Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie

We try to check out the science museums in each city we visit (if it doesn't seem to kiddy-ish) because my husband is a big kid at heart. We arrived on a Wednesday a little before 1:30. This is when all the school kids were arriving. Luckily, we didn't really run into them because they weren't really at the exhibits. I guess they may have separate activity rooms for school trips.

This science museum was pretty fun. I learned a few things and there were a good amount of interactive exhibits, including one social experiment, which I won't spoil for you. We spent about two hours there and pretty much explored the whole museum.

Tip - the museum is a part of the Museum Pass. It's not quite in the city centre but only takes a quick 20-30 minute metro ride.

Wow this is the best science museum that I've ever been too. By far (especially compared to my local place... Liberty Science center in NJ). Most science centers are essentially glorified playgrounds/ learning centers for kids. This place actually was more targeted towards adults and teens. In fact during the weekday that we visited, it was almost exclusively adults.

The exhibits are extremely interesting and informative and I learned a lot. I could've spent at least an entire day here (in contrast to the art museums like the Louvre where I was bored out of my mind).

The different sections are in good working order. Many exhibits are in both English and French (although there are some that are French only).

There was a really cool interactive sports exhibit too when we visited too.

We got the explorer ticket that gets you access to the Planetarium as well as the special exhibits in addition to regular admission. I'd say that this is worth it as the Planetarium was awesome. Huge screen, comfortable seats, very interesting documentaries.

Free WiFi. Very close to metro station.

Will return on my next trip to Paris.

This is probably a better place for small children
who can interact with science. They have a
planetarium, a few airplanes.

liked it a lot. I will add that they are strict about starting and ending times, and security is tight. I would say it is bigger than COSI in Columbus, Ohio. very interactive learning with my 4 year old. she had a blast.

Lame. We are ppl that crawl science museums.

Most of the displays are on a screen. I could just do that at home with my iPad....

The remaining interactive display of seeing inertia in the math section, refused entry for us because we did not speak french. They should have stated that before we purchase our ticket

Also, the kids or enfant area is closed at 3:15 while the rest of the museum closes at six. No where in the museum displays that info. Nor were we told. This is very lame. Perhaps we just came back from the German museum in Munich and the cosmo caixa in Barcelona, and being a regular attender is all science museums in most of western United States.

Save your time. Go do something else with your kids. Taking a course on coursera is better than this

This is one of the most tactile museums I've ever been to. It's enormous, with several sections devoted to different branches of science: biology, botany, mathmatics, physics, etc. But the content is not etherally abrstract; it's what is applicable to the ordinary person - the car you drive in, the food you eat, the innovative design of your home stereo system, etc. And as much as possible, the exhibits engage your sense of touch and hearing as well as sight. In addition to the numerous exhibits, there is a steady stream of seminars (various topics) held throughout the day in different locations. Anyone can join the audience.


The exhibits are quite accessible to tourists as well as the French, with most descriptions, explanations, and museum signs in English as well as Spanish. I was also impressed by consistent use of Braille signs and even some visual exhibits translated into a bas-relief pannel.


There is also a planetarium with five or so shows. The planetarium itself is quite comfortable and the projection was good, though I found the presentation about the solar system a little disappointing - lacking in interesting content. There is, however, the Geode movie theatre for more modern scientific films. There is also a submarine on the site, the Argonaute, open for touring. This is located in the lovely gardens behind the centre. On the lower floor, you'll find a small but nice aquarium next to one of the restaurants.


The Cité houses a large library stocked with science books, DVD/CDs and magazines/journals of all kinds. There are confortable tables and chairs for study, (and these are used quite regularly by local students and professionals). There's a kid's section to the library (as well as one in the museum proper).


The ticket price for one day is somewhat pricey, but for only four Euros more, you can have access for one full year. It's a good deal (for a local) as you can't do justice to all the exhibits in one day. The library is free, but you need to pay a reasonable annual fee borrow items. The Geode movies are extra, about 10 Euros a ticket.


The only reason I wouldn't give the Cité five stars is that, as big and impressive as it is, it's showing signs of wear and lack of maintenance. In one section I visited, about a third of the interactive displays were not working. In another section, several video screens were blank. There are tons of security guards on site, but maybe not enough curators?...hmmm.

The munchkins and I took a day for yourselves and decided to visit the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie during our recent trip to Paris.

I've been to a lot of science museums over the years including Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and San Francisco and I have to say that this is one of the best science museums I've ever visited.

For the tourists, the vast majority of exhibits had copy in English so we were able to enjoy the museum despite not being fluent in French.

The museum itself was very reasonably priced. We went ahead and got tickets to two of the extra exhibits which were actually more than the normal price of admission.

The exhibits were engaging for the munchkins and interesting for myself (an engineer). One thing that I really noticed (and enjoyed) was that so many of the exhibits weren't just about science, but had an artistic angle. The robotics traveling exhibit was more about the art and aesthetics of robots than the actual technology.

They also had the standard fare of Earth sciences, astronomy, sound, light, etc. All done in a very interesting and hand-on manner to engage the munchkins.

This was an enjoyable and unique way to spend of our days in Paris. I would suggest that for a family traveling to Paris with kids it would be a fantastic diversion at the 1/2 way point of a vacation.

As a final aside, the second traveling exhibit was about the history of video games, which made me feel nostalgic and old.

Just wanted to do something for my 10 and 12 year old. This was great. We spent 5 hours wondering around the museum. The submarine outside had 1 hour wait kids gave up after 20 minutes. Planetarium movie was great, the seats are so nice I almost fell asleep sitting in them. You can get a translating device. Make sure you have an ID they will keep until you return them back. The translating devices out of three they gave us only one worked which I gave to the kids to share during the movie. This was kind of disappointing. My 10 year old did not let go of the device so my 12 year old was unable to hear the complete movie. I did tell them their devices did not work, the lady at the counter was not so concerned. It looked like some Japanese tourists had the same issue.
However, it was a place where I let my kids decide what they want to do and see, I walked after them. They needed this after all other museums they walked after me and listened to me patiently.

This is a nice museum to take kids - the -1 floor (one floor down from the ground floor) has a nice but incredibly busy section designed to engage kids in testing all sorts of scientific experiments.

It costs 11 euros per person (les for kids I think), so go for a full day. And eat well before - there is a McDonald's across from the front entrance and the food there is much more reasonably priced than anything in the museum. I liked the adult exhibits (we dropped our friends with children off on the ground floor and then had a quiet look around upstairs). The exhibit on the future of fashion was great and there was a section on existing but futuristic products that we liked a lot (though it is a bit like a high-priced shopping exhibit).

Our favourite bit was the future of urban society where they showed the different living standards of modern cities and how architects and construction experts are planning to build more eco-friendly homes. Next time I'd like to see one of their 3D surround-sound films in the Epcot-centre-like theater in the back.

It's good place for young people. Science become easier here.