Four to seven is when a kid can sit through a whole show, dig into a hands-on workshop and still talk about it at bedtime. This list gathers the concerts, family musicals, art workshops and seasonal outings whose organizers say they welcome kids in that range. Plenty run in French, so check each listing's language before you book.
Kamishibai is Japanese paper theater: the storyteller slides illustrated cards through a small wooden frame and tells the tale one picture at a time. This session marks World Kamishibai Day, and the frame arrives mounted on a bicycle.
The storyteller draws on old French country legends and tales from the days of fireside gatherings. It suits kids who like picture books and can sit for a story session.
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 stage version of Michka, the Père Castor Christmas story by Marie Colmont, told with original songs. A teddy bear mistreated by his young owner walks out alone into the snow, finds that freedom has its hard parts, then meets Santa's reindeer struggling to deliver all the presents.
It's a story about giving: Michka has to choose what he's ready to give to help. Press reviews single out the humor.
A musical take on Charles Perrault's fairy tale. Princess Aurora grows up under the watch of kind fairies until a dark curse sends her into a deep sleep.
Knights, princesses and fairies share the stage with puppets and a life-size dragon, all set to songs and dance. It suits young fairy-tale fans ready to sit through a full show.
A musical take on the classic fairy tale: Snow White faces her wicked stepmother, with seven cheerful, mischievous dwarfs at her side. Songs and comedy carry the story, and holograms and projection mapping bring the magic on stage. Pierre Arditi voices the mirror.
It's in French, but most kids know this story well enough to follow along. The show earned a 2022 Molière nomination in the young-audience category.
It's Christmas Eve, Santa has disappeared and the presents still need delivering, so the only fix is an audition for a stand-in. A parade of odd candidates tries out, and one of them may know more about the disappearance than they let on. The Scénofolies company plays it quick and silly, with plenty of back-and-forth with the kids, and the jokes land for parents too.
A family version of The Nutcracker that mixes ballet and theater. Dancers and actors tell the story of Masha and her nutcracker through a run of living scenes, with new choreography and a few surprises.
The setting is intimate and the show draws the audience in. It suits kids who love dance and costumes. One who doesn't know the story may want a quick retelling first.
Annabelle Mouloudji plays a woman at bedtime whose younger self, a girl nicknamed Nana, refuses to sleep. To calm her, she invents stories about a lost ghost, a bored vampire, a witch with a sweet tooth and a wolf who dreams of Kathmandu.
Songs, dialogue, dance and animated images play across several projection screens, with surround sound around the audience.
Mon P'tit Loup Magique is a magic and storytelling show by magician Richard Atlas. Arthur goes looking for the so-called big bad wolf and finds him somewhere no one expects. Along the way come bits of famous wolf tales, old sayings, music, poetry and plenty of jokes.
It suits kids who like a story with a little fright in it that turns warm and funny.
A musical show starring Simon, the cheeky little rabbit from Stephanie Blake's picture books who loves pretending to be a superhero. He teams up with his little brother Gaspard and best friend Lou.
Two candies each is not enough, and Mom won't give them more. So Simon imagines a stone that would make her say yes to everything. A good pick for kids who know the books.
An open-air puppet theater in Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, dating from 1836. Kids sit on benches in front of a small painted stage while Guignol, the cheeky hero of French puppetry, gets into trouble and back out again. The company Les Petits Bouffons de Paris keeps the traditional, irreverent style.
There is no roof, so shows only go ahead in dry, mild weather.
A small covered puppet theater inside Parc Montsouris, where Guignol, the classic French hand puppet, is the hero of every story. Kids watch from Art Deco club armchairs in a hall that is heated in winter and air-conditioned in summer, so shows run all year.
Michel-Henri Rank has run the theater since 1982. It suits preschoolers and early primary kids who can sit through a short show.
A hands-on craft session built around Alexander Calder, the American sculptor known for his hanging mobiles. Kids take their cue from his work, then glue, assemble and hang a mobile of their own.
It runs in a neighborhood library in the 9th arrondissement. A good pick for kids who would rather make something than sit and listen.
A kamishibai tale, the Japanese way of telling a story with large picture cards. Zimba, a curious little monkey, sets off to find his mother's missing bracelet and meets a world of extraordinary animals along the way.
Afterward the group takes a short walk through the Animalia exhibition to spot the real and imaginary creatures in the artworks. Suits preschoolers who can sit through a story; older kids may find it too gentle.
Storyteller Gilles Bizouerne and cellist Elsa Guiet tell the misadventures of Gray Wolf (Loup gris), a hungry wolf who struggles to catch his dinner. This time he has swallowed a fly and has no idea how to get it out. Elsa plays and sings along as Gilles spins this and other silly stories about clumsy anti-heroes. It's in French, so it suits kids who follow spoken French.
A new French production of the Broadway musical based on the DreamWorks film, staged by Philippe Hersen for the first film's 25th anniversary. Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, Lord Farquaad and the banished fairy-tale characters are all there, with a pop rock, soul and funk score.
Sung and spoken in French, so it suits kids who know the film well enough to follow along, or who speak French.
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.
A French-language musical staged as a guided tour of Santa's home at the North Pole. His elves show the audience where wish lists arrive, how toys get made and how Santa delivers presents without waking anyone. Then the snow can't fall, and the kids in the seats are asked to help save Christmas.
Expect songs, colorful costumes and plenty of audience participation. It suits young kids who follow French.
A day of spoken stories at a neighborhood library in the 14th. Storyteller François-Moïse Bamba gives two shows: "Ma Tié, raconte-moi les animaux" for younger kids and "Contes du Burkina Faso" for older ones.
In between, an open stage lets anyone listen or step up and tell a story, followed by a shared snack. The shows are in French, so they suit kids who follow spoken French.
Two performers, Rouge et Bleu, went down to their cellar, found pieces of old drum kits and some very strange objects, and set about composing punk music with them. The result is a funny, surprising show where kids watch everyday things turn into instruments.
It suits kids who like noise, rhythm and silliness, and parents curious to hear what a kitchen appliance can do on stage.
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.
A walk-through Christmas show at the Grand Hôtel des Rêves in the Latin Quarter. Families follow young Yule from room to room, through a world of nisses, witches and magic wardrobes, tracing the very first Christmas present from an old toy shop to a post office at the far edge of the North Pole.
It suits kids who like fairy tales and can follow a story told in French.
Kids and parents work side by side to make seed bombs: small balls of compost, clay and wildflower seeds, meant to be tossed onto neglected patches of the city where the rain does the rest.
While they mix and roll, the Les Inventeurs team explains how seeds sprout, what soil does and why biodiversity matters in a city. Each adult works with one child.
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.
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.
A Napoleon III style puppet theater on the Champ-de-Mars, about 400 meters from the Eiffel Tower, staging shows since 1902. Around 400 puppets act out fairy tales such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood, plus the theater's own adventures like Treasure Island.
Shows are in French, built on stories most kids already know, so preschoolers can follow the plot.
A covered 90-seat puppet theater inside Parc Georges-Brassens, run by the company Les Marionnettes de Vaugirard. Shows star Polichinelle, the hook-nosed hero of the old Paris glove-puppet tradition, played behind a carved wooden booth with red velvet curtains.
The puppeteer talks straight to the audience and plays off the kids' reactions. Sets, costumes and puppets are made in the theater's own workshop, alongside antique boxwood heads with glass eyes.
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.
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.
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.
A stage musical of the Peter Pan story, performed in French. Peter flies Wendy and her two brothers to Neverland, where they board the Jolly Roger to take on Captain Hook, follow Tiger Lily and befriend the Lost Boys.
The cast sails, flies, sings and dances through full sets. It swings between funny and tender, and kids who know the story can follow it with little French.
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.
Each winter the Château de Chantilly turns its riding dome into a Christmas stage. This year's horse show, Le Noël oublié, follows a child named Vérité on a quest to bring Christmas back to an island where a Halloween witch made everyone forget it.
Riders, winter fairies, snow girls and mischievous elves share the arena with the horses. It suits kids who like a story with their spectacle.
The Musée Cognacq-Jay, a collection of 18th-century art gathered by the founder of La Samaritaine, opens its rooms to families for a weekend of play. Kids and parents study the museum's pastels, then draw a portrait together, or take a tour of the star pieces picked by a deck of cards.
A pop-up game library adds wooden skill games, board games, a Playmobil table and a marquetry workshop.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Le Noël des Siècles turns the Château de Champs-sur-Marne into a walk-through Christmas tale mixing theater, dance and history. Families follow Ilda through the rooms in 1907, until the Nisse, a genie called up with a bell and a magic formula, sends everyone through three Christmases across time.
Close to 100 volunteers fill the rooms in costume. It suits kids who like dress-up and a story they can walk inside.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Musée de la Magie fills 16th-century vaulted cellars in the Marais with the history of conjuring: animated automata, optical illusions, hand-cranked mutoscopes, posters and the props of famous magicians.
Guides lead most rooms and tell the stories behind the pieces; the automata room is self-guided. Entry includes a live close-up magic show, and the shop at the center sells books and beginner tricks.
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.
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 stage version of Claude Ponti's picture book, played by La Nad Compagnie. Hipollène, half girl and half squirrel, lives in a giant tree. When her grandmother dies, she sets off through its roots, meets a string of odd characters and comes out braver.
Expect puppets, acrobatics, dance and songs with classical touches. It handles grief gently, which makes it a good opener for a talk at home. Performed in French.
A drag queen reads fairy tales that take a new turn. In these Contes à Paillettes, princesses rescue themselves, sensitive heroes dare to cry, and heroines head off to see the world without asking permission. Expect cunning witches, hairy frogs and imperfect princes.
The organizers say the grown-ups who come along laugh too, and not out of politeness, so it works as a family outing.
Clémentine the little cow is sure that once she turns one, she will drive Santa's sleigh. When the day comes, the reindeer disagree. This Christmas show from the company En Compagnie d'Eos is full of songs, magic and puppets, and the one press review calls it participatory, so kids get pulled in. It is built for a first trip to the theater; kids past kindergarten may find it young.
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.
Lire en Délire is a children's book festival in the Belleville and Fontaine-au-Roi neighborhood, now in its 17th edition. Local bookshops, theaters, libraries and community centers host author signings, writing and pop-up book workshops, kids' plays, exhibitions and readings.
It ends with a book fair where kids meet authors and illustrators, join creative workshops and hear stories read aloud.
Palais de Tokyo, the contemporary art center by the Seine, runs hands-on art workshops in the hamo, its studio space. Kids look at the current exhibitions, then make something: younger ones rebuild mountains out of clothes or weave a spider's house, older ones make a bandit's bandana or a color-filter spyglass. In the family workshop, everyone builds a shelter for a home's unseen neighbors, from spiders to hydrangeas.
A gallery visit and hands-on workshop built around the sculptor Aristide Maillol. Kids start in the Musée d'Orsay galleries, looking at how his figures play with shape, volume and relief. Then they move to the studio, draw a silhouette and turn it into a bas-relief in clay.
Good for kids who would rather make art than only look at it.
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.
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.
The Musée d'Orsay is turning 40, and it is celebrating with a festive weekend of music and shows for families, on top of the usual galleries.
Kids can watch a new show based on France Inter's hit podcast Les Fabuleuses histoires du doudou, catch Aldebert and his Enfantillages in concert, hear the Maîtrise populaire de l'Opéra-Comique, and join singing and dance workshops. Best for kids who follow French.
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.
Little Villette is a kids' building in Parc de la Villette, opposite the Grande Halle, easy to spot by its triangular windows and round doors. The drop-in side has a games bar, a reading lounge, a toddlers' rotunda, a LEGO table and wall, small exhibitions and the Little Ciné for cartoons and short films. Booked circus, storytelling, hip-hop and art workshops also run here.
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.
Studio des Ursulines is a single-screen cinema near the Luxembourg Gardens, open since 1926 and the first art-house cinema in France. Since 2003 it has programmed mainly for young audiences: animated features, short-film programs, ciné-concerts with live music, previews and festivals such as Mon Premier Festival for the youngest. Kids' films carry a starting age, many from 3 or 4, and some screenings come with workshops or meet-the-filmmaker talks.
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.
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.
Bateaux-Mouches runs commentated sightseeing cruises on the Seine from the Pont de l'Alma, on the right bank. The big passenger boats pass the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, the Musée d'Orsay, the Louvre, the Conciergerie and Notre-Dame, then return to the same pier without stops.
Kids can tick off the landmarks as they slide by. The company also runs brunch, lunch and dinner cruises.
A working farm, farmed by the Laureau family since 1746, beside the Versailles château park. A loop path passes pens of dwarf goats, sheep, cows, donkeys, Shetland ponies, pigs and hens, then winds through a small wood dotted with barrel huts.
Kids can stroke the goats, watch the animals being fed, and join short workshops making bread, butter, apple juice or recycled paper.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
Les Mélomanes en culotte courte are family concerts by the Le Palais royal orchestra, made for babies and young kids. Children sit on mats or in a parent's arms, and they are free to move around, dance, sing along and get close to the musicians.
Each program brings different instruments or voices, and the music alternates with moments where the performers talk and play with the children.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Marché d'Aligre is a street market along rue d'Aligre, with food stalls lining both sides. In the middle, on place d'Aligre, sits Marché Beauvau, a covered market hall built in 1843 and listed as a historic monument.
Kids can help pick fruit and vegetables at the stalls, then peek inside the old hall.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Opened in 1794, the Ménagerie is one of the oldest zoos in the world, set inside the Jardin des Plantes. It keeps about 500 animals from 122 species, mostly small and medium-sized: red pandas, snow leopards, orangutans, Seychelles tortoises, Malayan tapirs and keas.
The listed buildings are part of the visit, from the 1805 Bear Pits to the art deco Vivarium, the Singerie and the Great Aviary.
The 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.
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.
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.
A wax museum on the Grands Boulevards where kids pose next to life-size figures of footballers, singers and cartoon heroes like Paw Patrol, Miraculous and the Little Prince.
A walk-through history section runs from the Chauvet cave to Louis XIV's court and Napoleon, and there's a new One Piece area. Many figures are French TV stars, so visiting kids may know mostly the athletes and cartoons.
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.
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.
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.
Inside a paper cave, a man finds a mysterious wall, a child calls to him, and animals spring to life by firelight. Philippe Beau, one of the few professional hand-shadow artists, performs alongside magic effects and projected drawings by Compagnie 14:20.
A quiet, poetic piece about prehistoric cave art, narrated in French. It suits kids happy to sit in the dark and watch; restless ones may struggle.
L'Heure Joyeuse opened in 1924 as the first children's library in Paris. Its two floors hold a children's space and a teen and adult space, with about 25,000 books, CDs, DVDs and board games on open shelves.
Kids can borrow kamishibai paper-theater sets, play board games, use computers set aside for young readers, and join storytimes, workshops, film screenings and shows.
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.
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.
A bouldering gym at the foot of Montmartre, a few steps from Montmartre Cemetery, with more than 12 problems at each grade and routes reset all the time. Kids from 3 to 12 get their own area of colorful walls, while teens climb the adult sectors.
Classes, school-holiday camps and climbing birthday parties run year-round, and the Cantine restaurant on site serves seasonal dishes with vegetarian options.
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.
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.
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 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.
Four to seven is when a kid can sit through a whole show, dig into a hands-on workshop and still talk about it at bedtime. This list gathers the concerts, family musicals, art workshops and seasonal outings whose organizers say they welcome kids in that range. Plenty run in French, so check each listing's language before you book.
Kamishibai is Japanese paper theater: the storyteller slides illustrated cards through a small wooden frame and tells the tale one picture at a time. This session marks World Kamishibai Day, and the frame arrives mounted on a bicycle.
The storyteller draws on old French country legends and tales from the days of fireside gatherings. It suits kids who like picture books and can sit for a story session.
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 stage version of Michka, the Père Castor Christmas story by Marie Colmont, told with original songs. A teddy bear mistreated by his young owner walks out alone into the snow, finds that freedom has its hard parts, then meets Santa's reindeer struggling to deliver all the presents.
It's a story about giving: Michka has to choose what he's ready to give to help. Press reviews single out the humor.
A musical take on Charles Perrault's fairy tale. Princess Aurora grows up under the watch of kind fairies until a dark curse sends her into a deep sleep.
Knights, princesses and fairies share the stage with puppets and a life-size dragon, all set to songs and dance. It suits young fairy-tale fans ready to sit through a full show.
A musical take on the classic fairy tale: Snow White faces her wicked stepmother, with seven cheerful, mischievous dwarfs at her side. Songs and comedy carry the story, and holograms and projection mapping bring the magic on stage. Pierre Arditi voices the mirror.
It's in French, but most kids know this story well enough to follow along. The show earned a 2022 Molière nomination in the young-audience category.
It's Christmas Eve, Santa has disappeared and the presents still need delivering, so the only fix is an audition for a stand-in. A parade of odd candidates tries out, and one of them may know more about the disappearance than they let on. The Scénofolies company plays it quick and silly, with plenty of back-and-forth with the kids, and the jokes land for parents too.
A family version of The Nutcracker that mixes ballet and theater. Dancers and actors tell the story of Masha and her nutcracker through a run of living scenes, with new choreography and a few surprises.
The setting is intimate and the show draws the audience in. It suits kids who love dance and costumes. One who doesn't know the story may want a quick retelling first.
Annabelle Mouloudji plays a woman at bedtime whose younger self, a girl nicknamed Nana, refuses to sleep. To calm her, she invents stories about a lost ghost, a bored vampire, a witch with a sweet tooth and a wolf who dreams of Kathmandu.
Songs, dialogue, dance and animated images play across several projection screens, with surround sound around the audience.
Mon P'tit Loup Magique is a magic and storytelling show by magician Richard Atlas. Arthur goes looking for the so-called big bad wolf and finds him somewhere no one expects. Along the way come bits of famous wolf tales, old sayings, music, poetry and plenty of jokes.
It suits kids who like a story with a little fright in it that turns warm and funny.
A musical show starring Simon, the cheeky little rabbit from Stephanie Blake's picture books who loves pretending to be a superhero. He teams up with his little brother Gaspard and best friend Lou.
Two candies each is not enough, and Mom won't give them more. So Simon imagines a stone that would make her say yes to everything. A good pick for kids who know the books.
An open-air puppet theater in Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, dating from 1836. Kids sit on benches in front of a small painted stage while Guignol, the cheeky hero of French puppetry, gets into trouble and back out again. The company Les Petits Bouffons de Paris keeps the traditional, irreverent style.
There is no roof, so shows only go ahead in dry, mild weather.
A small covered puppet theater inside Parc Montsouris, where Guignol, the classic French hand puppet, is the hero of every story. Kids watch from Art Deco club armchairs in a hall that is heated in winter and air-conditioned in summer, so shows run all year.
Michel-Henri Rank has run the theater since 1982. It suits preschoolers and early primary kids who can sit through a short show.
A hands-on craft session built around Alexander Calder, the American sculptor known for his hanging mobiles. Kids take their cue from his work, then glue, assemble and hang a mobile of their own.
It runs in a neighborhood library in the 9th arrondissement. A good pick for kids who would rather make something than sit and listen.
A kamishibai tale, the Japanese way of telling a story with large picture cards. Zimba, a curious little monkey, sets off to find his mother's missing bracelet and meets a world of extraordinary animals along the way.
Afterward the group takes a short walk through the Animalia exhibition to spot the real and imaginary creatures in the artworks. Suits preschoolers who can sit through a story; older kids may find it too gentle.
Storyteller Gilles Bizouerne and cellist Elsa Guiet tell the misadventures of Gray Wolf (Loup gris), a hungry wolf who struggles to catch his dinner. This time he has swallowed a fly and has no idea how to get it out. Elsa plays and sings along as Gilles spins this and other silly stories about clumsy anti-heroes. It's in French, so it suits kids who follow spoken French.
A new French production of the Broadway musical based on the DreamWorks film, staged by Philippe Hersen for the first film's 25th anniversary. Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, Lord Farquaad and the banished fairy-tale characters are all there, with a pop rock, soul and funk score.
Sung and spoken in French, so it suits kids who know the film well enough to follow along, or who speak French.
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.
A French-language musical staged as a guided tour of Santa's home at the North Pole. His elves show the audience where wish lists arrive, how toys get made and how Santa delivers presents without waking anyone. Then the snow can't fall, and the kids in the seats are asked to help save Christmas.
Expect songs, colorful costumes and plenty of audience participation. It suits young kids who follow French.
A day of spoken stories at a neighborhood library in the 14th. Storyteller François-Moïse Bamba gives two shows: "Ma Tié, raconte-moi les animaux" for younger kids and "Contes du Burkina Faso" for older ones.
In between, an open stage lets anyone listen or step up and tell a story, followed by a shared snack. The shows are in French, so they suit kids who follow spoken French.
Two performers, Rouge et Bleu, went down to their cellar, found pieces of old drum kits and some very strange objects, and set about composing punk music with them. The result is a funny, surprising show where kids watch everyday things turn into instruments.
It suits kids who like noise, rhythm and silliness, and parents curious to hear what a kitchen appliance can do on stage.
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.
A walk-through Christmas show at the Grand Hôtel des Rêves in the Latin Quarter. Families follow young Yule from room to room, through a world of nisses, witches and magic wardrobes, tracing the very first Christmas present from an old toy shop to a post office at the far edge of the North Pole.
It suits kids who like fairy tales and can follow a story told in French.
Kids and parents work side by side to make seed bombs: small balls of compost, clay and wildflower seeds, meant to be tossed onto neglected patches of the city where the rain does the rest.
While they mix and roll, the Les Inventeurs team explains how seeds sprout, what soil does and why biodiversity matters in a city. Each adult works with one child.
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.
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.
A Napoleon III style puppet theater on the Champ-de-Mars, about 400 meters from the Eiffel Tower, staging shows since 1902. Around 400 puppets act out fairy tales such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood, plus the theater's own adventures like Treasure Island.
Shows are in French, built on stories most kids already know, so preschoolers can follow the plot.
A covered 90-seat puppet theater inside Parc Georges-Brassens, run by the company Les Marionnettes de Vaugirard. Shows star Polichinelle, the hook-nosed hero of the old Paris glove-puppet tradition, played behind a carved wooden booth with red velvet curtains.
The puppeteer talks straight to the audience and plays off the kids' reactions. Sets, costumes and puppets are made in the theater's own workshop, alongside antique boxwood heads with glass eyes.
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.
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.
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.
A stage musical of the Peter Pan story, performed in French. Peter flies Wendy and her two brothers to Neverland, where they board the Jolly Roger to take on Captain Hook, follow Tiger Lily and befriend the Lost Boys.
The cast sails, flies, sings and dances through full sets. It swings between funny and tender, and kids who know the story can follow it with little French.
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.
Each winter the Château de Chantilly turns its riding dome into a Christmas stage. This year's horse show, Le Noël oublié, follows a child named Vérité on a quest to bring Christmas back to an island where a Halloween witch made everyone forget it.
Riders, winter fairies, snow girls and mischievous elves share the arena with the horses. It suits kids who like a story with their spectacle.
The Musée Cognacq-Jay, a collection of 18th-century art gathered by the founder of La Samaritaine, opens its rooms to families for a weekend of play. Kids and parents study the museum's pastels, then draw a portrait together, or take a tour of the star pieces picked by a deck of cards.
A pop-up game library adds wooden skill games, board games, a Playmobil table and a marquetry workshop.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Le Noël des Siècles turns the Château de Champs-sur-Marne into a walk-through Christmas tale mixing theater, dance and history. Families follow Ilda through the rooms in 1907, until the Nisse, a genie called up with a bell and a magic formula, sends everyone through three Christmases across time.
Close to 100 volunteers fill the rooms in costume. It suits kids who like dress-up and a story they can walk inside.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Musée de la Magie fills 16th-century vaulted cellars in the Marais with the history of conjuring: animated automata, optical illusions, hand-cranked mutoscopes, posters and the props of famous magicians.
Guides lead most rooms and tell the stories behind the pieces; the automata room is self-guided. Entry includes a live close-up magic show, and the shop at the center sells books and beginner tricks.
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.
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 stage version of Claude Ponti's picture book, played by La Nad Compagnie. Hipollène, half girl and half squirrel, lives in a giant tree. When her grandmother dies, she sets off through its roots, meets a string of odd characters and comes out braver.
Expect puppets, acrobatics, dance and songs with classical touches. It handles grief gently, which makes it a good opener for a talk at home. Performed in French.
A drag queen reads fairy tales that take a new turn. In these Contes à Paillettes, princesses rescue themselves, sensitive heroes dare to cry, and heroines head off to see the world without asking permission. Expect cunning witches, hairy frogs and imperfect princes.
The organizers say the grown-ups who come along laugh too, and not out of politeness, so it works as a family outing.
Clémentine the little cow is sure that once she turns one, she will drive Santa's sleigh. When the day comes, the reindeer disagree. This Christmas show from the company En Compagnie d'Eos is full of songs, magic and puppets, and the one press review calls it participatory, so kids get pulled in. It is built for a first trip to the theater; kids past kindergarten may find it young.
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.
Lire en Délire is a children's book festival in the Belleville and Fontaine-au-Roi neighborhood, now in its 17th edition. Local bookshops, theaters, libraries and community centers host author signings, writing and pop-up book workshops, kids' plays, exhibitions and readings.
It ends with a book fair where kids meet authors and illustrators, join creative workshops and hear stories read aloud.
Palais de Tokyo, the contemporary art center by the Seine, runs hands-on art workshops in the hamo, its studio space. Kids look at the current exhibitions, then make something: younger ones rebuild mountains out of clothes or weave a spider's house, older ones make a bandit's bandana or a color-filter spyglass. In the family workshop, everyone builds a shelter for a home's unseen neighbors, from spiders to hydrangeas.
A gallery visit and hands-on workshop built around the sculptor Aristide Maillol. Kids start in the Musée d'Orsay galleries, looking at how his figures play with shape, volume and relief. Then they move to the studio, draw a silhouette and turn it into a bas-relief in clay.
Good for kids who would rather make art than only look at it.
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.
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.
The Musée d'Orsay is turning 40, and it is celebrating with a festive weekend of music and shows for families, on top of the usual galleries.
Kids can watch a new show based on France Inter's hit podcast Les Fabuleuses histoires du doudou, catch Aldebert and his Enfantillages in concert, hear the Maîtrise populaire de l'Opéra-Comique, and join singing and dance workshops. Best for kids who follow French.
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.
Little Villette is a kids' building in Parc de la Villette, opposite the Grande Halle, easy to spot by its triangular windows and round doors. The drop-in side has a games bar, a reading lounge, a toddlers' rotunda, a LEGO table and wall, small exhibitions and the Little Ciné for cartoons and short films. Booked circus, storytelling, hip-hop and art workshops also run here.
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.
Studio des Ursulines is a single-screen cinema near the Luxembourg Gardens, open since 1926 and the first art-house cinema in France. Since 2003 it has programmed mainly for young audiences: animated features, short-film programs, ciné-concerts with live music, previews and festivals such as Mon Premier Festival for the youngest. Kids' films carry a starting age, many from 3 or 4, and some screenings come with workshops or meet-the-filmmaker talks.
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.
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.
Bateaux-Mouches runs commentated sightseeing cruises on the Seine from the Pont de l'Alma, on the right bank. The big passenger boats pass the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, the Musée d'Orsay, the Louvre, the Conciergerie and Notre-Dame, then return to the same pier without stops.
Kids can tick off the landmarks as they slide by. The company also runs brunch, lunch and dinner cruises.
A working farm, farmed by the Laureau family since 1746, beside the Versailles château park. A loop path passes pens of dwarf goats, sheep, cows, donkeys, Shetland ponies, pigs and hens, then winds through a small wood dotted with barrel huts.
Kids can stroke the goats, watch the animals being fed, and join short workshops making bread, butter, apple juice or recycled paper.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
Les Mélomanes en culotte courte are family concerts by the Le Palais royal orchestra, made for babies and young kids. Children sit on mats or in a parent's arms, and they are free to move around, dance, sing along and get close to the musicians.
Each program brings different instruments or voices, and the music alternates with moments where the performers talk and play with the children.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Marché d'Aligre is a street market along rue d'Aligre, with food stalls lining both sides. In the middle, on place d'Aligre, sits Marché Beauvau, a covered market hall built in 1843 and listed as a historic monument.
Kids can help pick fruit and vegetables at the stalls, then peek inside the old hall.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Opened in 1794, the Ménagerie is one of the oldest zoos in the world, set inside the Jardin des Plantes. It keeps about 500 animals from 122 species, mostly small and medium-sized: red pandas, snow leopards, orangutans, Seychelles tortoises, Malayan tapirs and keas.
The listed buildings are part of the visit, from the 1805 Bear Pits to the art deco Vivarium, the Singerie and the Great Aviary.
The 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.
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.
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.
A wax museum on the Grands Boulevards where kids pose next to life-size figures of footballers, singers and cartoon heroes like Paw Patrol, Miraculous and the Little Prince.
A walk-through history section runs from the Chauvet cave to Louis XIV's court and Napoleon, and there's a new One Piece area. Many figures are French TV stars, so visiting kids may know mostly the athletes and cartoons.
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.
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.
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.
Inside a paper cave, a man finds a mysterious wall, a child calls to him, and animals spring to life by firelight. Philippe Beau, one of the few professional hand-shadow artists, performs alongside magic effects and projected drawings by Compagnie 14:20.
A quiet, poetic piece about prehistoric cave art, narrated in French. It suits kids happy to sit in the dark and watch; restless ones may struggle.
L'Heure Joyeuse opened in 1924 as the first children's library in Paris. Its two floors hold a children's space and a teen and adult space, with about 25,000 books, CDs, DVDs and board games on open shelves.
Kids can borrow kamishibai paper-theater sets, play board games, use computers set aside for young readers, and join storytimes, workshops, film screenings and shows.
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.
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.
A bouldering gym at the foot of Montmartre, a few steps from Montmartre Cemetery, with more than 12 problems at each grade and routes reset all the time. Kids from 3 to 12 get their own area of colorful walls, while teens climb the adult sectors.
Classes, school-holiday camps and climbing birthday parties run year-round, and the Cantine restaurant on site serves seasonal dishes with vegetarian options.
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.
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.
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 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.
