Gray skies and drizzle come often, and kids still need somewhere to burn off energy. Every pick here has a roof and earns a whole morning: science halls, aquariums, a heated water park and big indoor play parks. Here's what we checked, from the Cité des Sciences to Royal Kids Montreuil. A wet afternoon gets a plan, not a long wait by the window.
A science museum in a huge glass-and-steel hall on the edge of Parc de la Villette. Kids push, pull and test their way through hands-on permanent and temporary exhibitions, sit under the planetarium dome, and walk through the Argonaute, a real navy submarine.
The Cité des enfants has two timed play areas, one for preschoolers and one for school-age kids, built around water play, a forest and a building site.
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.
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.
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.
Aquaboulevard is a big indoor water park at Balard, with the water kept at 29°C all year. Inside are two wave pools, 11 slides, rivers with a current, geysers, water mushrooms and jacuzzis.
In summer, outdoor pools and a 4,000 m² sand beach open too. A Gaumont cinema, a McDonald's and a Decathlon share the same complex.
An 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.
Seven Squares is a 5,000m² indoor leisure center inside the Boom Boom Villette mall, next to the Cité des Sciences. Its pirate-themed soft play, L'Île de Tortuga, has a separate toddler area with ball pits and foam blocks, and a big-kid maze of slides, tunnels, a pirate ship and a kart track.
Older kids can move on to the trampoline park, bowling, laser game, VR and the arcade.
Smile World Bercy 2 fills 4,000 m² on the top floor of the Bercy 2 shopping center with an indoor karting track, a trampoline park, a laser game maze, arcade games and private karaoke rooms. It is the only Smile World with karting and trampolines.
Kids can book one activity or combine a few, and a bar serves pizzas and sharing boards between sessions.
France's national aviation museum fills 12 halls and an outdoor tarmac at Le Bourget airport with more than 100 aircraft, from the first flying machines and a Spitfire to two Concordes.
Kids can walk inside a Boeing 747, play pilot or astronaut at Planète Pilote's 40 hands-on stations, catch a planetarium show, and climb the restored 1953 control tower for a view over the runways.
The Musée des Arts et Métiers holds more than 2,400 inventions across seven collections, from scientific instruments to transport. The standout room is the former church of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, where early planes hang over vintage cars and Foucault's pendulum swings in the nave.
Kids can also find Bartholdi's original model of the Statue of Liberty and Pascal's mechanical calculator, and museum staff run demonstrations in the galleries.
A 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.
An aquarium on the lower level of the Val d'Europe shopping center in Serris, one RER stop from the Disney parks. Kids walk through a tunnel under a 600,000-liter cold-water Atlantic tank as sharks pass overhead, then watch king and gentoo penguins swim. Other zones cover the Amazon, Asia, a tropical zone, the French coast and a shark island, with staff talks and feedings through the day.
Aqua Mundo (called Aqualagon until the Center Parcs rebrand) is the water park of the Villages Nature Paris resort, about 6 km south of Disneyland Paris. Under a tropical dome there's a wave pool, seven slides, rivers, whirlpools, splash play and a pool with a climbing wall. Outside, lagoons heated by geothermal water sit beside a 15-hectare lake.
Gray skies and drizzle come often, and kids still need somewhere to burn off energy. Every pick here has a roof and earns a whole morning: science halls, aquariums, a heated water park and big indoor play parks. Here's what we checked, from the Cité des Sciences to Royal Kids Montreuil. A wet afternoon gets a plan, not a long wait by the window.
A science museum in a huge glass-and-steel hall on the edge of Parc de la Villette. Kids push, pull and test their way through hands-on permanent and temporary exhibitions, sit under the planetarium dome, and walk through the Argonaute, a real navy submarine.
The Cité des enfants has two timed play areas, one for preschoolers and one for school-age kids, built around water play, a forest and a building site.
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.
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.
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.
Aquaboulevard is a big indoor water park at Balard, with the water kept at 29°C all year. Inside are two wave pools, 11 slides, rivers with a current, geysers, water mushrooms and jacuzzis.
In summer, outdoor pools and a 4,000 m² sand beach open too. A Gaumont cinema, a McDonald's and a Decathlon share the same complex.
An 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.
Seven Squares is a 5,000m² indoor leisure center inside the Boom Boom Villette mall, next to the Cité des Sciences. Its pirate-themed soft play, L'Île de Tortuga, has a separate toddler area with ball pits and foam blocks, and a big-kid maze of slides, tunnels, a pirate ship and a kart track.
Older kids can move on to the trampoline park, bowling, laser game, VR and the arcade.
Smile World Bercy 2 fills 4,000 m² on the top floor of the Bercy 2 shopping center with an indoor karting track, a trampoline park, a laser game maze, arcade games and private karaoke rooms. It is the only Smile World with karting and trampolines.
Kids can book one activity or combine a few, and a bar serves pizzas and sharing boards between sessions.
France's national aviation museum fills 12 halls and an outdoor tarmac at Le Bourget airport with more than 100 aircraft, from the first flying machines and a Spitfire to two Concordes.
Kids can walk inside a Boeing 747, play pilot or astronaut at Planète Pilote's 40 hands-on stations, catch a planetarium show, and climb the restored 1953 control tower for a view over the runways.
The Musée des Arts et Métiers holds more than 2,400 inventions across seven collections, from scientific instruments to transport. The standout room is the former church of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, where early planes hang over vintage cars and Foucault's pendulum swings in the nave.
Kids can also find Bartholdi's original model of the Statue of Liberty and Pascal's mechanical calculator, and museum staff run demonstrations in the galleries.
A 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.
An aquarium on the lower level of the Val d'Europe shopping center in Serris, one RER stop from the Disney parks. Kids walk through a tunnel under a 600,000-liter cold-water Atlantic tank as sharks pass overhead, then watch king and gentoo penguins swim. Other zones cover the Amazon, Asia, a tropical zone, the French coast and a shark island, with staff talks and feedings through the day.
Aqua Mundo (called Aqualagon until the Center Parcs rebrand) is the water park of the Villages Nature Paris resort, about 6 km south of Disneyland Paris. Under a tropical dome there's a wave pool, seven slides, rivers, whirlpools, splash play and a pool with a climbing wall. Outside, lagoons heated by geothermal water sit beside a 15-hectare lake.
