The 7th holds some of the Left Bank's biggest sights, and it works better with kids than its grand avenues suggest. There are wide lawns for running off steam, big museums with plenty to look at, and boat stops along the river. We gathered the family outings in this part of the city, from a quick hour between naps to a full day out.
Terre de Rêves is a story told in music, the first young-audience concert of the Saison musicale des Invalides. It follows a shipwrecked Irishman who crosses huge landscapes with the Anishinaabe people, all the way to the Great Lakes.
Banjo, mandolin, double bass and violin carry the tunes, with the story narrated in French. It suits kids who can follow a spoken story and sit through a concert.
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.
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.
Kids step into the shoes of a 13th-century apprentice knight in this game-visit through the museum's Ancient Arms and Armor department. Using challenges and objects from the collection, they find out how a knight trained and what his daily life looked like.
Pass the tests and the visit ends with a dubbing. It is a playful way for kids to discover the museum.
For one weekend a year, France opens buildings that are usually closed to the public: government ministries, courts, military sites, churches, artisan workshops and private mansions. In Paris that means a long list of doors at once, with guided tours, craft demonstrations, small plays and concerts alongside.
Kids get to walk into rooms most adults never see, and many sites run games or workshops just for them.
The food hall of Le Bon Marché department store, stocked with groceries from France and around the world. Kids can browse shelves of chocolate, a pastry counter, a blue-tiled fish counter, and stacks of fruit and miniature vegetables.
It is a shop, not a play space, so it suits kids who like looking at food more than running around.
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.
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.
The Eiffel Tower is the 330-meter iron tower on the Champ de Mars, with three levels open to visitors. The first level has a glass floor where kids can stand and look straight down to the ground.
Stairs climb about 600 steps to the second level, and elevators go all the way up. The top, at 276 meters, holds a champagne bar and Gustave Eiffel's old private apartment.
The Musée Rodin fills the Hôtel Biron mansion and the sculpture garden around it. Indoors are marble and plaster works such as The Kiss, plus pieces by Camille Claudel.
Outside, kids can circle The Thinker, look up at the crowded figures of The Gates of Hell and walk among The Burghers of Calais, with a café set in the middle of the garden.
The Musée de l'Armée fills the Hôtel des Invalides with French military history, from medieval suits of armor and samurai gear to the Napoleonic era and both world wars. Cannons line the main courtyard, and Napoleon's tomb sits under the golden Dôme. The Plans-Reliefs museum shows giant scale models of fortified towns.
Kids who like knights and battles get the most from it; the world war galleries suit older children.
The Paris Sewer Museum sits inside working sewer tunnels under the Pont de l'Alma. An elevator takes visitors down to a 500-meter walk through real galleries, past the machinery sewer workers use to clear the tunnels, scale models, and displays on how the city cleans its water.
Kids who like machines, pipes and how things work get the most out of it. Expect some smells and damp air.
Around 3,500 objects from Oceania, Asia, Africa and the Americas line one long circuit, set on either side of a central aisle shaped like a river. Themed nooks off the path focus on one region or kind of work, and displays rotate often. Outside, a garden by the Seine opens earlier and closes later than the museum. Suits kids who like hunting for faces in carved masks.
The Musée d'Orsay fills a former railway station, built 1898 to 1900 on the Left Bank of the Seine. Under the glass roof of the old train hall, a long central nave is lined with sculptures, and a gilded station clock hangs at one end.
The galleries hold Impressionist paintings kids may know from books: Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhône and Monet's Blue Water Lilies.
The 7th holds some of the Left Bank's biggest sights, and it works better with kids than its grand avenues suggest. There are wide lawns for running off steam, big museums with plenty to look at, and boat stops along the river. We gathered the family outings in this part of the city, from a quick hour between naps to a full day out.
Terre de Rêves is a story told in music, the first young-audience concert of the Saison musicale des Invalides. It follows a shipwrecked Irishman who crosses huge landscapes with the Anishinaabe people, all the way to the Great Lakes.
Banjo, mandolin, double bass and violin carry the tunes, with the story narrated in French. It suits kids who can follow a spoken story and sit through a concert.
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.
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.
Kids step into the shoes of a 13th-century apprentice knight in this game-visit through the museum's Ancient Arms and Armor department. Using challenges and objects from the collection, they find out how a knight trained and what his daily life looked like.
Pass the tests and the visit ends with a dubbing. It is a playful way for kids to discover the museum.
For one weekend a year, France opens buildings that are usually closed to the public: government ministries, courts, military sites, churches, artisan workshops and private mansions. In Paris that means a long list of doors at once, with guided tours, craft demonstrations, small plays and concerts alongside.
Kids get to walk into rooms most adults never see, and many sites run games or workshops just for them.
The food hall of Le Bon Marché department store, stocked with groceries from France and around the world. Kids can browse shelves of chocolate, a pastry counter, a blue-tiled fish counter, and stacks of fruit and miniature vegetables.
It is a shop, not a play space, so it suits kids who like looking at food more than running around.
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.
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.
The Eiffel Tower is the 330-meter iron tower on the Champ de Mars, with three levels open to visitors. The first level has a glass floor where kids can stand and look straight down to the ground.
Stairs climb about 600 steps to the second level, and elevators go all the way up. The top, at 276 meters, holds a champagne bar and Gustave Eiffel's old private apartment.
The Musée Rodin fills the Hôtel Biron mansion and the sculpture garden around it. Indoors are marble and plaster works such as The Kiss, plus pieces by Camille Claudel.
Outside, kids can circle The Thinker, look up at the crowded figures of The Gates of Hell and walk among The Burghers of Calais, with a café set in the middle of the garden.
The Musée de l'Armée fills the Hôtel des Invalides with French military history, from medieval suits of armor and samurai gear to the Napoleonic era and both world wars. Cannons line the main courtyard, and Napoleon's tomb sits under the golden Dôme. The Plans-Reliefs museum shows giant scale models of fortified towns.
Kids who like knights and battles get the most from it; the world war galleries suit older children.
The Paris Sewer Museum sits inside working sewer tunnels under the Pont de l'Alma. An elevator takes visitors down to a 500-meter walk through real galleries, past the machinery sewer workers use to clear the tunnels, scale models, and displays on how the city cleans its water.
Kids who like machines, pipes and how things work get the most out of it. Expect some smells and damp air.
Around 3,500 objects from Oceania, Asia, Africa and the Americas line one long circuit, set on either side of a central aisle shaped like a river. Themed nooks off the path focus on one region or kind of work, and displays rotate often. Outside, a garden by the Seine opens earlier and closes later than the museum. Suits kids who like hunting for faces in carved masks.
The Musée d'Orsay fills a former railway station, built 1898 to 1900 on the Left Bank of the Seine. Under the glass roof of the old train hall, a long central nave is lined with sculptures, and a gilded station clock hangs at one end.
The galleries hold Impressionist paintings kids may know from books: Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhône and Monet's Blue Water Lilies.
