Oscar Wilde’s tomb: much

20/09/2022

20/09/2022

There are actually two parks to explore here: one is Parc Disneyland – aka the erstwhile EuroDisney – which has the big pink castle in it; and then there’s the SFX-oriented Parc Walt Disney Studios, which is more themed around Disney’s films. And then there’s Disney Entertainment Village, which is filled with places to eat, drink and party. Europe’s premiere themepark can seem rather vast and intimidating. But remember it’s all meant to be good fun, and it’s broken down into easy to digest zones: Fantasyland, Discoveryland, Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, et al. There’s absolutely no way you’re going to run out of stuff to keep you and the nippers occupied.

20/09/2022

Located just five minutes by train from Versailles in Élancourt is this five-hectare, scaled-down version of... France! Built on a 1:30 scale, you can make your way along a route that takes in the ramparts of Carcassonne, a small Savoyard village, the Chambord castle, winding up in the port of Saint-Tropez. Along the way check out the TGV crossing the Pont du Gard, and Mont-Saint-Michel bathing in the centre of the artifical lake. If it doesn’t literally one single French region goes unrepresented – and that includes the Mediterranean island of Corsica.

20/09/2022

Home to numerous theatres, concert halls and museums (including the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie), the Parc de la Villette is also no slouch as an actual park. With its giant climbing frames, burger bar and children’s art centre, the ’80s-built Parc de la Villette is a hub of outdoor fun. Kids shoot down a Chinese dragon slide, and an undulating suspended path follows the Canal de l’Ourcq. There are ten themed gardens bearing evocative names such as the Garden of Mirrors, of Mists, of Acrobatics and of Childhood Frights.

20/09/2022

You know what you‘re getting with any major Natural History Museum, and you’ll rarely regret it. Inevitably they’re family-friendly places with admirable collections. Well Paris is no exception. At the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle’s Grande Galerie de l’Evolution, stuffed creatures parade majestically through their various habitats. Animals of all kinds teach children about the diversity of nature. In the endangered and vanished section – where a dodo takes pride of place – they inform you about the importance of protecting them. The museum contains the bony remains of fish, birds, monkeys, dinosaurs and humans. You won’t know where to look first.

20/09/2022

In the 1240s, the fervently religious King Louis IX – who went on to become St Louis – acquired what he’d been led to believe was Christ’s Crown of Thorns.. Naturally, he wanted somewhere appropriately magnificent house it. The result was one heck of a monument: the magnificent, glittering Sainte-Chapelle. Its 15-metre windows are truly jaw-dropping: hundreds of scenes from the Bible are depicted, culminating in the Apocalypse in the rose window.

20/09/2022

The very opposite of a manicured garden, the Jardin Sauvage Saint-Vincent – tucked away at the back of Sacré-Coeur, beside Montmartre’s vineyard – is part of a very old stretch of fallow land that was abandoned to nature years ago. And nature came up with the goods: all the trees, plants and flowers you’ll see here are self-sown. Indeed, the garden was ordained as an official biodiversity enclave in 1987. You’ll find hundreds of different types of flora and fauna here, from horse chestnut trees to pond-dwelling toads.

20/09/2022

Punctuated by landmarks, spanned by historical bridges and dotted with tree-lined quays, the Seine is bursting with picture-postcard moments: it’s surely one of the prettiest city rivers in the world. One of the best ways to absorb it all is by boat, ie one of Paris’s iconic Bateaux-Mouches. Sure, they are always rammed with tourists (we won’t lie: Parisians tend to avoid them like the plague), but if you don’t mind tthat, you’ll be in for a treat.

20/09/2022

Like a kitschier version of Madame Tussauds – yes, such a thing is possible – the Musée Grévin is a guaranteed winner with kids that need entertaining. It’s pretty much the same deal as Tussauds only without the edgier bits: have your photo taken alongside waxworks of showbiz stars and personalities like Brad Pitt, George Clooney, the Queen and Barack Obama. The ‘snapshots of the twentieth-century’ area also recreates great historical moments, such as Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. A small gallery at the top of a spiral staircase near the end shows how waxworks are made.

20/09/2022

Europe’s biggest science museum pulls in five million visitors a year, and deservedly so. Its permanent exhibition Explora occupies the top two floors, whisking visitors through 30,000-square-metre that looks at life, the universe and everything in all its complexity: highlights include scale models of satellites including the Ariane space shuttle, planes and robots, plus the chance to experience weightlessness. The hothouse garden investigates developments in agriculture and bio-technology.