Visiting Museums in Paris with young kids is a must but you definitely must be prepared and do a little research before hand. Many museums in Paris are kid-friendly and even have special exhibits for younger kids.  Since we were visiting the city during the Winter, we sought out activities that were indoors, then we’d hit up a playground or two on the way home. Visiting museums was definitely one of our top activities during our month in Paris.

The larger and most famous museums like the Louvre and Musee de Orsay are a must but we had visited them before (sans kids) so I decided to find the ones I knew the kids could enjoy as well for this visit.  We did make sure to visit the Louvre to show the kids the famous site from the exterior.

How to keep kids engaged at a museum

Museums are much more kid friendly than you’d expect in Paris. Many have special exhibits for young ages. I found that it works best to walk through the art exhibits semi-quickly (I feel it’s the best pace with young ones) and I try and ask questions as we go to keep them engaged, like – pick out your favorite in the room, what does this look like to you, find the most random piece of art, what do you think the artist was thinking when he/she made this. You can also come with a scavenger hunt of sorts to help move through a museum. For example, have a sheet of paper with check boxes to find things like: a piece of art with red as the main color, a piece of art with a dog, the silliest piece of art, etc etc.

Best Museums in Paris with Kids

As for younger kids, here are my personal favorites Museums in Paris to hit up.

• The Chocolate Museum, what kid wouldn’t love this?!  And they have samples, thoughout the museum as well as a live demonstration of chocolate making.  We learned a lot too as we toured around.

• Pompidou.  There is just so much at the Pompidou!  We picked a few exhibits that sounded interesting and enjoyed them until my 4 year old was ready to move on.  There was a children’s exhibit on camouflage in the Galerie des enfants while we were there and of course we rode up and down the escalators, because they are a piece of art in themselves.  They had many Check out the view from the top as well.

• Le Musée des Arts et Métiers – (Art and Design Museum) lots of inventions to look at here from airplanes to bicycles and boats
• Cité des Enfants – an interactive discovery museum  (this is a bit outside of town but my kids really enjoyed it). For this one, you want to make a reservation online to secure that you get in at the time you would like to. The kids get 1.5 hours to roam around the interactive exhibits and this ensures that it won’t be too crowded.
• Le Musée en Herbe – Modern Art explained to children. We didn’t actually get to visit this one but I had it on my short list.  We tried a couple of times and it was closed due to private events so make sure to check their site before you go.

Hope you and your kiddos enjoy the museums of Paris too!  Please leave comments with some of your favorites.