French still a work in progress at your house? Start here. Every plan on this list works for a kid who speaks no French: concerts, art workshops, light shows and stage shows where the story carries without the words. The list updates as new plans come in, so it's worth a look each week.
The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle turns 400 and is marking it with a dedicated program of events at its home in the Jardin des Plantes. The garden's long central perspective is planted with flowers in the anniversary's colors, and an exhibition traces four centuries of dialogue between the artists and naturalists of the Muséum.
It suits families who like a garden walk with some history along the way.
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.
Thoiry Lumières Sauvages is a night walk of nearly 3 km through the park's paths, gardens and maze, lit by more than 3,000 handmade silk sculptures of giant animals, plants and creatures.
This edition, Sur les traces de Pachamama, follows an explorer from the ocean floor to Greenland, Mongolia, India and Peru. A new clue appears at each stop, and the ending stays secret until the last one.
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.
Two of Paris's big department stores fill their Boulevard Haussmann windows with moving puppet scenes, watched from the sidewalk. At Printemps, cats and mice chase a runaway ball of yarn through a house. Galeries Lafayette tells a colorful, funny tale by designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, with a giant sculpted tree under its glass dome.
The stores sit a short walk apart, so one stroll covers both.
Disneyland Paris dresses both parks for Christmas. In Disneyland Park, Mickey's Dazzling Christmas Parade rolls down Main Street, U.S.A. by day and after dark, the giant tree in Town Square lights up with a live choir, and snow falls several times a day. This year World of Frozen joins in for the first time, with Anna and Elsa ringing the Yule Bell on the fjord and Olaf leading carols.
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.
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.
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.
The biggest Christmas market in the Paris region fills the La Défense esplanade with more than 350 wooden chalets. Kids come for the ice rink, the carousels, the costumed parades and a visit to Santa and Mrs. Claus. At the elves' workshop in Santa's house, younger ones make their own Christmas decorations to take home. Grown-ups get treats and gift shopping among the office towers.
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.
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.
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.
The Magie de Noël is the first Christmas market to open in France: 95 wooden chalets and rides spread over a hectare of the Tuileries Garden.
Kids can go down the giant slide, ride Santa's little train and the Christmas carousel, skate on a 250 m² rink and meet Santa in his chalet. Grown-ups browse craft gifts from makers across France.
Little Nature is a themed weekend at Little Villette, the children's space inside Parc de la Villette, built around animals and plants. Kids move animal figurines through a landscape of woods, rivers and hills, play market stall with fruit and vegetables, and stamp a shared floral mural.
Short animated films about the forest round it out. It suits toddlers and young kids who like hands-on, pretend play.
La Magie de Noël fills a corner of the Jardin des Tuileries, between the Louvre and Place de la Concorde, with 95 wooden chalets and rides. Most chalets sell goods made in France.
Kids come for the fairground: a giant slide, hook-a-duck, Santa's little train and treasure hunts for small ones, bumper cars, flying chairs and a small roller coaster for older ones, with the Grande Roue Ferris wheel overhead.
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.
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.
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.
Les Fermes de Gally, one of the best-known teaching farms near Paris, decks out its farmyard for Christmas. Kids plant a mini Christmas tree, make an Advent wreath, press prints into clay and make wax candles, then visit the sheep, goats, donkeys, pigs, cows and the rabbit run.
The workshops run continuously, so families move between them at their own pace. The hands-on crafts suit preschoolers and early primary kids.
Patins en Folie is an open-air ice rink in Parc André Citroën, billed as the city's largest. Mornings suit beginners and families, with a separate area for small children and lessons from skating pros.
In the evening, music and lighting turn the ice into a dance floor for teens and adults. A food village serves hot chocolate, waffles and seasonal dishes between laps.
Every winter the trees along the Champs-Élysées are wrapped in lights, turning the avenue into a long glowing walk from Place de la Concorde up to the Arc de Triomphe. There's nothing to book or queue for: kids walk, look up and spot the Arc glowing at the top.
After almost ten years away, a Christmas market returns to the lower end near Concorde, with craft and food chalets.
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.
A night walk through part of the Jardin d'Acclimatation, lit by nearly 2,000 handmade lanterns: tigers, elephants, temples, deities and festival scenes from India, with music along the route. Kids see something new every few steps, from a family of tigers to a painted elephant. It ends in a food court serving Indian dishes. This is the park's fourth lantern festival, after China and Japan.
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.
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.
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.
Once a month, Ground Control in the 12th turns its Charolais Club space into a dance floor for kids and their grown-ups. Les Doigts Dans La Prise run it: a new theme and decor each time, homemade giant games, glitter, and a guest DJ who normally plays for adults. Parents dance too. It suits kids who like music and a crowd; noise-sensitive kids may find it a lot.
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.
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.
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.
Little Cirque is a circus weekend at Little Villette, the kids' space at La Villette. Circus artists coach kids through acrobatic lifts, juggling and balance games, and a second workshop has them fill balloons with semolina to make juggling balls.
A drop-in activity has kids make paper circus figures, or color them in, and put on a miniature circus. Good for beginners who like to move and make things.
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 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 the medieval walled town of Provins, a UNESCO World Heritage site, becomes an open-air stage. Troubadours, jugglers and street performers work the crowds, jousts and games fill the squares, and craftspeople and traders line the lanes. Thousands of visitors come in costume.
It suits kids who love knights and castles, and families happy to spend a day in a big crowd.
France's national open-gardens weekend, run by the Ministry of Culture. Public parks, private estates and botanical gardens open their gates, some of them only for this weekend. Families find guided tours, workshops, walks and the odd concert among the flower beds.
The 2027 theme is lawns, meadows and grasslands. It suits kids who like to look closely at plants and bugs, less so ones who need a playground.
Fête de la Musique turns Paris into one big free concert. Anyone can play: choirs, brass bands, rock groups on café terraces, DJs on street corners, plus bigger stages in squares and parks.
Families wander from one sound to the next and stop wherever the kids start dancing. Afternoons are calmer and easier with small children; after dark the crowds swell and the volume climbs, especially in the center.
France's national day opens with a military parade down the Champs-Élysées, from the Arc de Triomphe toward Place de la Concorde. Kids watch jets trail blue, white and red smoke overhead, then helicopters, marching troops, armored vehicles and the mounted Republican Guard.
It suits kids who can handle a long wait in a big crowd and loud flyovers. Toddlers and noise-sensitive kids may do better watching the jets from farther away.
Marché Bastille is an open-air street market that runs along Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, from rue Amelot to rue Saint-Sabin, a short walk from Place de la Bastille. Stalls of fruit, vegetables and other fresh food line the route, so kids can walk the aisles, point out what they want to try and help pick lunch.
It suits an unhurried morning walk with a stroller and a shopping bag.
Canauxrama runs narrated boat trips along the Canal Saint-Martin, between Bassin de la Villette and Port de l'Arsenal by Bastille. Kids watch the boat work through 8 locks, pass 2 swing bridges and the Crimée lift bridge, then glide through the vault beneath Bastille, lit by skylights. Guides tell stories of Napoleon and old Paris along the way. The full canal trip runs one way, so plan the ride back.
A 1924 Art Nouveau public pool, listed as a historic monument, where the 33-meter indoor pool sits under a tall vaulted roof. Outside are two more: a 25-meter Nordic pool heated all year, and a 12-meter children's pool that runs from 40cm to 1.1m deep. The artesian well that once fed the pools still runs the fountain on the square out front.
Georges-Vallerey is the 50-meter pool built for the 1924 Paris Olympics, now under a wooden roof that slides open in good weather. A movable wall can split it into two 25-meter pools, and a moving floor sets the depth from 0.9 to 2.15 meters, so some days have a shallow end. It suits kids who can swim or are learning; there is no separate toddler pool.
Ludido is a neighborhood toy library run by the Florimont association. Kids play freely on site with toys and games, and families can borrow games and toys to take home.
Babies and toddlers have their own area with a motor-skills course, while older kids get a wide range of board games and video games. Adults play too, and the last Friday of each month is a games night.
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 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.
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.
LudoJardin is the fenced playground inside the Jardin du Luxembourg, built around a nature theme with wooden decks and paths. Kids cross hanging bridges, find their way through a labyrinth, fly down a zip line and take the slides.
Parents stay inside with their children. The garden's pony rides, carousel, puppet theater and toy sailboats on the pond are a short walk away.
Two 17th-century houses on Rue Cortot tell the story of Montmartre's artists, and one holds the rebuilt studio-apartment where Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo lived and painted. Around them, the terraced Renoir Gardens, where Renoir painted The Swing, step down to the Clos Montmartre vineyard.
A free game booklet from the front desk turns the permanent collection into a hunt for kids. Toddlers will mostly enjoy the garden.
A pocket-size gallery for young children, showing original artwork from contemporary picture books hung at kid height, with a new exhibition every month or so.
Art educators run workshops tied to each show, mixing art history with painting, collage and modeling. A shop sells illustrated children's books, art books and craft kits.
France's postal museum fills three floors by Gare Montparnasse with postal vehicles, carrier uniforms, sorting gear and a panorama of French stamps from the first issues to today.
Kids pick up a free game booklet or a multimedia guide with a family trail at the front desk, then hunt for clues through the rooms. Storytelling visits and printmaking workshops add a hands-on side.
The museum of the Paris Mint sits inside a working factory on the Seine. Kids look onto the engraving and foundry workshops, often catch a live engraving demonstration, and try striking coins at interactive stations.
The route is built for touch, smell and sound as well as looking, and the collection runs to 170,000 coins, medals, tools and old minting machines.
Ceramoka is a paint-your-own ceramics studio with a small café near Porte de Saint-Cloud. Kids pick a white earthenware piece off the shelves, such as a mug, plate or bowl, and paint it with non-toxic colors. Nobody needs to know how to draw: staff give a short briefing, and stencils and templates are on hand. The studio then glazes the piece and fires it in its kiln.
Hapik is a fun-climbing hall inside the Centre sportif et culturel Camille Muffat. The walls are colorful themed challenges rather than standard routes, each with an auto-belay rope, so kids climb on their own with no experience.
There is also an indoor ropes course in via ferrata style, a leap-of-faith jump, bamboo poles and an interactive climbing game, plus a snack bar.
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.
Bowling Mouffetard has eight bowling lanes plus billiard tables, on Rue Mouffetard, the old market street of the Latin Quarter. Shoes and balls come with each game, and socks are required (disposable ones are handed out).
Weekend mornings and weekday afternoons draw families. Evenings, especially Friday to Sunday, turn into a grown-up night out with no bookings taken.
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.
Le Centquatre is an arts center built around huge covered halls that anyone can walk through. Dancers, jugglers, roller skaters and acrobats rehearse in the open spaces, so kids can watch krump, breakdance or diabolo up close.
Inside, the Maison des Petits is a play and reading room designed by artist matali crasset, with painting and water play for toddlers and a parent. Exhibitions and shows run alongside.
Aquaboulevard is a big indoor water park at Balard, with the water kept at 29°C all year. Inside are two wave pools, 11 slides, rivers with a current, geysers, water mushrooms and jacuzzis.
In summer, outdoor pools and a 4,000 m² sand beach open too. A Gaumont cinema, a McDonald's and a Decathlon share the same complex.
An 800 m² ice rink under a glass roof, inside the Espace Sportif Pailleron a few streets from the Buttes-Chaumont park. Most of its ice time goes to public sessions rather than clubs, with music playing over the ice.
A rest area sits beside the rink, and a walkway and stands around it let parents watch from off the ice. Skates and helmets are for hire at the desk.
A glass-roofed hall holds a 33m pool, with six lanes split by swimming speed. Kids head for the leisure pools next door: a paddling pool, a wave pool, a massage bath and a jacuzzi. A solarium opens in warm weather.
The same sports center houses an ice rink, so a swim and a skate can share one outing.
A public pool built on a barge moored on the Seine, beside the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand. The 25-meter pool sits under a glass roof that opens in summer, when a 500 m² sun deck with views of the river boats opens too.
It suits kids who swim confidently: there is no separate shallow pool for toddlers.
The largest bouldering and roped-climbing gym in the capital, spread over 4,000 m². Kids can boulder on walls up to 4 meters high over thick mats with no harness, or tie in on roped walls around 10 meters high.
Instructors run a climbing school, family sessions and school-holiday programs. A café-bar serves light meals, and a separate studio hosts yoga.
Arkose Chevaleret is a bouldering gym with more than 1,000 m² of short walls climbed without ropes over thick mats, plus a warm-up area and a sauna. Routes are reset continuously and set for every level.
Younger climbers get a separate kids space with easier boulders, and teens have their own walls before moving on to the adult areas. The Cantine restaurant has a terrace for parents waiting.
Smile World Bercy 2 fills 4,000 m² on the top floor of the Bercy 2 shopping center with an indoor karting track, a trampoline park, a laser game maze, arcade games and private karaoke rooms. It is the only Smile World with karting and trampolines.
Kids can book one activity or combine a few, and a bar serves pizzas and sharing boards between sessions.
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.
The Puces de Saint-Ouen is the world's largest cluster of antique and secondhand dealers, spread over seven hectares just past the northern edge of Paris. Eleven covered markets, among them Vernaison, Paul Bert Serpette and Dauphine, sit alongside five shopping streets and sidewalk stalls. Kids who like a treasure hunt can wander narrow alleys packed with old furniture, paintings, crystal and vintage clothes.
The Panthéon is a domed 18th-century monument on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, designed by the architect Soufflot. Under the dome, Foucault's pendulum swings on a 67-meter wire, its path slowly shifting as the Earth turns.
Below the nave, the crypt holds the tombs of Victor Hugo, Marie Curie and other figures France chose to honor. Best for school-age kids curious about science or history.
La Terrasse is the open-air roof on the 8th floor of the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann department store, directly above its Art Nouveau glass dome. From the top, kids can pick out the Eiffel Tower and the white Sacré-Cœur on the Montmartre hill across a sea of gray rooftops.
In the warmer months pop-up bars and restaurants set up on the terrace, and in winter an ice rink opens there.
Place du Tertre is the old village square at the top of Montmartre, a few streets from the Sacré-Cœur basilica. Painters set up easels here every day, and portrait artists sketch visitors, kids included, while families watch.
Picasso, Modigliani and Utrillo lived nearby in the early 1900s. The Montmartre funicular climbs from the foot of the hill to Sacré-Cœur, skipping the Rue Foyatier stairs.
A Gothic royal chapel from the 1240s, tucked inside the Palais de Justice on the Île de la Cité. The lower chapel has a low, painted blue-and-gold vault. A narrow spiral staircase leads to the upper chapel, where walls of stained glass hold 1,113 scenes from the Bible.
Kids who like spotting details can hunt for kings, animals and battles. Sunny days light the glass best.
The Catacombs are a 1.5 km one-way walk through old limestone quarry tunnels 20 meters under the city. The bones of several million Parisians, moved from old cemeteries, line the walls in stacked patterns of skulls and bones. Carved plaques mark the streets overhead.
It suits curious older kids who like history. Younger or anxious children may find the dim, narrow passages and the bones too much.
Batobus is a hop-on hop-off boat service on the Seine, with nine stops between the Eiffel Tower and the Jardin des Plantes, including the Louvre, Notre-Dame and the Musée d'Orsay. The trimarans are glassed in and heated, with an open-air deck at the back.
A full loop takes about 1 hour 45 minutes, so kids can ride the river between sights instead of walking, or stay aboard the whole way.
Notre-Dame is the Gothic cathedral on the Île de la Cité, built between 1163 and 1345 and reopened in December 2024 after the 2019 fire. Inside, kids can look up at the restored stone vaults and the big rose windows.
A separate climb up the south tower runs 424 steps past the gargoyles, which were built as rain spouts, to views across Paris from 69 meters up.
Sacré-Cœur sits on top of the Montmartre hill, and the steps and lawns below its white domes are where families stop to look out over the rooftops. Inside, kids can hunt for the huge mosaic of Christ above the choir.
The bigger adventure is the dome: 280 steps up a narrow staircase, past the basilica roofs, to a walkway with a 360-degree view of Paris and its monuments.
The Arc de Triomphe stands at the top of the Champs-Élysées, in the middle of Place de l'Étoile. Kids climb 284 steps inside the arch to a rooftop terrace that looks down the avenues to the Eiffel Tower.
Under the arch are the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and its flame, framed by huge sculpted groups on the pillars. The climb suits kids who can handle a long staircase.
The Eiffel Tower is the 330-meter iron tower on the Champ de Mars, with three levels open to visitors. The first level has a glass floor where kids can stand and look straight down to the ground.
Stairs climb about 600 steps to the second level, and elevators go all the way up. The top, at 276 meters, holds a champagne bar and Gustave Eiffel's old private apartment.
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.
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.
Two playgrounds sit in this 4-hectare garden between the Canopée and the Bourse de Commerce, with Saint-Eustache church as a backdrop. Toddlers have a play area for ages 2 to 6.
Older kids get the Terrain d'aventures, a maze-like course designed by sculptor Henri Marquet's team, with the Mégamachines slide structure, a trampoline, swings, spinning tops and planted corners to hide in, run by city play workers.
Car-free stretches of the Seine's banks, 4.5 km on the right bank and 2.5 km on the left, form a 10-hectare riverside park. Kids get a 40-meter balance trail of stumps and logs from Paris trees, and a docks-themed play corner with a pontoon, a small boat and a crate maze.
The paths double as a cycle route where walkers have priority, and about fifteen cafés and barges line the way.
Also called the Promenade Plantée, this 4.5 km walkway follows an old railway line from Bastille toward the Bois de Vincennes. One stretch runs on a viaduct above Avenue Daumesnil at treetop height, then the path drops through tunnels and cuttings into the Reuilly gardens.
The arches below hold the Viaduc des Arts, where some craftspeople work in glass-front workshops. It suits a long stroller walk or a slow family ramble.
Built on the site of the old Vaugirard slaughterhouses, this hilly park has a duck pond with a belfry, a stream with a small bridge, a lookout and a pinot noir vineyard.
For kids there are swings, sandpits, a climbing wall, a carousel, pony rides, ping-pong tables and a Guignol puppet theater. A beekeeping society keeps hives here, and a scented garden carries braille labels.
Parc de Sceaux is a formal French garden laid out by André Le Nôtre in the 17th century, spread over 181 hectares just south of Paris. Kids can follow the stepped cascades down to the Octagon basin, walk the 1,140-meter Grand Canal and hunt for the statues along the allées.
In spring, the grove of Japanese cherry trees draws families for hanami picnics. The château houses the estate's museum.
A 460-hectare former royal estate on the hillside above the Seine, laid out by André Le Nôtre. The Grande Cascade, the Grand Jet basin and terraces looking toward Paris anchor the formal gardens; beyond them are English-style lawns, woods and a 19th-century landscape garden, the Jardin du Trocadéro.
There are two playgrounds, six places to eat, and a small museum on the vanished château.
Parc de Belleville covers a steep hillside, with the Willy Ronis belvedere at the top looking out over the rooftops of Paris. A cascading fountain over 100 meters long runs down the slope between stairs, pergolas and terraced lawns.
Kids head for the playground, the ping-pong tables and the foosball table, and can spot the small vineyard, replanted in 1992 where monks once made wine.
A 10-hectare park built on former rail freight yards, and one of the biggest green spaces in the city. Kids get a playground with log climbing frames, a skate park, basketball courts, ping-pong tables and a boules pitch, with wide lawns in between. Wind turbines, solar panels and rainwater harvesting are part of the design. Locals usually call it Parc Martin Luther King.
A long, narrow garden on the Left Bank of the Seine, running along Quai Saint-Bernard between Pont de Sully and Place Valhubert. Kids get a playground, a skate park, ping-pong tables, a soccer pitch and street workout bars, with sculptures set along the riverside paths.
Parc de Bercy runs along the Seine on the site of the old wine warehouses, and its old rail tracks still show in the cobbled paths. The open lawns at the west end have a playground, a carousel, a skate park and ping-pong tables. Further east, gated gardens hold a vegetable patch, a vineyard, a maze, duck ponds and a small lake with an island.
Parc Montsouris spreads across three big lawns linked by bridges, around a lake with ducks and, in winter, coots and gulls. Old trees shade the paths, including a giant sequoia and a ginkgo that turns bright yellow in fall.
Kids get a playground, carousels, a Guignol puppet theater, ping-pong tables and a basketball court. From May to September the bandstand hosts concerts.
Jardin d'Éole is a long, narrow park built on former rail land beside the tracks, on the edge of the 18th and 19th arrondissements. Its 4-plus hectares hold toddler playgrounds, a basketball court, ping-pong tables, a tennis practice wall and space for ball games, along with a big meadow, a planted canal and a gravel garden. One of its eight drinking fountains pours sparkling water.
The world's largest tethered balloon rises 150 meters above Parc André Citroën on a steel cable, carrying up to 30 passengers for a flight of about 10 minutes. It runs on helium and an electric winch, so the ride is silent, with a 360-degree view over the Seine and the Eiffel Tower.
Since 2013 it has also worked as a flying lab that measures the city's air pollution.
Parc André-Citroën sits on the site of the old Citroën car factory beside the Seine. A long central lawn runs down to a canal, renovated in 2024 with shallow streams, floating gardens and geyser jets near the river.
Kids run through the fountain jets on hot days, then head to the playground, the merry-go-rounds or the ping-pong tables. Glass greenhouses and a series of themed gardens round it out.
Parc Monceau is an English-style garden laid out in 1861, with winding paths, a pond ringed by stone colonnades (the Naumachie), a small pyramid and other 18th-century follies. Kids head for the playground, the swings and the carousel, then go looking for the Oriental plane tree planted in 1814.
The Bois de Boulogne is an 845-hectare woodland on the western edge of the city, with two lakes, the Grande Cascade waterfall and long forest paths. Rowing boats can be rented on the Lac Inférieur, whose island holds the Emperor's Kiosk.
Inside the woods sit the Jardin d'Acclimatation amusement park and the Bagatelle and Pré Catelan gardens, plus a playground, pony rides and picnic tables.
Parc Floral is a 30-hectare botanical park in the Bois de Vincennes, laid out as themed gardens, an oak grove and pavilions of bonsai, ferns and Jurassic plants.
For kids there is a playground with sandboxes and swings, a Guignol puppet theater, minigolf, a treetop ropes course, an escape game and four-wheel pedal bikes to rent. On warm days the open-air stage hosts Pestacles, a children's music festival.
The city's largest green space covers 995 hectares of woods, four lakes linked by streams, and open lawns on its eastern edge. Kids can rent a rowboat on Lac Daumesnil and cross the bridges to its two islands, ride a pony, catch a Guignol puppet show, or try the playgrounds, sandpits and swings. The Parc Floral and the Paris Zoo sit inside the woods.
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.
Paris's first botanical garden, open to the public for almost 400 years, runs from Gare d'Austerlitz to the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution between long alleys of trimmed plane trees.
Kids can climb the labyrinth hill to Buffon's gazebo, one of the oldest metal structures in the world, and find a cedar planted in 1734. The Ménagerie zoo, the Grandes Serres greenhouses and the natural history galleries sit inside the grounds.
A giant multicolored dragon sculpture is the centerpiece of this playground in Parc de la Villette. Its tongue is a long tunnel slide, with climbing to get up to it. Under the dragon's belly, younger kids get swings and seesaws of their own.
The park's other themed gardens, big lawns and the Canal de l'Ourcq are a short walk away, so it fits easily into a longer day out.
A fenced play garden inside Parc de la Villette, designed by Isabelle Devin and Catherine Rannou and inspired by the Breton seaside. Kids pedal to spin wind turbines, push walls of movable sails and bounce across waves of air cushions, all built to train balance and coordination.
The smallest kids get their own play pieces, and loungers let parents sit close by.
Parc de la Villette covers 55 hectares along the Canal de l'Ourcq, with ten themed gardens, big lawns for running and picnics, and red folly pavilions. Kids head for the Jardin du Dragon and its tongue slide, the seaside-themed Jardin des Vents et des Dunes, and the farm with donkeys, goats, chickens and sheep. Little Villette runs free weekend play and children's shows.
Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is a hilly park built on an old gypsum quarry, with a lake below steep cliffs and the Temple de la Sibylle on its rocky island.
Kids get playgrounds with sandboxes and swings, a carousel, a hook-a-duck stall and a can-toss game, plus two Guignol puppet theaters. A biodiversity trail marks 28 stops around the park, and waffle stands and cafés sit inside.
The Tuileries is the formal garden stretching from the Louvre to Place de la Concorde, with over 3,000 trees, open lawns and ornamental ponds. Kids push little sailboats across the octagonal Grand Basin with a stick, a tradition here since 1850.
The north side, along Rue de Rivoli, holds a play area with a rope bridge in the trees, a carousel and trampolines set among palm trees.
The Senate's garden mixes formal French lawns with wooded English-style paths around the Grand Bassin, where kids rent toy sailboats and push them across the pond.
Elsewhere there are pony rides, a carousel, a puppet theater, a playground, swings and sandpits. Older kids can shoot hoops or play table tennis and chess, and 102 statues and the Medici Fountain line the walks.
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.
Choco-Story tells 4,000 years of cocoa history, from the Maya to the modern chocolate bar, through a collection of about a thousand objects in three sections.
A chocolatier makes chocolate live in front of visitors, and the tastings along the route are all you can eat. Kids under 12 follow the tour with a game booklet, and the chocolate art area includes a 3-meter sculpture made from 200kg of chocolate.
The Musée Rodin fills the Hôtel Biron mansion and the sculpture garden around it. Indoors are marble and plaster works such as The Kiss, plus pieces by Camille Claudel.
Outside, kids can circle The Thinker, look up at the crowded figures of The Gates of Hell and walk among The Burghers of Calais, with a café set in the middle of the garden.
The navy and seafaring museum in the Palais de Chaillot shows more than 1,000 objects across themed galleries. Kids walk into a life-size ship's prow under a dome film of the sea, step inside a giant wave in the shipwrecks room, and study ship models nearly 5 meters long, gilded figureheads, compasses and lighthouse lenses.
A family trail marked with flags runs through the route.
Musée Carnavalet is the city's history museum, running from prehistoric oak dugout canoes to the 20th century. For kids, the standouts are two rooms of old shop signs, the Gallo-Roman finds, and the Revolution rooms with a heater shaped like the Bastille and Marie Antoinette's slipper.
Later rooms hold Mucha's Art Nouveau jewelry shop and Proust's bedroom, and the gardens are open for a snack break.
The Musée de l'Armée fills the Hôtel des Invalides with French military history, from medieval suits of armor and samurai gear to the Napoleonic era and both world wars. Cannons line the main courtyard, and Napoleon's tomb sits under the golden Dôme. The Plans-Reliefs museum shows giant scale models of fortified towns.
Kids who like knights and battles get the most from it; the world war galleries suit older children.
The Musée de l'Homme tells the story of our species in a 2,500 m² gallery that looks out over the Seine to the Eiffel Tower. Kids come face to face with Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon skulls, a Peruvian mummy and a painted Senegalese bus, listen at a wall of world languages, and try sensory stations along the way.
The Paris Sewer Museum sits inside working sewer tunnels under the Pont de l'Alma. An elevator takes visitors down to a 500-meter walk through real galleries, past the machinery sewer workers use to clear the tunnels, scale models, and displays on how the city cleans its water.
Kids who like machines, pipes and how things work get the most out of it. Expect some smells and damp air.
A former 1835 steel foundry where 140 projectors cover the walls of a 1,500 m² hall with moving artworks set to music. Visitors walk through the images, then see them multiplied in a mirror tower.
In the Atelier des Enfants, kids color a dinosaur or Renaissance template, scan it, and watch their drawing come to life on the wall. The main show changes through the year.
The national music museum holds nearly 9,000 instruments and artworks, laid out from the late 1500s to today: Stradivari violins, an octobass, Theremin and Hammond electronics, a gallery of Fender and Gibson electric guitars, and instruments from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. A free video guide lets kids see and hear the instruments played, and musicians give short live performances in the galleries every day.
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.
Musée en Herbe is a small art museum made for kids and the adults with them, with a playful, hands-on take on art. The current show, marking 30 years of Pokémon, sends kids on a treasure hunt past rare cards, giant Game Boys and works by Takashi Murakami and Daniel Arsham.
Art workshops for toddlers and older kids run alongside the visit.
The Musée d'Orsay fills a former railway station, built 1898 to 1900 on the Left Bank of the Seine. Under the glass roof of the old train hall, a long central nave is lined with sculptures, and a gilded station clock hangs at one end.
The galleries hold Impressionist paintings kids may know from books: Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhône and Monet's Blue Water Lilies.
The Louvre is a former royal palace with about 35,000 works on display, from Egyptian antiquities to the Mona Lisa. It is huge and tiring for kids, so families do best picking one wing and keeping the visit short.
The Studio, on the ground floor of the Richelieu wing, has drawing activities, board games, a reading nook and a baby space with a bottle warmer and nursing chair.
France's national aviation museum fills 12 halls and an outdoor tarmac at Le Bourget airport with more than 100 aircraft, from the first flying machines and a Spitfire to two Concordes.
Kids can walk inside a Boeing 747, play pilot or astronaut at Planète Pilote's 40 hands-on stations, catch a planetarium show, and climb the restored 1953 control tower for a view over the runways.
The Musée des Arts et Métiers holds more than 2,400 inventions across seven collections, from scientific instruments to transport. The standout room is the former church of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, where early planes hang over vintage cars and Foucault's pendulum swings in the nave.
Kids can also find Bartholdi's original model of the Statue of Liberty and Pascal's mechanical calculator, and museum staff run demonstrations in the galleries.
A long 1898 hall in the Jardin des Plantes, part of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. The ground floor holds a herd of vertebrate skeletons, from fish and birds to a whale, lined up to show how bones adapt to the way an animal lives.
Upstairs, dinosaur skeletons, mammoths and fossils fill the galleries. It suits kids who love bones and big animals more than hands-on play.
The Grande Galerie de l'Évolution is the Natural History Museum's main hall at the Jardin des Plantes, an 1889 iron-and-glass nave holding about 7,000 specimens. Downstairs, whales and a giant squid loom over sea life. Upstairs, an elephant leads a parade of savannah animals, and the lights and soundtrack run from dawn to a passing storm. A room of threatened and extinct species holds a giant panda and a Tasmanian tiger.
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.
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.
French still a work in progress at your house? Start here. Every plan on this list works for a kid who speaks no French: concerts, art workshops, light shows and stage shows where the story carries without the words. The list updates as new plans come in, so it's worth a look each week.
The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle turns 400 and is marking it with a dedicated program of events at its home in the Jardin des Plantes. The garden's long central perspective is planted with flowers in the anniversary's colors, and an exhibition traces four centuries of dialogue between the artists and naturalists of the Muséum.
It suits families who like a garden walk with some history along the way.
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.
Thoiry Lumières Sauvages is a night walk of nearly 3 km through the park's paths, gardens and maze, lit by more than 3,000 handmade silk sculptures of giant animals, plants and creatures.
This edition, Sur les traces de Pachamama, follows an explorer from the ocean floor to Greenland, Mongolia, India and Peru. A new clue appears at each stop, and the ending stays secret until the last one.
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.
Two of Paris's big department stores fill their Boulevard Haussmann windows with moving puppet scenes, watched from the sidewalk. At Printemps, cats and mice chase a runaway ball of yarn through a house. Galeries Lafayette tells a colorful, funny tale by designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, with a giant sculpted tree under its glass dome.
The stores sit a short walk apart, so one stroll covers both.
Disneyland Paris dresses both parks for Christmas. In Disneyland Park, Mickey's Dazzling Christmas Parade rolls down Main Street, U.S.A. by day and after dark, the giant tree in Town Square lights up with a live choir, and snow falls several times a day. This year World of Frozen joins in for the first time, with Anna and Elsa ringing the Yule Bell on the fjord and Olaf leading carols.
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.
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.
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.
The biggest Christmas market in the Paris region fills the La Défense esplanade with more than 350 wooden chalets. Kids come for the ice rink, the carousels, the costumed parades and a visit to Santa and Mrs. Claus. At the elves' workshop in Santa's house, younger ones make their own Christmas decorations to take home. Grown-ups get treats and gift shopping among the office towers.
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.
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.
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.
The Magie de Noël is the first Christmas market to open in France: 95 wooden chalets and rides spread over a hectare of the Tuileries Garden.
Kids can go down the giant slide, ride Santa's little train and the Christmas carousel, skate on a 250 m² rink and meet Santa in his chalet. Grown-ups browse craft gifts from makers across France.
Little Nature is a themed weekend at Little Villette, the children's space inside Parc de la Villette, built around animals and plants. Kids move animal figurines through a landscape of woods, rivers and hills, play market stall with fruit and vegetables, and stamp a shared floral mural.
Short animated films about the forest round it out. It suits toddlers and young kids who like hands-on, pretend play.
La Magie de Noël fills a corner of the Jardin des Tuileries, between the Louvre and Place de la Concorde, with 95 wooden chalets and rides. Most chalets sell goods made in France.
Kids come for the fairground: a giant slide, hook-a-duck, Santa's little train and treasure hunts for small ones, bumper cars, flying chairs and a small roller coaster for older ones, with the Grande Roue Ferris wheel overhead.
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.
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.
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.
Les Fermes de Gally, one of the best-known teaching farms near Paris, decks out its farmyard for Christmas. Kids plant a mini Christmas tree, make an Advent wreath, press prints into clay and make wax candles, then visit the sheep, goats, donkeys, pigs, cows and the rabbit run.
The workshops run continuously, so families move between them at their own pace. The hands-on crafts suit preschoolers and early primary kids.
Patins en Folie is an open-air ice rink in Parc André Citroën, billed as the city's largest. Mornings suit beginners and families, with a separate area for small children and lessons from skating pros.
In the evening, music and lighting turn the ice into a dance floor for teens and adults. A food village serves hot chocolate, waffles and seasonal dishes between laps.
Every winter the trees along the Champs-Élysées are wrapped in lights, turning the avenue into a long glowing walk from Place de la Concorde up to the Arc de Triomphe. There's nothing to book or queue for: kids walk, look up and spot the Arc glowing at the top.
After almost ten years away, a Christmas market returns to the lower end near Concorde, with craft and food chalets.
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.
A night walk through part of the Jardin d'Acclimatation, lit by nearly 2,000 handmade lanterns: tigers, elephants, temples, deities and festival scenes from India, with music along the route. Kids see something new every few steps, from a family of tigers to a painted elephant. It ends in a food court serving Indian dishes. This is the park's fourth lantern festival, after China and Japan.
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.
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.
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.
Once a month, Ground Control in the 12th turns its Charolais Club space into a dance floor for kids and their grown-ups. Les Doigts Dans La Prise run it: a new theme and decor each time, homemade giant games, glitter, and a guest DJ who normally plays for adults. Parents dance too. It suits kids who like music and a crowd; noise-sensitive kids may find it a lot.
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.
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.
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.
Little Cirque is a circus weekend at Little Villette, the kids' space at La Villette. Circus artists coach kids through acrobatic lifts, juggling and balance games, and a second workshop has them fill balloons with semolina to make juggling balls.
A drop-in activity has kids make paper circus figures, or color them in, and put on a miniature circus. Good for beginners who like to move and make things.
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 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 the medieval walled town of Provins, a UNESCO World Heritage site, becomes an open-air stage. Troubadours, jugglers and street performers work the crowds, jousts and games fill the squares, and craftspeople and traders line the lanes. Thousands of visitors come in costume.
It suits kids who love knights and castles, and families happy to spend a day in a big crowd.
France's national open-gardens weekend, run by the Ministry of Culture. Public parks, private estates and botanical gardens open their gates, some of them only for this weekend. Families find guided tours, workshops, walks and the odd concert among the flower beds.
The 2027 theme is lawns, meadows and grasslands. It suits kids who like to look closely at plants and bugs, less so ones who need a playground.
Fête de la Musique turns Paris into one big free concert. Anyone can play: choirs, brass bands, rock groups on café terraces, DJs on street corners, plus bigger stages in squares and parks.
Families wander from one sound to the next and stop wherever the kids start dancing. Afternoons are calmer and easier with small children; after dark the crowds swell and the volume climbs, especially in the center.
France's national day opens with a military parade down the Champs-Élysées, from the Arc de Triomphe toward Place de la Concorde. Kids watch jets trail blue, white and red smoke overhead, then helicopters, marching troops, armored vehicles and the mounted Republican Guard.
It suits kids who can handle a long wait in a big crowd and loud flyovers. Toddlers and noise-sensitive kids may do better watching the jets from farther away.
Marché Bastille is an open-air street market that runs along Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, from rue Amelot to rue Saint-Sabin, a short walk from Place de la Bastille. Stalls of fruit, vegetables and other fresh food line the route, so kids can walk the aisles, point out what they want to try and help pick lunch.
It suits an unhurried morning walk with a stroller and a shopping bag.
Canauxrama runs narrated boat trips along the Canal Saint-Martin, between Bassin de la Villette and Port de l'Arsenal by Bastille. Kids watch the boat work through 8 locks, pass 2 swing bridges and the Crimée lift bridge, then glide through the vault beneath Bastille, lit by skylights. Guides tell stories of Napoleon and old Paris along the way. The full canal trip runs one way, so plan the ride back.
A 1924 Art Nouveau public pool, listed as a historic monument, where the 33-meter indoor pool sits under a tall vaulted roof. Outside are two more: a 25-meter Nordic pool heated all year, and a 12-meter children's pool that runs from 40cm to 1.1m deep. The artesian well that once fed the pools still runs the fountain on the square out front.
Georges-Vallerey is the 50-meter pool built for the 1924 Paris Olympics, now under a wooden roof that slides open in good weather. A movable wall can split it into two 25-meter pools, and a moving floor sets the depth from 0.9 to 2.15 meters, so some days have a shallow end. It suits kids who can swim or are learning; there is no separate toddler pool.
Ludido is a neighborhood toy library run by the Florimont association. Kids play freely on site with toys and games, and families can borrow games and toys to take home.
Babies and toddlers have their own area with a motor-skills course, while older kids get a wide range of board games and video games. Adults play too, and the last Friday of each month is a games night.
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 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.
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.
LudoJardin is the fenced playground inside the Jardin du Luxembourg, built around a nature theme with wooden decks and paths. Kids cross hanging bridges, find their way through a labyrinth, fly down a zip line and take the slides.
Parents stay inside with their children. The garden's pony rides, carousel, puppet theater and toy sailboats on the pond are a short walk away.
Two 17th-century houses on Rue Cortot tell the story of Montmartre's artists, and one holds the rebuilt studio-apartment where Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo lived and painted. Around them, the terraced Renoir Gardens, where Renoir painted The Swing, step down to the Clos Montmartre vineyard.
A free game booklet from the front desk turns the permanent collection into a hunt for kids. Toddlers will mostly enjoy the garden.
A pocket-size gallery for young children, showing original artwork from contemporary picture books hung at kid height, with a new exhibition every month or so.
Art educators run workshops tied to each show, mixing art history with painting, collage and modeling. A shop sells illustrated children's books, art books and craft kits.
France's postal museum fills three floors by Gare Montparnasse with postal vehicles, carrier uniforms, sorting gear and a panorama of French stamps from the first issues to today.
Kids pick up a free game booklet or a multimedia guide with a family trail at the front desk, then hunt for clues through the rooms. Storytelling visits and printmaking workshops add a hands-on side.
The museum of the Paris Mint sits inside a working factory on the Seine. Kids look onto the engraving and foundry workshops, often catch a live engraving demonstration, and try striking coins at interactive stations.
The route is built for touch, smell and sound as well as looking, and the collection runs to 170,000 coins, medals, tools and old minting machines.
Ceramoka is a paint-your-own ceramics studio with a small café near Porte de Saint-Cloud. Kids pick a white earthenware piece off the shelves, such as a mug, plate or bowl, and paint it with non-toxic colors. Nobody needs to know how to draw: staff give a short briefing, and stencils and templates are on hand. The studio then glazes the piece and fires it in its kiln.
Hapik is a fun-climbing hall inside the Centre sportif et culturel Camille Muffat. The walls are colorful themed challenges rather than standard routes, each with an auto-belay rope, so kids climb on their own with no experience.
There is also an indoor ropes course in via ferrata style, a leap-of-faith jump, bamboo poles and an interactive climbing game, plus a snack bar.
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.
Bowling Mouffetard has eight bowling lanes plus billiard tables, on Rue Mouffetard, the old market street of the Latin Quarter. Shoes and balls come with each game, and socks are required (disposable ones are handed out).
Weekend mornings and weekday afternoons draw families. Evenings, especially Friday to Sunday, turn into a grown-up night out with no bookings taken.
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.
Le Centquatre is an arts center built around huge covered halls that anyone can walk through. Dancers, jugglers, roller skaters and acrobats rehearse in the open spaces, so kids can watch krump, breakdance or diabolo up close.
Inside, the Maison des Petits is a play and reading room designed by artist matali crasset, with painting and water play for toddlers and a parent. Exhibitions and shows run alongside.
Aquaboulevard is a big indoor water park at Balard, with the water kept at 29°C all year. Inside are two wave pools, 11 slides, rivers with a current, geysers, water mushrooms and jacuzzis.
In summer, outdoor pools and a 4,000 m² sand beach open too. A Gaumont cinema, a McDonald's and a Decathlon share the same complex.
An 800 m² ice rink under a glass roof, inside the Espace Sportif Pailleron a few streets from the Buttes-Chaumont park. Most of its ice time goes to public sessions rather than clubs, with music playing over the ice.
A rest area sits beside the rink, and a walkway and stands around it let parents watch from off the ice. Skates and helmets are for hire at the desk.
A glass-roofed hall holds a 33m pool, with six lanes split by swimming speed. Kids head for the leisure pools next door: a paddling pool, a wave pool, a massage bath and a jacuzzi. A solarium opens in warm weather.
The same sports center houses an ice rink, so a swim and a skate can share one outing.
A public pool built on a barge moored on the Seine, beside the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand. The 25-meter pool sits under a glass roof that opens in summer, when a 500 m² sun deck with views of the river boats opens too.
It suits kids who swim confidently: there is no separate shallow pool for toddlers.
The largest bouldering and roped-climbing gym in the capital, spread over 4,000 m². Kids can boulder on walls up to 4 meters high over thick mats with no harness, or tie in on roped walls around 10 meters high.
Instructors run a climbing school, family sessions and school-holiday programs. A café-bar serves light meals, and a separate studio hosts yoga.
Arkose Chevaleret is a bouldering gym with more than 1,000 m² of short walls climbed without ropes over thick mats, plus a warm-up area and a sauna. Routes are reset continuously and set for every level.
Younger climbers get a separate kids space with easier boulders, and teens have their own walls before moving on to the adult areas. The Cantine restaurant has a terrace for parents waiting.
Smile World Bercy 2 fills 4,000 m² on the top floor of the Bercy 2 shopping center with an indoor karting track, a trampoline park, a laser game maze, arcade games and private karaoke rooms. It is the only Smile World with karting and trampolines.
Kids can book one activity or combine a few, and a bar serves pizzas and sharing boards between sessions.
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.
The Puces de Saint-Ouen is the world's largest cluster of antique and secondhand dealers, spread over seven hectares just past the northern edge of Paris. Eleven covered markets, among them Vernaison, Paul Bert Serpette and Dauphine, sit alongside five shopping streets and sidewalk stalls. Kids who like a treasure hunt can wander narrow alleys packed with old furniture, paintings, crystal and vintage clothes.
The Panthéon is a domed 18th-century monument on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, designed by the architect Soufflot. Under the dome, Foucault's pendulum swings on a 67-meter wire, its path slowly shifting as the Earth turns.
Below the nave, the crypt holds the tombs of Victor Hugo, Marie Curie and other figures France chose to honor. Best for school-age kids curious about science or history.
La Terrasse is the open-air roof on the 8th floor of the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann department store, directly above its Art Nouveau glass dome. From the top, kids can pick out the Eiffel Tower and the white Sacré-Cœur on the Montmartre hill across a sea of gray rooftops.
In the warmer months pop-up bars and restaurants set up on the terrace, and in winter an ice rink opens there.
Place du Tertre is the old village square at the top of Montmartre, a few streets from the Sacré-Cœur basilica. Painters set up easels here every day, and portrait artists sketch visitors, kids included, while families watch.
Picasso, Modigliani and Utrillo lived nearby in the early 1900s. The Montmartre funicular climbs from the foot of the hill to Sacré-Cœur, skipping the Rue Foyatier stairs.
A Gothic royal chapel from the 1240s, tucked inside the Palais de Justice on the Île de la Cité. The lower chapel has a low, painted blue-and-gold vault. A narrow spiral staircase leads to the upper chapel, where walls of stained glass hold 1,113 scenes from the Bible.
Kids who like spotting details can hunt for kings, animals and battles. Sunny days light the glass best.
The Catacombs are a 1.5 km one-way walk through old limestone quarry tunnels 20 meters under the city. The bones of several million Parisians, moved from old cemeteries, line the walls in stacked patterns of skulls and bones. Carved plaques mark the streets overhead.
It suits curious older kids who like history. Younger or anxious children may find the dim, narrow passages and the bones too much.
Batobus is a hop-on hop-off boat service on the Seine, with nine stops between the Eiffel Tower and the Jardin des Plantes, including the Louvre, Notre-Dame and the Musée d'Orsay. The trimarans are glassed in and heated, with an open-air deck at the back.
A full loop takes about 1 hour 45 minutes, so kids can ride the river between sights instead of walking, or stay aboard the whole way.
Notre-Dame is the Gothic cathedral on the Île de la Cité, built between 1163 and 1345 and reopened in December 2024 after the 2019 fire. Inside, kids can look up at the restored stone vaults and the big rose windows.
A separate climb up the south tower runs 424 steps past the gargoyles, which were built as rain spouts, to views across Paris from 69 meters up.
Sacré-Cœur sits on top of the Montmartre hill, and the steps and lawns below its white domes are where families stop to look out over the rooftops. Inside, kids can hunt for the huge mosaic of Christ above the choir.
The bigger adventure is the dome: 280 steps up a narrow staircase, past the basilica roofs, to a walkway with a 360-degree view of Paris and its monuments.
The Arc de Triomphe stands at the top of the Champs-Élysées, in the middle of Place de l'Étoile. Kids climb 284 steps inside the arch to a rooftop terrace that looks down the avenues to the Eiffel Tower.
Under the arch are the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and its flame, framed by huge sculpted groups on the pillars. The climb suits kids who can handle a long staircase.
The Eiffel Tower is the 330-meter iron tower on the Champ de Mars, with three levels open to visitors. The first level has a glass floor where kids can stand and look straight down to the ground.
Stairs climb about 600 steps to the second level, and elevators go all the way up. The top, at 276 meters, holds a champagne bar and Gustave Eiffel's old private apartment.
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.
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.
Two playgrounds sit in this 4-hectare garden between the Canopée and the Bourse de Commerce, with Saint-Eustache church as a backdrop. Toddlers have a play area for ages 2 to 6.
Older kids get the Terrain d'aventures, a maze-like course designed by sculptor Henri Marquet's team, with the Mégamachines slide structure, a trampoline, swings, spinning tops and planted corners to hide in, run by city play workers.
Car-free stretches of the Seine's banks, 4.5 km on the right bank and 2.5 km on the left, form a 10-hectare riverside park. Kids get a 40-meter balance trail of stumps and logs from Paris trees, and a docks-themed play corner with a pontoon, a small boat and a crate maze.
The paths double as a cycle route where walkers have priority, and about fifteen cafés and barges line the way.
Also called the Promenade Plantée, this 4.5 km walkway follows an old railway line from Bastille toward the Bois de Vincennes. One stretch runs on a viaduct above Avenue Daumesnil at treetop height, then the path drops through tunnels and cuttings into the Reuilly gardens.
The arches below hold the Viaduc des Arts, where some craftspeople work in glass-front workshops. It suits a long stroller walk or a slow family ramble.
Built on the site of the old Vaugirard slaughterhouses, this hilly park has a duck pond with a belfry, a stream with a small bridge, a lookout and a pinot noir vineyard.
For kids there are swings, sandpits, a climbing wall, a carousel, pony rides, ping-pong tables and a Guignol puppet theater. A beekeeping society keeps hives here, and a scented garden carries braille labels.
Parc de Sceaux is a formal French garden laid out by André Le Nôtre in the 17th century, spread over 181 hectares just south of Paris. Kids can follow the stepped cascades down to the Octagon basin, walk the 1,140-meter Grand Canal and hunt for the statues along the allées.
In spring, the grove of Japanese cherry trees draws families for hanami picnics. The château houses the estate's museum.
A 460-hectare former royal estate on the hillside above the Seine, laid out by André Le Nôtre. The Grande Cascade, the Grand Jet basin and terraces looking toward Paris anchor the formal gardens; beyond them are English-style lawns, woods and a 19th-century landscape garden, the Jardin du Trocadéro.
There are two playgrounds, six places to eat, and a small museum on the vanished château.
Parc de Belleville covers a steep hillside, with the Willy Ronis belvedere at the top looking out over the rooftops of Paris. A cascading fountain over 100 meters long runs down the slope between stairs, pergolas and terraced lawns.
Kids head for the playground, the ping-pong tables and the foosball table, and can spot the small vineyard, replanted in 1992 where monks once made wine.
A 10-hectare park built on former rail freight yards, and one of the biggest green spaces in the city. Kids get a playground with log climbing frames, a skate park, basketball courts, ping-pong tables and a boules pitch, with wide lawns in between. Wind turbines, solar panels and rainwater harvesting are part of the design. Locals usually call it Parc Martin Luther King.
A long, narrow garden on the Left Bank of the Seine, running along Quai Saint-Bernard between Pont de Sully and Place Valhubert. Kids get a playground, a skate park, ping-pong tables, a soccer pitch and street workout bars, with sculptures set along the riverside paths.
Parc de Bercy runs along the Seine on the site of the old wine warehouses, and its old rail tracks still show in the cobbled paths. The open lawns at the west end have a playground, a carousel, a skate park and ping-pong tables. Further east, gated gardens hold a vegetable patch, a vineyard, a maze, duck ponds and a small lake with an island.
Parc Montsouris spreads across three big lawns linked by bridges, around a lake with ducks and, in winter, coots and gulls. Old trees shade the paths, including a giant sequoia and a ginkgo that turns bright yellow in fall.
Kids get a playground, carousels, a Guignol puppet theater, ping-pong tables and a basketball court. From May to September the bandstand hosts concerts.
Jardin d'Éole is a long, narrow park built on former rail land beside the tracks, on the edge of the 18th and 19th arrondissements. Its 4-plus hectares hold toddler playgrounds, a basketball court, ping-pong tables, a tennis practice wall and space for ball games, along with a big meadow, a planted canal and a gravel garden. One of its eight drinking fountains pours sparkling water.
The world's largest tethered balloon rises 150 meters above Parc André Citroën on a steel cable, carrying up to 30 passengers for a flight of about 10 minutes. It runs on helium and an electric winch, so the ride is silent, with a 360-degree view over the Seine and the Eiffel Tower.
Since 2013 it has also worked as a flying lab that measures the city's air pollution.
Parc André-Citroën sits on the site of the old Citroën car factory beside the Seine. A long central lawn runs down to a canal, renovated in 2024 with shallow streams, floating gardens and geyser jets near the river.
Kids run through the fountain jets on hot days, then head to the playground, the merry-go-rounds or the ping-pong tables. Glass greenhouses and a series of themed gardens round it out.
Parc Monceau is an English-style garden laid out in 1861, with winding paths, a pond ringed by stone colonnades (the Naumachie), a small pyramid and other 18th-century follies. Kids head for the playground, the swings and the carousel, then go looking for the Oriental plane tree planted in 1814.
The Bois de Boulogne is an 845-hectare woodland on the western edge of the city, with two lakes, the Grande Cascade waterfall and long forest paths. Rowing boats can be rented on the Lac Inférieur, whose island holds the Emperor's Kiosk.
Inside the woods sit the Jardin d'Acclimatation amusement park and the Bagatelle and Pré Catelan gardens, plus a playground, pony rides and picnic tables.
Parc Floral is a 30-hectare botanical park in the Bois de Vincennes, laid out as themed gardens, an oak grove and pavilions of bonsai, ferns and Jurassic plants.
For kids there is a playground with sandboxes and swings, a Guignol puppet theater, minigolf, a treetop ropes course, an escape game and four-wheel pedal bikes to rent. On warm days the open-air stage hosts Pestacles, a children's music festival.
The city's largest green space covers 995 hectares of woods, four lakes linked by streams, and open lawns on its eastern edge. Kids can rent a rowboat on Lac Daumesnil and cross the bridges to its two islands, ride a pony, catch a Guignol puppet show, or try the playgrounds, sandpits and swings. The Parc Floral and the Paris Zoo sit inside the woods.
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.
Paris's first botanical garden, open to the public for almost 400 years, runs from Gare d'Austerlitz to the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution between long alleys of trimmed plane trees.
Kids can climb the labyrinth hill to Buffon's gazebo, one of the oldest metal structures in the world, and find a cedar planted in 1734. The Ménagerie zoo, the Grandes Serres greenhouses and the natural history galleries sit inside the grounds.
A giant multicolored dragon sculpture is the centerpiece of this playground in Parc de la Villette. Its tongue is a long tunnel slide, with climbing to get up to it. Under the dragon's belly, younger kids get swings and seesaws of their own.
The park's other themed gardens, big lawns and the Canal de l'Ourcq are a short walk away, so it fits easily into a longer day out.
A fenced play garden inside Parc de la Villette, designed by Isabelle Devin and Catherine Rannou and inspired by the Breton seaside. Kids pedal to spin wind turbines, push walls of movable sails and bounce across waves of air cushions, all built to train balance and coordination.
The smallest kids get their own play pieces, and loungers let parents sit close by.
Parc de la Villette covers 55 hectares along the Canal de l'Ourcq, with ten themed gardens, big lawns for running and picnics, and red folly pavilions. Kids head for the Jardin du Dragon and its tongue slide, the seaside-themed Jardin des Vents et des Dunes, and the farm with donkeys, goats, chickens and sheep. Little Villette runs free weekend play and children's shows.
Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is a hilly park built on an old gypsum quarry, with a lake below steep cliffs and the Temple de la Sibylle on its rocky island.
Kids get playgrounds with sandboxes and swings, a carousel, a hook-a-duck stall and a can-toss game, plus two Guignol puppet theaters. A biodiversity trail marks 28 stops around the park, and waffle stands and cafés sit inside.
The Tuileries is the formal garden stretching from the Louvre to Place de la Concorde, with over 3,000 trees, open lawns and ornamental ponds. Kids push little sailboats across the octagonal Grand Basin with a stick, a tradition here since 1850.
The north side, along Rue de Rivoli, holds a play area with a rope bridge in the trees, a carousel and trampolines set among palm trees.
The Senate's garden mixes formal French lawns with wooded English-style paths around the Grand Bassin, where kids rent toy sailboats and push them across the pond.
Elsewhere there are pony rides, a carousel, a puppet theater, a playground, swings and sandpits. Older kids can shoot hoops or play table tennis and chess, and 102 statues and the Medici Fountain line the walks.
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.
Choco-Story tells 4,000 years of cocoa history, from the Maya to the modern chocolate bar, through a collection of about a thousand objects in three sections.
A chocolatier makes chocolate live in front of visitors, and the tastings along the route are all you can eat. Kids under 12 follow the tour with a game booklet, and the chocolate art area includes a 3-meter sculpture made from 200kg of chocolate.
The Musée Rodin fills the Hôtel Biron mansion and the sculpture garden around it. Indoors are marble and plaster works such as The Kiss, plus pieces by Camille Claudel.
Outside, kids can circle The Thinker, look up at the crowded figures of The Gates of Hell and walk among The Burghers of Calais, with a café set in the middle of the garden.
The navy and seafaring museum in the Palais de Chaillot shows more than 1,000 objects across themed galleries. Kids walk into a life-size ship's prow under a dome film of the sea, step inside a giant wave in the shipwrecks room, and study ship models nearly 5 meters long, gilded figureheads, compasses and lighthouse lenses.
A family trail marked with flags runs through the route.
Musée Carnavalet is the city's history museum, running from prehistoric oak dugout canoes to the 20th century. For kids, the standouts are two rooms of old shop signs, the Gallo-Roman finds, and the Revolution rooms with a heater shaped like the Bastille and Marie Antoinette's slipper.
Later rooms hold Mucha's Art Nouveau jewelry shop and Proust's bedroom, and the gardens are open for a snack break.
The Musée de l'Armée fills the Hôtel des Invalides with French military history, from medieval suits of armor and samurai gear to the Napoleonic era and both world wars. Cannons line the main courtyard, and Napoleon's tomb sits under the golden Dôme. The Plans-Reliefs museum shows giant scale models of fortified towns.
Kids who like knights and battles get the most from it; the world war galleries suit older children.
The Musée de l'Homme tells the story of our species in a 2,500 m² gallery that looks out over the Seine to the Eiffel Tower. Kids come face to face with Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon skulls, a Peruvian mummy and a painted Senegalese bus, listen at a wall of world languages, and try sensory stations along the way.
The Paris Sewer Museum sits inside working sewer tunnels under the Pont de l'Alma. An elevator takes visitors down to a 500-meter walk through real galleries, past the machinery sewer workers use to clear the tunnels, scale models, and displays on how the city cleans its water.
Kids who like machines, pipes and how things work get the most out of it. Expect some smells and damp air.
A former 1835 steel foundry where 140 projectors cover the walls of a 1,500 m² hall with moving artworks set to music. Visitors walk through the images, then see them multiplied in a mirror tower.
In the Atelier des Enfants, kids color a dinosaur or Renaissance template, scan it, and watch their drawing come to life on the wall. The main show changes through the year.
The national music museum holds nearly 9,000 instruments and artworks, laid out from the late 1500s to today: Stradivari violins, an octobass, Theremin and Hammond electronics, a gallery of Fender and Gibson electric guitars, and instruments from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. A free video guide lets kids see and hear the instruments played, and musicians give short live performances in the galleries every day.
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.
Musée en Herbe is a small art museum made for kids and the adults with them, with a playful, hands-on take on art. The current show, marking 30 years of Pokémon, sends kids on a treasure hunt past rare cards, giant Game Boys and works by Takashi Murakami and Daniel Arsham.
Art workshops for toddlers and older kids run alongside the visit.
The Musée d'Orsay fills a former railway station, built 1898 to 1900 on the Left Bank of the Seine. Under the glass roof of the old train hall, a long central nave is lined with sculptures, and a gilded station clock hangs at one end.
The galleries hold Impressionist paintings kids may know from books: Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhône and Monet's Blue Water Lilies.
The Louvre is a former royal palace with about 35,000 works on display, from Egyptian antiquities to the Mona Lisa. It is huge and tiring for kids, so families do best picking one wing and keeping the visit short.
The Studio, on the ground floor of the Richelieu wing, has drawing activities, board games, a reading nook and a baby space with a bottle warmer and nursing chair.
France's national aviation museum fills 12 halls and an outdoor tarmac at Le Bourget airport with more than 100 aircraft, from the first flying machines and a Spitfire to two Concordes.
Kids can walk inside a Boeing 747, play pilot or astronaut at Planète Pilote's 40 hands-on stations, catch a planetarium show, and climb the restored 1953 control tower for a view over the runways.
The Musée des Arts et Métiers holds more than 2,400 inventions across seven collections, from scientific instruments to transport. The standout room is the former church of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, where early planes hang over vintage cars and Foucault's pendulum swings in the nave.
Kids can also find Bartholdi's original model of the Statue of Liberty and Pascal's mechanical calculator, and museum staff run demonstrations in the galleries.
A long 1898 hall in the Jardin des Plantes, part of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. The ground floor holds a herd of vertebrate skeletons, from fish and birds to a whale, lined up to show how bones adapt to the way an animal lives.
Upstairs, dinosaur skeletons, mammoths and fossils fill the galleries. It suits kids who love bones and big animals more than hands-on play.
The Grande Galerie de l'Évolution is the Natural History Museum's main hall at the Jardin des Plantes, an 1889 iron-and-glass nave holding about 7,000 specimens. Downstairs, whales and a giant squid loom over sea life. Upstairs, an elephant leads a parade of savannah animals, and the lights and soundtrack run from dawn to a passing storm. A room of threatened and extinct species holds a giant panda and a Tasmanian tiger.
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.
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.
