May is the month of long weekends: Ascension Thursday, when schools also close on the Friday, then Whit Monday. It's the time for the day trips and big days out that a normal weekend can't fit. Here's what we checked, from the medieval festival in Provins to Monet's water lilies at Giverny, with castles, theme parks and a few events that run into early June.
One spring night a year, museums across Paris and the rest of France stay open after dark. Many plan something special: lit-up tours, game trails, projections, music and performers in the galleries, and in some rooms local school classes presenting a work they studied. For kids, the thrill is a museum at night. Best for school-age kids who can stay up late; toddlers tend to fade early.
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.
Paris's centuries-old funfair sets up each spring on the Pelouse de Reuilly, at the edge of the Bois de Vincennes. Around 250 rides and stalls fill the lawn, from gentle rides for small kids to big thrill rides for teens, plus prize games, candy floss and churros.
Afternoons suit younger kids best. Evenings turn loud, crowded and lit up, which is what most teens are after.
On fountain-show days, the fountains and groves of the Versailles gardens spout in time to baroque music. Several walking circuits lead past the famous basins and into groves usually closed to visitors. Kids get big moments at the Latona and Apollo fountains, where the water runs high over the gilded statues. It suits families happy to spend hours on foot outdoors.
Provins is a walled medieval market town, UNESCO-listed as the only surviving fair town of the Champagne region. Kids can walk the ramparts and fortified gates, climb the 12th-century Cesar Tower, and follow a guide through the underground galleries beneath the streets.
Knights and falconers with birds of prey put on shows at the foot of the walls, and a tourist train takes the hills off tired walkers.
France Miniature is a park of 117 scale models of French landmarks, built at 1/30 of their real size across 5 hectares of gardens. Model trains run on 4 km of track between the monuments.
The park also has 25 rides and family challenges, including Fort Boyard and Koh Lanta games based on the TV shows.
A medieval fortress, wrecked in 1617 and rebuilt from 1857 by Viollet-le-Duc for Napoleon III as a storybook castle.
Kids cross the bridges into the courtyard, then go down a lit staircase to the cellars, where about 100 plaster effigies of French kings and queens lie under shifting lights and whispered poems. A 5-hectare wooded park wraps around the walls, with cannonballs still stuck in one tower.
A theme park built on the Astérix comics, split into five themed worlds: Gaul, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Egypt and the Vikings. Its 51 attractions run from a mini train, flying chairs and play areas for young kids to big coasters like Osiris Convolvulis.
There are nine water rides and live shows. In fall the park adds haunted houses, and in winter a Gaulish Christmas with an ice rink.
Claude Monet lived and painted here from 1883 to 1926. The visit takes in his pink house and two gardens: the Clos Normand, packed with flower beds under arched trellises, and the water garden, where kids cross the green Japanese bridge and spot the water lilies he painted.
It suits kids happy to stroll and look: there is no play area, and queues build once online tickets sell out.
A Wild West theme park built around a huge sand dune. Rides are split across three themed areas: small flying rides and a spinning canoe in the Vallée des Mississi'Ptits, roller coasters and water rides in the Canyon du Color'Ado, and hot-air balloon rides in the desert zone.
Stunt shows include a train attack and trick riding, and a train crosses the dune to a farm with pony rides.
May is the month of long weekends: Ascension Thursday, when schools also close on the Friday, then Whit Monday. It's the time for the day trips and big days out that a normal weekend can't fit. Here's what we checked, from the medieval festival in Provins to Monet's water lilies at Giverny, with castles, theme parks and a few events that run into early June.
One spring night a year, museums across Paris and the rest of France stay open after dark. Many plan something special: lit-up tours, game trails, projections, music and performers in the galleries, and in some rooms local school classes presenting a work they studied. For kids, the thrill is a museum at night. Best for school-age kids who can stay up late; toddlers tend to fade early.
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.
Paris's centuries-old funfair sets up each spring on the Pelouse de Reuilly, at the edge of the Bois de Vincennes. Around 250 rides and stalls fill the lawn, from gentle rides for small kids to big thrill rides for teens, plus prize games, candy floss and churros.
Afternoons suit younger kids best. Evenings turn loud, crowded and lit up, which is what most teens are after.
On fountain-show days, the fountains and groves of the Versailles gardens spout in time to baroque music. Several walking circuits lead past the famous basins and into groves usually closed to visitors. Kids get big moments at the Latona and Apollo fountains, where the water runs high over the gilded statues. It suits families happy to spend hours on foot outdoors.
Provins is a walled medieval market town, UNESCO-listed as the only surviving fair town of the Champagne region. Kids can walk the ramparts and fortified gates, climb the 12th-century Cesar Tower, and follow a guide through the underground galleries beneath the streets.
Knights and falconers with birds of prey put on shows at the foot of the walls, and a tourist train takes the hills off tired walkers.
France Miniature is a park of 117 scale models of French landmarks, built at 1/30 of their real size across 5 hectares of gardens. Model trains run on 4 km of track between the monuments.
The park also has 25 rides and family challenges, including Fort Boyard and Koh Lanta games based on the TV shows.
A medieval fortress, wrecked in 1617 and rebuilt from 1857 by Viollet-le-Duc for Napoleon III as a storybook castle.
Kids cross the bridges into the courtyard, then go down a lit staircase to the cellars, where about 100 plaster effigies of French kings and queens lie under shifting lights and whispered poems. A 5-hectare wooded park wraps around the walls, with cannonballs still stuck in one tower.
A theme park built on the Astérix comics, split into five themed worlds: Gaul, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Egypt and the Vikings. Its 51 attractions run from a mini train, flying chairs and play areas for young kids to big coasters like Osiris Convolvulis.
There are nine water rides and live shows. In fall the park adds haunted houses, and in winter a Gaulish Christmas with an ice rink.
Claude Monet lived and painted here from 1883 to 1926. The visit takes in his pink house and two gardens: the Clos Normand, packed with flower beds under arched trellises, and the water garden, where kids cross the green Japanese bridge and spot the water lilies he painted.
It suits kids happy to stroll and look: there is no play area, and queues build once online tickets sell out.
A Wild West theme park built around a huge sand dune. Rides are split across three themed areas: small flying rides and a spinning canoe in the Vallée des Mississi'Ptits, roller coasters and water rides in the Canyon du Color'Ado, and hot-air balloon rides in the desert zone.
Stunt shows include a train attack and trick riding, and a train crosses the dune to a farm with pony rides.
