run from a dragon roller coaster and flying swings to a pirate ship, a mirror maze and a Guignol puppet theater.
The farm side has dwarf goats, alpacas, Ouessant sheep and some 450 birds, and toddlers get a paddling pool and a bear-themed maze.
Aquarium de Paris sits under the Trocadéro gardens, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. Around 50 tanks hold some 13,500 fish and invertebrates from French seas, including 35 sharks and 400 coral colonies. The jellyfish gallery has 24 tanks with species that rotate.
Talks and shows during the day come with entry. The route slopes gently with no stairs, so strollers go all the way around.
An aquarium on the lower level of the Val d'Europe shopping center in Serris, one RER stop from the Disney parks. Kids walk through a tunnel under a 600,000-liter cold-water Atlantic tank as sharks pass overhead, then watch king and gentoo penguins swim. Other zones cover the Amazon, Asia, a tropical zone, the French coast and a shark island, with staff talks and feedings through the day.
Animals are the easiest win with kids, and the Paris area has them at every scale: farms where they can stroke goats and meet pigs, zoos with giraffes and red pandas, aquariums with sharks gliding overhead. Some are a métro ride away, others a full day out by car. Here's what we checked, from the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes to the drive-through safari at Thoiry.
A 5-hectare organic working farm run by the City of Paris inside the Bois de Vincennes. Kids meet sheep in the barn, Gascon pigs, goats and rabbits, then walk the meadows, an orchard of fruit trees and a vegetable garden full of herbs. It suits toddlers who want to see animals up close as much as older kids curious about where food comes from.
Opened in 1794, the Ménagerie is one of the oldest zoos in the world, set inside the Jardin des Plantes. It keeps about 500 animals from 122 species, mostly small and medium-sized: red pandas, snow leopards, orangutans, Seychelles tortoises, Malayan tapirs and keas.
The listed buildings are part of the visit, from the 1805 Bear Pits to the art deco Vivarium, the Singerie and the Great Aviary.
The Natural History Museum's zoo sits on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes, under its landmark Grand Rocher. Over 3,000 animals live in five biozones: Africa, Patagonia, Europe, Amazon-Guyana and Madagascar.
Kids watch giraffes and white rhinos on the African plain, penguins and sea lions in Patagonia, and lemurs up close in Madagascar. A tropical greenhouse with manatees makes a warm stop on a cold day.
A working farm, farmed by the Laureau family since 1746, beside the Versailles château park. A loop path passes pens of dwarf goats, sheep, cows, donkeys, Shetland ponies, pigs and hens, then winds through a small wood dotted with barrel huts.
Kids can stroke the goats, watch the animals being fed, and join short workshops making bread, butter, apple juice or recycled paper.
Thoiry has two parts. First, an 8 km safari loop that families drive in their own car, windows closed, past zebras, giraffes, rhinos, elephants and bears.
Then a 90-hectare walking zoo with more than 750 animals, a lemur island and a gorilla area, plus play areas: the Safari Air Park, a giant maze and the Île Mystérieuse. No car? Bush trucks run the safari loop, lions included.
The only amusement park inside the Paris city limits, set at the edge of the Bois de Boulogne. Around 45 rides run from a dragon roller coaster and flying swings to a pirate ship, a mirror maze and a Guignol puppet theater.
The farm side has dwarf goats, alpacas, Ouessant sheep and some 450 birds, and toddlers get a paddling pool and a bear-themed maze.
Aquarium de Paris sits under the Trocadéro gardens, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. Around 50 tanks hold some 13,500 fish and invertebrates from French seas, including 35 sharks and 400 coral colonies. The jellyfish gallery has 24 tanks with species that rotate.
Talks and shows during the day come with entry. The route slopes gently with no stairs, so strollers go all the way around.
An aquarium on the lower level of the Val d'Europe shopping center in Serris, one RER stop from the Disney parks. Kids walk through a tunnel under a 600,000-liter cold-water Atlantic tank as sharks pass overhead, then watch king and gentoo penguins swim. Other zones cover the Amazon, Asia, a tropical zone, the French coast and a shark island, with staff talks and feedings through the day.
