Indoor Events for Kids in Paris

A stage version of Claude Ponti's picture book, played by La Nad Compagnie. Hipollène, half girl and half squirrel, lives in a giant tree. When her grandmother dies, she sets off through its roots, meets a string of odd characters and comes out braver.

Expect puppets, acrobatics, dance and songs with classical touches. It handles grief gently, which makes it a good opener for a talk at home. Performed in French.

Volte is this season's new show at the Cirque d'Hiver, the 1852 circus building run by the Bouglione family. It is classic ring circus: a prize-winning flying trapeze troupe, slackline, diabolo, breakdancers, juggling, clowns and a horse-and-pony act, all led by Monsieur Loyal and a live orchestra.

It suits kids old enough to sit through a full-length show, and grandparents who remember the circus this way.

Molang and his friend Piu Piu join the regular route around the Aquarium de Paris, from the Seine tanks to the coral reefs, mangroves and the Médusarium. Along the way, riddles get kids looking closely at the animals and where they live.

It suits preschoolers and early-grade kids, and the character appearances and tanks need no French.

A new French production of the Broadway musical based on the DreamWorks film, staged by Philippe Hersen for the first film's 25th anniversary. Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, Lord Farquaad and the banished fairy-tale characters are all there, with a pop rock, soul and funk score.

Sung and spoken in French, so it suits kids who know the film well enough to follow along, or who speak French.

Playground is the young-audience festival of the Rencontres chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint-Denis: a month of dance across Paris and the Île-de-France suburbs, with shows from babies to teenagers.

Expect dance portraits, art history told through movement, clowns, a kite landscape and installations kids step into. Most are dance-led, so little French is needed.

Lire en Délire is a children's book festival in the Belleville and Fontaine-au-Roi neighborhood, now in its 17th edition. Local bookshops, theaters, libraries and community centers host author signings, writing and pop-up book workshops, kids' plays, exhibitions and readings.

It ends with a book fair where kids meet authors and illustrators, join creative workshops and hear stories read aloud.

The Gruss family has put on horse shows since 1974. This season's show is an equestrian musical with original music, mixing riding stunts, aerial acts, tightrope and comic sketches, with a live orchestra and seats all around the ring.

Before the show there's a meal with live music, and afterward the artists come out to chat. It suits horse-mad kids and anyone happy to sit through a long show.

Transparence is the first exhibition in the Palais des Enfants, the new family space at the Palais de la Découverte. Kids walk through a hall of mirrors, a mysterious forest, a cave full of treasures and a sparkling ocean, handling models and interactive pieces and seeing contemporary artworks along the way.

It is built for adults and children to explore together: jump, dance like a jellyfish, play with shadows.

Disney's stage version of The Lion King, sung and spoken in French, with the songs kids know as "L'Histoire de la Vie" and "Il vit en toi". The draw for kids is the animals: actors in lion masks, and puppet giraffes, gazelles and a cheetah crossing the savanna on stage.

The story follows the film, Scar included, and the theater warns that some scenes can frighten younger children.

A two-part family workshop at the Louvre. It starts in the Near Eastern Antiquities galleries, looking closely at a mysterious ancient statuette and uncovering a few of its secrets.

Then comes the making: kids fold, twist and shape clay into a figurine of their own. It's a family session, so parents join in and should expect clay on their hands too.

Six young actors sing, dance and tap their way through Dickens's story of the orphan who falls in with Fagin's gang of pickpockets in London's back streets. They tell it like 19th-century street hawkers, swapping between Oliver, Nancy, Bill Sikes, Fagin and the Artful Dodger. Expect laughs and a few sad scenes. The show was nominated for a 2026 Molière, France's top theater award, for best young-audience production.

Palais de Tokyo, the contemporary art center by the Seine, runs hands-on art workshops in the hamo, its studio space. Kids look at the current exhibitions, then make something: younger ones rebuild mountains out of clothes or weave a spider's house, older ones make a bandit's bandana or a color-filter spyglass. In the family workshop, everyone builds a shelter for a home's unseen neighbors, from spiders to hydrangeas.

Jazz & Goûter brings young kids into Sunset Sunside, a jazz club in the heart of Paris, for a live concert built around one theme, from the Beatles and the divas of jazz to Disney and Brazilian bossa nova. Musicians play on stage, and there's a goûter, the French afternoon snack.

It suits toddlers and young kids getting a first taste of live music in a real club.

A stage version of Michka, the Père Castor Christmas story by Marie Colmont, told with original songs. A teddy bear mistreated by his young owner walks out alone into the snow, finds that freedom has its hard parts, then meets Santa's reindeer struggling to deliver all the presents.

It's a story about giving: Michka has to choose what he's ready to give to help. Press reviews single out the humor.

A French-language musical staged as a guided tour of Santa's home at the North Pole. His elves show the audience where wish lists arrive, how toys get made and how Santa delivers presents without waking anyone. Then the snow can't fall, and the kids in the seats are asked to help save Christmas.

Expect songs, colorful costumes and plenty of audience participation. It suits young kids who follow French.

Slava's Snowshow is the show by Russian clown Slava Polunin and his troupe, a hit for more than 30 years. It draws on Chaplin, Fellini and the great slapstick acts.

Clowns in chick yellow and fir green, with rubbery bodies, fill a dreamlike, absurd world with gags. It suits kids who like silly physical comedy and can enjoy a poetic moment too.

ARBRE is the current show from the Bormanns, a circus family now in its eighth generation, under their year-round big top near Pont du Garigliano. Acrobats, aerialists, dancers and horses share the ring, with special effects and a magical tree tying the acts together around a theme of caring for nature. Little kids get the stunts and the animals; older kids and adults pick up the family-history thread.

Circo Infinito is a contemporary circus show where three performers from the Académie Fratellini mix acrobatics, visual poetry and live music on a set of sails and light.

The organizer pitches it as a feel-good show for all audiences, built around the strength of the group. It runs on movement and music, not words, so kids need no French. It suits school-age kids who can sit through a theater show.

Phia Ménard and Cie Non Nova build puppets out of plastic, then bring them to life with puppeteers' hands and the air from fans. Bodies, objects and landscapes appear, twirl and change shape in a ballet.

A good fit for kids drawn to dance and visual theater; less so for those who want a plot spelled out.

Orchestre Lamoureux, a symphony orchestra founded in 1881, plays short concerts made for babies and toddlers at Théâtre de l'Atelier, at the foot of Montmartre. Famous classical pieces mix with well-known nursery rhymes, and the mood is relaxed: kids can listen, move, sing and react out loud. Each month brings a new theme, from brass fanfares and Tchaikovsky ballets to Vivaldi and flamenco.

A musical take on Charles Perrault's fairy tale. Princess Aurora grows up under the watch of kind fairies until a dark curse sends her into a deep sleep.

Knights, princesses and fairies share the stage with puppets and a life-size dragon, all set to songs and dance. It suits young fairy-tale fans ready to sit through a full show.

A musical take on the classic fairy tale: Snow White faces her wicked stepmother, with seven cheerful, mischievous dwarfs at her side. Songs and comedy carry the story, and holograms and projection mapping bring the magic on stage. Pierre Arditi voices the mirror.

It's in French, but most kids know this story well enough to follow along. The show earned a 2022 Molière nomination in the young-audience category.

A stage musical of the Peter Pan story, performed in French. Peter flies Wendy and her two brothers to Neverland, where they board the Jolly Roger to take on Captain Hook, follow Tiger Lily and befriend the Lost Boys.

The cast sails, flies, sings and dances through full sets. It swings between funny and tender, and kids who know the story can follow it with little French.

Weekend family visits and workshops at this art foundation, built around Yu Nishimura's paintings and a trip to Japan. Babies move from canvas to canvas with gestures, sounds and games, then climb through inflatables and foam. Preschoolers follow a sensory walk to the sea, and older kids make a Japanese kite with a craftsman trained by a Japanese master.

The Super Kids Party brings everyone together.

A day of spoken stories at a neighborhood library in the 14th. Storyteller François-Moïse Bamba gives two shows: "Ma Tié, raconte-moi les animaux" for younger kids and "Contes du Burkina Faso" for older ones.

In between, an open stage lets anyone listen or step up and tell a story, followed by a shared snack. The shows are in French, so they suit kids who follow spoken French.

Two performers, Rouge et Bleu, went down to their cellar, found pieces of old drum kits and some very strange objects, and set about composing punk music with them. The result is a funny, surprising show where kids watch everyday things turn into instruments.

It suits kids who like noise, rhythm and silliness, and parents curious to hear what a kitchen appliance can do on stage.

Terre de Rêves is a story told in music, the first young-audience concert of the Saison musicale des Invalides. It follows a shipwrecked Irishman who crosses huge landscapes with the Anishinaabe people, all the way to the Great Lakes.

Banjo, mandolin, double bass and violin carry the tunes, with the story narrated in French. It suits kids who can follow a spoken story and sit through a concert.

A hands-on craft session built around Alexander Calder, the American sculptor known for his hanging mobiles. Kids take their cue from his work, then glue, assemble and hang a mobile of their own.

It runs in a neighborhood library in the 9th arrondissement. A good pick for kids who would rather make something than sit and listen.

A drag queen reads fairy tales that take a new turn. In these Contes à Paillettes, princesses rescue themselves, sensitive heroes dare to cry, and heroines head off to see the world without asking permission. Expect cunning witches, hairy frogs and imperfect princes.

The organizers say the grown-ups who come along laugh too, and not out of politeness, so it works as a family outing.

An exhibition that tells the history of the post through fairy tales. The entrance hall has an old stagecoach pulled by postal drones, and the way in is through an ogre's wide-open mouth. Inside, families cross a life-size forest that smells of moss.

Among the 500-plus objects: copies of Peau d'Âne's dresses and a braid of postal hair over two meters tall, a nod to Rapunzel.

Kids invent one comic story as a group with comics writer Judith Peignen. Everyone pitches an idea and votes at each step of the plot.

Then each child draws the story their own way and goes home with their own comic page. It suits kids who like drawing and making up stories, and who are comfortable sharing ideas in French.

Le Noël des Siècles turns the Château de Champs-sur-Marne into a walk-through Christmas tale mixing theater, dance and history. Families follow Ilda through the rooms in 1907, until the Nisse, a genie called up with a bell and a magic formula, sends everyone through three Christmases across time.

Close to 100 volunteers fill the rooms in costume. It suits kids who like dress-up and a story they can walk inside.

Two hands-on art workshops for kids, part of Vivante, an art festival celebrating nature and living things. In the first, artist Sophie Della Corte helps kids imagine and design their own sheet of temporary flash tattoos to take home.

In the second, Studio Pekelo introduces cyanotype, a printing technique known for its shades of blue, and kids compose their own enchanted forest inspired by plant shapes.

A gallery visit and hands-on workshop built around the sculptor Aristide Maillol. Kids start in the Musée d'Orsay galleries, looking at how his figures play with shape, volume and relief. Then they move to the studio, draw a silhouette and turn it into a bas-relief in clay.

Good for kids who would rather make art than only look at it.

Lilou the little gardener wakes to find every leaf in her garden nibbled away. With her scarecrow friend Ficelle, she questions the suspects: a rabbit, a rooster, a hedgehog, a snail, a ladybug and a cheeky caterpillar, all plush hand puppets. Nine nursery rhymes keep the story moving, and the show nudges toddlers to look at garden creatures and treat nature with care.

A walk-through Christmas show at the Grand Hôtel des Rêves in the Latin Quarter. Families follow young Yule from room to room, through a world of nisses, witches and magic wardrobes, tracing the very first Christmas present from an old toy shop to a post office at the far edge of the North Pole.

It suits kids who like fairy tales and can follow a story told in French.

Kids and parents work side by side to make seed bombs: small balls of compost, clay and wildflower seeds, meant to be tossed onto neglected patches of the city where the rain does the rest.

While they mix and roll, the Les Inventeurs team explains how seeds sprout, what soil does and why biodiversity matters in a city. Each adult works with one child.

A kamishibai tale, the Japanese way of telling a story with large picture cards. Zimba, a curious little monkey, sets off to find his mother's missing bracelet and meets a world of extraordinary animals along the way.

Afterward the group takes a short walk through the Animalia exhibition to spot the real and imaginary creatures in the artworks. Suits preschoolers who can sit through a story; older kids may find it too gentle.

Europe's biggest children's book fair fills Paris Montreuil Expo with close to 400 publishers, from picture books and comics to teen fiction and kids' magazines.

Kids browse the stands, get books signed by authors and illustrators, and drop into readings, talks, workshops and an exhibition on this year's theme, "Aux frontières du réel". It suits young readers of every age, from board books to YA.

OVO is Cirque du Soleil's insect show. A busy colony eats, flutters and courts across the stage, a ladybug catches the eye of an odd newcomer, and a mysterious egg sets the story going.

Kids get big acrobatics, bright costumes and a simple story to follow. It suits kids who can sit through a long arena show; very young or sound-sensitive kids may find it a lot.

Each winter the Château de Chantilly turns its riding dome into a Christmas stage. This year's horse show, Le Noël oublié, follows a child named Vérité on a quest to bring Christmas back to an island where a Halloween witch made everyone forget it.

Riders, winter fairies, snow girls and mischievous elves share the arena with the horses. It suits kids who like a story with their spectacle.

Odyssée is the new show from Cirque Phénix, performed by 40 acrobats from Les Étoiles du Cirque de Pékin. Expect plate spinning, hoop diving, foot juggling and balancing acts, with bold costumes, big sets and loud, modern music.

There are no animals, no ringmaster and no classic clowns, so it suits kids who want nonstop skill. It is long and loud for preschoolers.

Storyteller Gilles Bizouerne and cellist Elsa Guiet tell the misadventures of Gray Wolf (Loup gris), a hungry wolf who struggles to catch his dinner. This time he has swallowed a fly and has no idea how to get it out. Elsa plays and sings along as Gilles spins this and other silly stories about clumsy anti-heroes. It's in French, so it suits kids who follow spoken French.

A first go at sculpture in the studio-museum of Antoine Bourdelle. The session starts with a playful walk through the museum, where toddlers get a first look at the sculptor's work. Then everyone sits down with a lump of clay, and each child, helped by a parent, models a face. Parents take part fully alongside their child, and every family goes home with what they made.

It's Christmas Eve, Santa has disappeared and the presents still need delivering, so the only fix is an audition for a stand-in. A parade of odd candidates tries out, and one of them may know more about the disappearance than they let on. The Scénofolies company plays it quick and silly, with plenty of back-and-forth with the kids, and the jokes land for parents too.

Essentiel is the new show from Cirque Arlette Gruss, one of France's traditional family circuses, set up in a heated big top on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes. Expect balancing acts, aerial hoops, juggling, horses, motorbikes and the clown Bellini, all played to a live orchestra.

It suits kids who can sit through a long show and like their circus classic rather than experimental.

Les Mélomanes en culotte courte are family concerts by the Le Palais royal orchestra, made for babies and young kids. Children sit on mats or in a parent's arms, and they are free to move around, dance, sing along and get close to the musicians.

Each program brings different instruments or voices, and the music alternates with moments where the performers talk and play with the children.

A family version of The Nutcracker that mixes ballet and theater. Dancers and actors tell the story of Masha and her nutcracker through a run of living scenes, with new choreography and a few surprises.

The setting is intimate and the show draws the audience in. It suits kids who love dance and costumes. One who doesn't know the story may want a quick retelling first.

Annabelle Mouloudji plays a woman at bedtime whose younger self, a girl nicknamed Nana, refuses to sleep. To calm her, she invents stories about a lost ghost, a bored vampire, a witch with a sweet tooth and a wolf who dreams of Kathmandu.

Songs, dialogue, dance and animated images play across several projection screens, with surround sound around the audience.

The Musée d'Orsay is turning 40, and it is celebrating with a festive weekend of music and shows for families, on top of the usual galleries.

Kids can watch a new show based on France Inter's hit podcast Les Fabuleuses histoires du doudou, catch Aldebert and his Enfantillages in concert, hear the Maîtrise populaire de l'Opéra-Comique, and join singing and dance workshops. Best for kids who follow French.

The Musée Cognacq-Jay, a collection of 18th-century art gathered by the founder of La Samaritaine, opens its rooms to families for a weekend of play. Kids and parents study the museum's pastels, then draw a portrait together, or take a tour of the star pieces picked by a deck of cards.

A pop-up game library adds wooden skill games, board games, a Playmobil table and a marquetry workshop.

Clémentine the little cow is sure that once she turns one, she will drive Santa's sleigh. When the day comes, the reindeer disagree. This Christmas show from the company En Compagnie d'Eos is full of songs, magic and puppets, and the one press review calls it participatory, so kids get pulled in. It is built for a first trip to the theater; kids past kindergarten may find it young.

Kamishibai is Japanese paper theater: the storyteller slides illustrated cards through a small wooden frame and tells the tale one picture at a time. This session marks World Kamishibai Day, and the frame arrives mounted on a bicycle.

The storyteller draws on old French country legends and tales from the days of fireside gatherings. It suits kids who like picture books and can sit for a story session.

Mon P'tit Loup Magique is a magic and storytelling show by magician Richard Atlas. Arthur goes looking for the so-called big bad wolf and finds him somewhere no one expects. Along the way come bits of famous wolf tales, old sayings, music, poetry and plenty of jokes.

It suits kids who like a story with a little fright in it that turns warm and funny.

A baby owl sets off through the forest to find its missing dad, and along the way meets a string of animal fathers, each kind and a little extraordinary. The children in the audience go with it and help it on its way.

It is a visual show, made for deaf and hearing kids to watch side by side, with tender and funny moments for preschoolers.

A night visit of Versailles staged as a show. After the crowds leave, families walk the Grand Apartments while baroque musicians, singers, dancers and fencers perform room by room, with a dance in the Hall of Mirrors.

This year's theme is Marie-Antoinette and fashion, and the walk ends in the Gallery of Battles with a baroque Santa. It suits kids who can stay on their feet the whole way.

Each winter the nave of the Grand Palais becomes an indoor ice rink, billed as the largest in the world, under the building's famous glass and steel roof. Kids skate on the main rink or in a separate area kept just for children.

Between laps, the mountain-style restaurant serves crêpes, waffles and hot chocolate. Evening sessions run late and suit teens and adults more than young kids.

Inside a paper cave, a man finds a mysterious wall, a child calls to him, and animals spring to life by firelight. Philippe Beau, one of the few professional hand-shadow artists, performs alongside magic effects and projected drawings by Compagnie 14:20.

A quiet, poetic piece about prehistoric cave art, narrated in French. It suits kids happy to sit in the dark and watch; restless ones may struggle.

On stage, illustrator Laetitia Coryn draws a Louvre masterpiece live while storyteller Nicolas Lafitte tells its story and musician Axl-s plays along, with the audience in on the game. Each episode picks one painting, sculpture or object from the collection and digs into who made it and why.

It's a funny, fast way into a museum that can feel overwhelming with kids.

The royal palace south of Paris dresses up for the holidays. A Christmas show plays most days of the break, and a festive table is laid in the Salle des Gardes with royal and imperial china from the collections, right on the visit route.

Concerts and family tours round out the program. It suits school-age kids happy to walk a long palace circuit.

Jazz & Goûter is the Sunset Sunside's long-running Sunday concert series for young kids, played by a live band in a real jazz club. For Christmas it swaps its usual tributes for jazz versions of Christmas songs and Disney Christmas tunes.

Kids sit close to the musicians. It suits a child who can stay seated for most of an hour; a toddler who needs to roam will struggle.

Kids step into the shoes of a 13th-century apprentice knight in this game-visit through the museum's Ancient Arms and Armor department. Using challenges and objects from the collection, they find out how a knight trained and what his daily life looked like.

Pass the tests and the visit ends with a dubbing. It is a playful way for kids to discover the museum.

The classical Nutcracker ballet, set to Tchaikovsky's score, is back after last season's run. Clara gets a nutcracker as a Christmas Eve present, and during the night the toy comes to life and takes her into a world of fantasy characters.

It suits kids who already like dance or music and can sit through a long show, plus any grown-up who loves classical ballet.

A musical show starring Simon, the cheeky little rabbit from Stephanie Blake's picture books who loves pretending to be a superhero. He teams up with his little brother Gaspard and best friend Lou.

Two candies each is not enough, and Mom won't give them more. So Simon imagines a stone that would make her say yes to everything. A good pick for kids who know the books.

Disney on Ice is a family show where figure skaters play Disney characters and act out scenes from the films on the rink. The Enchanted Journey brings together stories including Mary Poppins, The Lion King and Aladdin.

It suits young Disney fans who already know the films and want to see those characters and stories on the ice.

The Orchestre Lamoureux plays short classical concerts sized for babies and preschoolers in the grand hall of Salle Gaveau.

Nobody expects a toddler to sit still. Kids can move, babble, sing along and dance while they hear the instruments of a real orchestra up close. Each date has its own theme, from world percussion to Beethoven and Chopin's piano. A gentle first concert for the whole family.

A clumsy clown and a bubbly acrobat meet to the sound of a live cello. There are no words: the two study each other, copy each other and play a funhouse-mirror game of imitation, warming up to each other at the music's pace.

It is funny and gentle, built on movement and listening rather than story, which makes it an easy first show for the very youngest theatergoers.

A modern retelling of Perrault's Donkey Skin. In a picture-perfect family the polish cracks: Mom walks out, Dad imposes "nap games," and the girl has nightmares. A neighbor keeps watch, and Monique Bergamote, her donkey comfort toy and piggy bank, comes alive to save her.

Writer Marie Dilasser and director Hélène Soulié tackle incest head-on. Best for tweens and teens ready to talk it through afterward.

A dancer slips out of her cabin and, with a partner who builds the set as she moves, turns bundles and everyday objects into new worlds: cotton-soft clouds, then the bottom of the ocean. Choreographer Julie Nioche made this gentle, funny piece for the youngest theatergoers.

It suits toddlers and preschoolers ready to sit through a short show, and the final installation charms grown-ups as well.

France's biggest farm show fills the Porte de Versailles halls with cows, sheep, goats, pigs, horses and donkeys, brought in by breeders from across the country. Kids can get close to the animals, watch the judging in the show rings and taste food from every French region and overseas territory.

It suits animal-mad kids of any age. Expect big crowds, especially at weekends.

For one weekend a year, France opens buildings that are usually closed to the public: government ministries, courts, military sites, churches, artisan workshops and private mansions. In Paris that means a long list of doors at once, with guided tours, craft demonstrations, small plays and concerts alongside.

Kids get to walk into rooms most adults never see, and many sites run games or workshops just for them.