Children in Paris: Where to Go, and What They Can Do There

The best days with children in Paris are the ones where they make something. A pastry they bake themselves, a perfume they blend, a clay figure inspired by a statue at the Louvre. This guide goes through nine places, with what children can do there, from which age, and what to book in advance.

Jardin d’Acclimatation

The Jardin d’Acclimatation, in the Bois de Boulogne, calls itself the only amusement park inside Paris. A one-day pass covers as many rides as you like, and there is a small farm of animals alongside: about 450 birds, dwarf goats, alpacas and Ouessant sheep. The pass is priced for adults and for children from 80 cm, and the park lists fifteen places to eat.

Check the opening days and hours on the park’s site before you go.

Le Cordon Bleu

Le Cordon Bleu runs cooking and pastry classes for children. Les Petits Cordons Bleus is a two-hour class for ages 8 to 12, led by chefs with assistants, with an individual station for each child. Children take home what they make and receive an apron, a tea towel and a cooler bag. The page lists it at €99, taught in French with consecutive translation into English.

For younger children there is a pastry workshop at the Hôtel de la Marine, on the Place de la Concorde, open from age six with an adult: shortcrust, choux pastry and shortbread, over two hours. Children from ten may take part on their own with a signed parental consent. A parent-child chocolate workshop, My First Chocolates, is for ages 8 and up and lasts two and a half hours. Because the sessions are in French, tell us the children’s languages and we will say which suits them.

Cité des Enfants

The Cité des Enfants, at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie in La Villette, is a hands-on science space built in two parts: one for ages 2 to 6 and one for ages 5 to 10. Each session lasts an hour and a half, and children under two come in free with a child of two to six.

Booking is mandatory, with a set entry time that cannot be changed once confirmed. The ticket is €15 at full price, €12 reduced.

Fragonard Musée du Parfum

The Musée du Parfum Fragonard, in the 9th arrondissement, offers perfume workshops in which children compose their own scent. The mini workshop is for ages 8 and up and the apprentice perfumer workshop for ages 12 and up. Children come with an adult, who also pays the workshop fee. The apprentice perfumer leaves with the creation in a personalised bottle. The museum itself is open Monday to Saturday.

The sessions listed on the museum’s page are in French, so check the day and the language when you book, and build the rest of the day around it.

The Louvre

The Louvre’s family programme includes real workshops, not only guided visits. For the autumn holidays from 17 October to 1 November 2026 it lists three. In Fil de terre, children from 6 to 10 and their families meet a small statuette from the Near Eastern collections and model a clay figurine of their own. In Mon carnet de souvenirs du Louvre, children from 6 to 10 sketch artworks in a notebook, every day of the school holidays at 10:30. And in Mon petit imagier: les animaux, children from 3 to 5 look for animals in the museum, every day at 2:30 pm.

The museum is closed on Tuesday. We plan the visit around the workshop slot so that the children are not queuing before they start.

Académie Fratellini

The Académie Fratellini is a circus school in La Plaine Saint-Denis, just north of Paris, reached by RER D to Stade de France–Saint-Denis. Children’s classes run from age five on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and in the holidays there are stages for children from four to twelve. The next listed stages are 27 to 29 October 2026, for ages 4 to 5 and 6 to 8.

It is outside central Paris, so we plan the transfer with the driver waiting.

Palais Galliera

The Palais Galliera is the fashion museum of the City of Paris. Alongside its exhibitions it runs workshops for children from 8 to 12, in small groups: in one, they imagine a fashion look from a magazine photograph and transform it with stencils, stamps and fabrics. There are also fashion workshops for families with children from 7 to 12.

The workshops follow the current exhibition and change with it, and they are booked online. We check what is on for your dates.

Musée d’Orsay

The Orsay runs family visit-workshops for children from 6 to 12 with an adult: a short visit in the galleries, then a studio session, with collage, photography, painting or model-making. There are also workshops for children on their own, for ages 6 to 8 and 9 to 12, a sensory visit for babies from 0 to 2, and two family weekends a year.

Family workshops are usually priced per adult and child, and an adult must attend.

The Château de Versailles

Versailles is a full day, and the palace has built tools for children. Game booklets for 6 to 12 year olds follow the palace of Louis XIV, the Water Theatre Grove or the Gallery of Coaches. A children’s tour app follows two characters through the palace and gardens, and a little train runs around the estate, stopping at the Palace, the Trianons and the Grand Canal.

Family activities at Versailles are shared, not private. Under-18s need a free timed ticket booked online, and we make the booking and the car part of the plan.

And the Luxembourg Garden

If the day needs an easy hour, the Luxembourg Garden has sailboats to rent on the great basin, a puppet theatre that has stood in the garden since 1862, a carousel of wooden horses, and a play area for children up to 12.

How we plan it

Tell us how many children are coming and how old they are. We choose two or three of these, not nine, book the slots that need booking, plan the car with child seats arranged in advance, and keep the driver waiting throughout, so that parents are not working out pickups. Family experiences need two to three weeks’ notice, and the school holidays and Christmas one to two months. For a family stay, see our notes on choosing family experiences, and our Family & Children Services.

Frequently asked questions

What age is best? It depends on the place: Cité des Enfants takes ages 2 to 10; the Louvre has workshops from 3 and the Orsay from 6; Le Cordon Bleu, Fragonard and Palais Galliera start at 8 (6 for the Hôtel de la Marine pastry class).

Are the workshops in English? Several are in French. Le Cordon Bleu’s classes are in French with consecutive English translation; for the others we check the language before we book.

Do we need to book? For Cité des Enfants, yes, with a set time. For workshops at the Louvre, the Orsay, Palais Galliera and Fragonard, we advise booking ahead. We handle it.

If you tell us the children’s ages and the dates, we will come back with a plan for each day.

Photo credits

• RosezZen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Mariordo (Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Anai171 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Mariemanuel22 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Wolfgang Moroder / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Chris93 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
• Fred Romero from Paris, France / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• John Samuel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Paolo Costa Baldi / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Siren-Com / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Valerii Tkachenko / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0