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Cité des Sciences

Mirror ball of Paris's Parc de La Villette
Paris sightseeing guide icon, orange and yellow camera.

Paris’s Largest Science & Children’s Museum


  • 30 Avenue Corentin Cariou ,
  • 75019 Paris

This review may contain sponsored or affiliate links.

A science museum that calls itself a ‘city’ gives you an idea of just how big it is. In fact, Paris’s Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie is the largest science museum in Europe.

Set in the vast Parc de la Villette in the northeast of Paris’s 19th Arrondissement, the museum is housed in an enormous modern building that incorporates all sorts of fun for curious kids and adults.

Paris science museum, the Cité des Sciences et de l'industrie

Inside the City of Sciences and Industry, permanent and temporary exhibitions teach you anything and everything about the human body, transportation, science, mathematics (yes, just like at the Palais de la Découverte, π is omnipresent), robots, and so much more. Parents and children alike could spend all day here learning lots. But believe it or not, I wouldn’t recommend staying in this part of the museum the whole time though — there’s so much more to explore!

The Cité des Sciences also has a great children’s museum, called the Cité des Enfants. Adults must be accompanied by a child to enter the interactive discovery rooms, with two separate spaces for 2-7-year-olds and another for ages 5-12. Kids can learn through play, discovering more about themselves, others, and the world around them. And the grown-ups get some guidance on how they can help their little ones learn from each experience.

Children's museum exhibition

Top it all off with restaurants, an indoor picnic area, restrooms catering to shorter legs, and a fabulous gift shop selling books, chemistry sets, and all sorts of nerdy items, and a day at the Cité des Sciences makes for a great family outing.

If you’re in Paris with teens, there’s also a small shopping mall attached to the museum which has some nice boutiques and offers indoor sky-diving! And if that’s not enough to keep the older kids entertained, spend some time in the on-site aquarium, planetarium, or IMAX theater which is housed in a round, mirrored building called La Géode.

With all that there is to see and do in Paris’s Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, you and your kids are sure to stay occupied for an entire day at least, maybe two!

 

Looking for more family-friendly ideas for your itinerary? Find all of our suggestions in our article on what to do in Paris with kids.

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  • 30 Avenue Corentin Cariou
  • 75019 Paris

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