Guignol is the glove puppet French kids grow up shouting warnings at, and the city's parks still keep his small theaters going, often a short walk from an old carousel. A show and a ride make an easy afternoon with younger kids. Here's what we checked, from the Guignol du Luxembourg to the extinct-animal carousel at the Jardin des Plantes.
Guignol du Luxembourg is a historic puppet theater inside the Luxembourg Gardens. The shows mix classic Guignol adventures with fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Princess and the Frog.
A new team runs it after a 2026 renovation of the stage lighting, sound and electrics. The LudoJardin playground and the toy sailboat pond are a few minutes' walk away.
A Napoleon III style puppet theater on the Champ-de-Mars, about 400 meters from the Eiffel Tower, staging shows since 1902. Around 400 puppets act out fairy tales such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood, plus the theater's own adventures like Treasure Island.
Shows are in French, built on stories most kids already know, so preschoolers can follow the plot.
A small covered puppet theater inside Parc Montsouris, where Guignol, the classic French hand puppet, is the hero of every story. Kids watch from Art Deco club armchairs in a hall that is heated in winter and air-conditioned in summer, so shows run all year.
Michel-Henri Rank has run the theater since 1982. It suits preschoolers and early primary kids who can sit through a short show.
An open-air puppet theater in Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, dating from 1836. Kids sit on benches in front of a small painted stage while Guignol, the cheeky hero of French puppetry, gets into trouble and back out again. The company Les Petits Bouffons de Paris keeps the traditional, irreverent style.
There is no roof, so shows only go ahead in dry, mild weather.
A covered 90-seat puppet theater inside Parc Georges-Brassens, run by the company Les Marionnettes de Vaugirard. Shows star Polichinelle, the hook-nosed hero of the old Paris glove-puppet tradition, played behind a carved wooden booth with red velvet curtains.
The puppeteer talks straight to the audience and plays off the kids' reactions. Sets, costumes and puppets are made in the theater's own workshop, alongside antique boxwood heads with glass eyes.
This wooden-horse carousel on the west side of the Jardin du Luxembourg was designed by Charles Garnier, the architect of the Paris Opera, and opened in 1879.
Kids on the outer circle of horses get a short stick and try to spear metal rings as they ride past, an old French game called jeu de bagues. Rilke wrote his poem "The Carousel" about this one.
A small carousel inside the Jardin des Plantes where every mount is an extinct or endangered animal: a dodo, a thylacine, the giant elephant bird, a Barbary lion, a horned turtle and an early giraffe called a sivatherium, with a panda and a gorilla in the mix. A scientist at the natural history museum next door had it built in 1992 to get people talking about extinction.
A two-tier carousel in the Jardins du Trocadéro, below the Palais de Chaillot and across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. Gilded trim, strings of lights and painted panels of Paris monuments (Sacré-Cœur among them) ring the top, and it plays fairground tunes as it turns. Kids pick a painted horse, a shell-shaped carriage or the hot-air balloon gondola.
A private museum of fairground rides, automatons and show objects from the 19th and early 20th centuries, set in Bercy's old wine pavilions. Guides who double as performers lead every visit, start up the musical automatons and invite visitors onto century-old carousels, including a merry-go-round turned by pedaling bicycles.
The halls include a Belle Epoque funfair and a little Venice with its own lagoon.
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.
Guignol is the glove puppet French kids grow up shouting warnings at, and the city's parks still keep his small theaters going, often a short walk from an old carousel. A show and a ride make an easy afternoon with younger kids. Here's what we checked, from the Guignol du Luxembourg to the extinct-animal carousel at the Jardin des Plantes.
Guignol du Luxembourg is a historic puppet theater inside the Luxembourg Gardens. The shows mix classic Guignol adventures with fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Princess and the Frog.
A new team runs it after a 2026 renovation of the stage lighting, sound and electrics. The LudoJardin playground and the toy sailboat pond are a few minutes' walk away.
A Napoleon III style puppet theater on the Champ-de-Mars, about 400 meters from the Eiffel Tower, staging shows since 1902. Around 400 puppets act out fairy tales such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood, plus the theater's own adventures like Treasure Island.
Shows are in French, built on stories most kids already know, so preschoolers can follow the plot.
A small covered puppet theater inside Parc Montsouris, where Guignol, the classic French hand puppet, is the hero of every story. Kids watch from Art Deco club armchairs in a hall that is heated in winter and air-conditioned in summer, so shows run all year.
Michel-Henri Rank has run the theater since 1982. It suits preschoolers and early primary kids who can sit through a short show.
An open-air puppet theater in Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, dating from 1836. Kids sit on benches in front of a small painted stage while Guignol, the cheeky hero of French puppetry, gets into trouble and back out again. The company Les Petits Bouffons de Paris keeps the traditional, irreverent style.
There is no roof, so shows only go ahead in dry, mild weather.
A covered 90-seat puppet theater inside Parc Georges-Brassens, run by the company Les Marionnettes de Vaugirard. Shows star Polichinelle, the hook-nosed hero of the old Paris glove-puppet tradition, played behind a carved wooden booth with red velvet curtains.
The puppeteer talks straight to the audience and plays off the kids' reactions. Sets, costumes and puppets are made in the theater's own workshop, alongside antique boxwood heads with glass eyes.
This wooden-horse carousel on the west side of the Jardin du Luxembourg was designed by Charles Garnier, the architect of the Paris Opera, and opened in 1879.
Kids on the outer circle of horses get a short stick and try to spear metal rings as they ride past, an old French game called jeu de bagues. Rilke wrote his poem "The Carousel" about this one.
A small carousel inside the Jardin des Plantes where every mount is an extinct or endangered animal: a dodo, a thylacine, the giant elephant bird, a Barbary lion, a horned turtle and an early giraffe called a sivatherium, with a panda and a gorilla in the mix. A scientist at the natural history museum next door had it built in 1992 to get people talking about extinction.
A two-tier carousel in the Jardins du Trocadéro, below the Palais de Chaillot and across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. Gilded trim, strings of lights and painted panels of Paris monuments (Sacré-Cœur among them) ring the top, and it plays fairground tunes as it turns. Kids pick a painted horse, a shell-shaped carriage or the hot-air balloon gondola.
A private museum of fairground rides, automatons and show objects from the 19th and early 20th centuries, set in Bercy's old wine pavilions. Guides who double as performers lead every visit, start up the musical automatons and invite visitors onto century-old carousels, including a merry-go-round turned by pedaling bicycles.
The halls include a Belle Epoque funfair and a little Venice with its own lagoon.
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.
