Paris has more room for kids to run than its postcards suggest. This list gathers the city's parks and playgrounds, from the big wooded bois with lakes and bike paths to neighborhood gardens with sandboxes and jungle gyms. Use it to find a green space near where you're staying, or to plan a whole afternoon outside. Pack a snack and a ball.
LudoJardin is the fenced playground inside the Jardin du Luxembourg, built around a nature theme with wooden decks and paths. Kids cross hanging bridges, find their way through a labyrinth, fly down a zip line and take the slides.
Parents stay inside with their children. The garden's pony rides, carousel, puppet theater and toy sailboats on the pond are a short walk away.
Two playgrounds sit in this 4-hectare garden between the Canopée and the Bourse de Commerce, with Saint-Eustache church as a backdrop. Toddlers have a play area for ages 2 to 6.
Older kids get the Terrain d'aventures, a maze-like course designed by sculptor Henri Marquet's team, with the Mégamachines slide structure, a trampoline, swings, spinning tops and planted corners to hide in, run by city play workers.
Car-free stretches of the Seine's banks, 4.5 km on the right bank and 2.5 km on the left, form a 10-hectare riverside park. Kids get a 40-meter balance trail of stumps and logs from Paris trees, and a docks-themed play corner with a pontoon, a small boat and a crate maze.
The paths double as a cycle route where walkers have priority, and about fifteen cafés and barges line the way.
Also called the Promenade Plantée, this 4.5 km walkway follows an old railway line from Bastille toward the Bois de Vincennes. One stretch runs on a viaduct above Avenue Daumesnil at treetop height, then the path drops through tunnels and cuttings into the Reuilly gardens.
The arches below hold the Viaduc des Arts, where some craftspeople work in glass-front workshops. It suits a long stroller walk or a slow family ramble.
Built on the site of the old Vaugirard slaughterhouses, this hilly park has a duck pond with a belfry, a stream with a small bridge, a lookout and a pinot noir vineyard.
For kids there are swings, sandpits, a climbing wall, a carousel, pony rides, ping-pong tables and a Guignol puppet theater. A beekeeping society keeps hives here, and a scented garden carries braille labels.
Parc de Sceaux is a formal French garden laid out by André Le Nôtre in the 17th century, spread over 181 hectares just south of Paris. Kids can follow the stepped cascades down to the Octagon basin, walk the 1,140-meter Grand Canal and hunt for the statues along the allées.
In spring, the grove of Japanese cherry trees draws families for hanami picnics. The château houses the estate's museum.
A 460-hectare former royal estate on the hillside above the Seine, laid out by André Le Nôtre. The Grande Cascade, the Grand Jet basin and terraces looking toward Paris anchor the formal gardens; beyond them are English-style lawns, woods and a 19th-century landscape garden, the Jardin du Trocadéro.
There are two playgrounds, six places to eat, and a small museum on the vanished château.
Parc de Belleville covers a steep hillside, with the Willy Ronis belvedere at the top looking out over the rooftops of Paris. A cascading fountain over 100 meters long runs down the slope between stairs, pergolas and terraced lawns.
Kids head for the playground, the ping-pong tables and the foosball table, and can spot the small vineyard, replanted in 1992 where monks once made wine.
A 10-hectare park built on former rail freight yards, and one of the biggest green spaces in the city. Kids get a playground with log climbing frames, a skate park, basketball courts, ping-pong tables and a boules pitch, with wide lawns in between. Wind turbines, solar panels and rainwater harvesting are part of the design. Locals usually call it Parc Martin Luther King.
A long, narrow garden on the Left Bank of the Seine, running along Quai Saint-Bernard between Pont de Sully and Place Valhubert. Kids get a playground, a skate park, ping-pong tables, a soccer pitch and street workout bars, with sculptures set along the riverside paths.
Parc de Bercy runs along the Seine on the site of the old wine warehouses, and its old rail tracks still show in the cobbled paths. The open lawns at the west end have a playground, a carousel, a skate park and ping-pong tables. Further east, gated gardens hold a vegetable patch, a vineyard, a maze, duck ponds and a small lake with an island.
Parc Montsouris spreads across three big lawns linked by bridges, around a lake with ducks and, in winter, coots and gulls. Old trees shade the paths, including a giant sequoia and a ginkgo that turns bright yellow in fall.
Kids get a playground, carousels, a Guignol puppet theater, ping-pong tables and a basketball court. From May to September the bandstand hosts concerts.
Jardin d'Éole is a long, narrow park built on former rail land beside the tracks, on the edge of the 18th and 19th arrondissements. Its 4-plus hectares hold toddler playgrounds, a basketball court, ping-pong tables, a tennis practice wall and space for ball games, along with a big meadow, a planted canal and a gravel garden. One of its eight drinking fountains pours sparkling water.
Parc André-Citroën sits on the site of the old Citroën car factory beside the Seine. A long central lawn runs down to a canal, renovated in 2024 with shallow streams, floating gardens and geyser jets near the river.
Kids run through the fountain jets on hot days, then head to the playground, the merry-go-rounds or the ping-pong tables. Glass greenhouses and a series of themed gardens round it out.
Parc Monceau is an English-style garden laid out in 1861, with winding paths, a pond ringed by stone colonnades (the Naumachie), a small pyramid and other 18th-century follies. Kids head for the playground, the swings and the carousel, then go looking for the Oriental plane tree planted in 1814.
The Bois de Boulogne is an 845-hectare woodland on the western edge of the city, with two lakes, the Grande Cascade waterfall and long forest paths. Rowing boats can be rented on the Lac Inférieur, whose island holds the Emperor's Kiosk.
Inside the woods sit the Jardin d'Acclimatation amusement park and the Bagatelle and Pré Catelan gardens, plus a playground, pony rides and picnic tables.
Parc Floral is a 30-hectare botanical park in the Bois de Vincennes, laid out as themed gardens, an oak grove and pavilions of bonsai, ferns and Jurassic plants.
For kids there is a playground with sandboxes and swings, a Guignol puppet theater, minigolf, a treetop ropes course, an escape game and four-wheel pedal bikes to rent. On warm days the open-air stage hosts Pestacles, a children's music festival.
The city's largest green space covers 995 hectares of woods, four lakes linked by streams, and open lawns on its eastern edge. Kids can rent a rowboat on Lac Daumesnil and cross the bridges to its two islands, ride a pony, catch a Guignol puppet show, or try the playgrounds, sandpits and swings. The Parc Floral and the Paris Zoo sit inside the woods.
Paris's first botanical garden, open to the public for almost 400 years, runs from Gare d'Austerlitz to the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution between long alleys of trimmed plane trees.
Kids can climb the labyrinth hill to Buffon's gazebo, one of the oldest metal structures in the world, and find a cedar planted in 1734. The Ménagerie zoo, the Grandes Serres greenhouses and the natural history galleries sit inside the grounds.
A giant multicolored dragon sculpture is the centerpiece of this playground in Parc de la Villette. Its tongue is a long tunnel slide, with climbing to get up to it. Under the dragon's belly, younger kids get swings and seesaws of their own.
The park's other themed gardens, big lawns and the Canal de l'Ourcq are a short walk away, so it fits easily into a longer day out.
A fenced play garden inside Parc de la Villette, designed by Isabelle Devin and Catherine Rannou and inspired by the Breton seaside. Kids pedal to spin wind turbines, push walls of movable sails and bounce across waves of air cushions, all built to train balance and coordination.
The smallest kids get their own play pieces, and loungers let parents sit close by.
Parc de la Villette covers 55 hectares along the Canal de l'Ourcq, with ten themed gardens, big lawns for running and picnics, and red folly pavilions. Kids head for the Jardin du Dragon and its tongue slide, the seaside-themed Jardin des Vents et des Dunes, and the farm with donkeys, goats, chickens and sheep. Little Villette runs free weekend play and children's shows.
Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is a hilly park built on an old gypsum quarry, with a lake below steep cliffs and the Temple de la Sibylle on its rocky island.
Kids get playgrounds with sandboxes and swings, a carousel, a hook-a-duck stall and a can-toss game, plus two Guignol puppet theaters. A biodiversity trail marks 28 stops around the park, and waffle stands and cafés sit inside.
The Tuileries is the formal garden stretching from the Louvre to Place de la Concorde, with over 3,000 trees, open lawns and ornamental ponds. Kids push little sailboats across the octagonal Grand Basin with a stick, a tradition here since 1850.
The north side, along Rue de Rivoli, holds a play area with a rope bridge in the trees, a carousel and trampolines set among palm trees.
The Senate's garden mixes formal French lawns with wooded English-style paths around the Grand Bassin, where kids rent toy sailboats and push them across the pond.
Elsewhere there are pony rides, a carousel, a puppet theater, a playground, swings and sandpits. Older kids can shoot hoops or play table tennis and chess, and 102 statues and the Medici Fountain line the walks.
Paris has more room for kids to run than its postcards suggest. This list gathers the city's parks and playgrounds, from the big wooded bois with lakes and bike paths to neighborhood gardens with sandboxes and jungle gyms. Use it to find a green space near where you're staying, or to plan a whole afternoon outside. Pack a snack and a ball.
LudoJardin is the fenced playground inside the Jardin du Luxembourg, built around a nature theme with wooden decks and paths. Kids cross hanging bridges, find their way through a labyrinth, fly down a zip line and take the slides.
Parents stay inside with their children. The garden's pony rides, carousel, puppet theater and toy sailboats on the pond are a short walk away.
Two playgrounds sit in this 4-hectare garden between the Canopée and the Bourse de Commerce, with Saint-Eustache church as a backdrop. Toddlers have a play area for ages 2 to 6.
Older kids get the Terrain d'aventures, a maze-like course designed by sculptor Henri Marquet's team, with the Mégamachines slide structure, a trampoline, swings, spinning tops and planted corners to hide in, run by city play workers.
Car-free stretches of the Seine's banks, 4.5 km on the right bank and 2.5 km on the left, form a 10-hectare riverside park. Kids get a 40-meter balance trail of stumps and logs from Paris trees, and a docks-themed play corner with a pontoon, a small boat and a crate maze.
The paths double as a cycle route where walkers have priority, and about fifteen cafés and barges line the way.
Also called the Promenade Plantée, this 4.5 km walkway follows an old railway line from Bastille toward the Bois de Vincennes. One stretch runs on a viaduct above Avenue Daumesnil at treetop height, then the path drops through tunnels and cuttings into the Reuilly gardens.
The arches below hold the Viaduc des Arts, where some craftspeople work in glass-front workshops. It suits a long stroller walk or a slow family ramble.
Built on the site of the old Vaugirard slaughterhouses, this hilly park has a duck pond with a belfry, a stream with a small bridge, a lookout and a pinot noir vineyard.
For kids there are swings, sandpits, a climbing wall, a carousel, pony rides, ping-pong tables and a Guignol puppet theater. A beekeeping society keeps hives here, and a scented garden carries braille labels.
Parc de Sceaux is a formal French garden laid out by André Le Nôtre in the 17th century, spread over 181 hectares just south of Paris. Kids can follow the stepped cascades down to the Octagon basin, walk the 1,140-meter Grand Canal and hunt for the statues along the allées.
In spring, the grove of Japanese cherry trees draws families for hanami picnics. The château houses the estate's museum.
A 460-hectare former royal estate on the hillside above the Seine, laid out by André Le Nôtre. The Grande Cascade, the Grand Jet basin and terraces looking toward Paris anchor the formal gardens; beyond them are English-style lawns, woods and a 19th-century landscape garden, the Jardin du Trocadéro.
There are two playgrounds, six places to eat, and a small museum on the vanished château.
Parc de Belleville covers a steep hillside, with the Willy Ronis belvedere at the top looking out over the rooftops of Paris. A cascading fountain over 100 meters long runs down the slope between stairs, pergolas and terraced lawns.
Kids head for the playground, the ping-pong tables and the foosball table, and can spot the small vineyard, replanted in 1992 where monks once made wine.
A 10-hectare park built on former rail freight yards, and one of the biggest green spaces in the city. Kids get a playground with log climbing frames, a skate park, basketball courts, ping-pong tables and a boules pitch, with wide lawns in between. Wind turbines, solar panels and rainwater harvesting are part of the design. Locals usually call it Parc Martin Luther King.
A long, narrow garden on the Left Bank of the Seine, running along Quai Saint-Bernard between Pont de Sully and Place Valhubert. Kids get a playground, a skate park, ping-pong tables, a soccer pitch and street workout bars, with sculptures set along the riverside paths.
Parc de Bercy runs along the Seine on the site of the old wine warehouses, and its old rail tracks still show in the cobbled paths. The open lawns at the west end have a playground, a carousel, a skate park and ping-pong tables. Further east, gated gardens hold a vegetable patch, a vineyard, a maze, duck ponds and a small lake with an island.
Parc Montsouris spreads across three big lawns linked by bridges, around a lake with ducks and, in winter, coots and gulls. Old trees shade the paths, including a giant sequoia and a ginkgo that turns bright yellow in fall.
Kids get a playground, carousels, a Guignol puppet theater, ping-pong tables and a basketball court. From May to September the bandstand hosts concerts.
Jardin d'Éole is a long, narrow park built on former rail land beside the tracks, on the edge of the 18th and 19th arrondissements. Its 4-plus hectares hold toddler playgrounds, a basketball court, ping-pong tables, a tennis practice wall and space for ball games, along with a big meadow, a planted canal and a gravel garden. One of its eight drinking fountains pours sparkling water.
Parc André-Citroën sits on the site of the old Citroën car factory beside the Seine. A long central lawn runs down to a canal, renovated in 2024 with shallow streams, floating gardens and geyser jets near the river.
Kids run through the fountain jets on hot days, then head to the playground, the merry-go-rounds or the ping-pong tables. Glass greenhouses and a series of themed gardens round it out.
Parc Monceau is an English-style garden laid out in 1861, with winding paths, a pond ringed by stone colonnades (the Naumachie), a small pyramid and other 18th-century follies. Kids head for the playground, the swings and the carousel, then go looking for the Oriental plane tree planted in 1814.
The Bois de Boulogne is an 845-hectare woodland on the western edge of the city, with two lakes, the Grande Cascade waterfall and long forest paths. Rowing boats can be rented on the Lac Inférieur, whose island holds the Emperor's Kiosk.
Inside the woods sit the Jardin d'Acclimatation amusement park and the Bagatelle and Pré Catelan gardens, plus a playground, pony rides and picnic tables.
Parc Floral is a 30-hectare botanical park in the Bois de Vincennes, laid out as themed gardens, an oak grove and pavilions of bonsai, ferns and Jurassic plants.
For kids there is a playground with sandboxes and swings, a Guignol puppet theater, minigolf, a treetop ropes course, an escape game and four-wheel pedal bikes to rent. On warm days the open-air stage hosts Pestacles, a children's music festival.
The city's largest green space covers 995 hectares of woods, four lakes linked by streams, and open lawns on its eastern edge. Kids can rent a rowboat on Lac Daumesnil and cross the bridges to its two islands, ride a pony, catch a Guignol puppet show, or try the playgrounds, sandpits and swings. The Parc Floral and the Paris Zoo sit inside the woods.
Paris's first botanical garden, open to the public for almost 400 years, runs from Gare d'Austerlitz to the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution between long alleys of trimmed plane trees.
Kids can climb the labyrinth hill to Buffon's gazebo, one of the oldest metal structures in the world, and find a cedar planted in 1734. The Ménagerie zoo, the Grandes Serres greenhouses and the natural history galleries sit inside the grounds.
A giant multicolored dragon sculpture is the centerpiece of this playground in Parc de la Villette. Its tongue is a long tunnel slide, with climbing to get up to it. Under the dragon's belly, younger kids get swings and seesaws of their own.
The park's other themed gardens, big lawns and the Canal de l'Ourcq are a short walk away, so it fits easily into a longer day out.
A fenced play garden inside Parc de la Villette, designed by Isabelle Devin and Catherine Rannou and inspired by the Breton seaside. Kids pedal to spin wind turbines, push walls of movable sails and bounce across waves of air cushions, all built to train balance and coordination.
The smallest kids get their own play pieces, and loungers let parents sit close by.
Parc de la Villette covers 55 hectares along the Canal de l'Ourcq, with ten themed gardens, big lawns for running and picnics, and red folly pavilions. Kids head for the Jardin du Dragon and its tongue slide, the seaside-themed Jardin des Vents et des Dunes, and the farm with donkeys, goats, chickens and sheep. Little Villette runs free weekend play and children's shows.
Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is a hilly park built on an old gypsum quarry, with a lake below steep cliffs and the Temple de la Sibylle on its rocky island.
Kids get playgrounds with sandboxes and swings, a carousel, a hook-a-duck stall and a can-toss game, plus two Guignol puppet theaters. A biodiversity trail marks 28 stops around the park, and waffle stands and cafés sit inside.
The Tuileries is the formal garden stretching from the Louvre to Place de la Concorde, with over 3,000 trees, open lawns and ornamental ponds. Kids push little sailboats across the octagonal Grand Basin with a stick, a tradition here since 1850.
The north side, along Rue de Rivoli, holds a play area with a rope bridge in the trees, a carousel and trampolines set among palm trees.
The Senate's garden mixes formal French lawns with wooded English-style paths around the Grand Bassin, where kids rent toy sailboats and push them across the pond.
Elsewhere there are pony rides, a carousel, a puppet theater, a playground, swings and sandpits. Older kids can shoot hoops or play table tennis and chess, and 102 statues and the Medici Fountain line the walks.
