Roavina

Museum · Paris 19e Arrondissement, Paris

Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie

Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor

Photograph

A photograph of Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie
Photograph · Syced · CC0
Today
Open today, 09:15 – 18:00
Visit duration
2 hr 30 min
Accessibility
Step-free
Price
€15.00 per person
Standing
Must see · Heritage site
Rank
Rank 117 of 7,605
Plan a day around this Map

Place details and sources

This place is a Museum. It opened in 1986. It carries the Remarkable Contemporary Architecture heritage designation. It is run by Universcience.

Official website
www.cite-sciences.fr Wikidata · Checked 2026-09-09
Telephone
+33 1 40 05 70 00 OpenStreetMap · Checked 2026-09-09
Address
Avenue Corentin Cariou, 30, 75019, Paris OpenStreetMap · Checked 2026-09-09
Wheelchair access
Available OpenStreetMap · Checked 2026-09-09
Admission fee
Payable OpenStreetMap · Checked 2026-09-09
Museum type
Science OpenStreetMap · Checked 2026-09-09
Type of place
Museum OpenStreetMap · Checked 2026-09-09
Heritage designation
Remarkable Contemporary Architecture Wikidata · Checked 2026-09-09
Internet access
Wi-Fi OpenStreetMap · Checked 2026-09-09
Opened
1986 Wikidata · Checked 2026-09-09
Operator
Universcience Wikidata · Checked 2026-09-09
Wikipedia article
Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie Wikipedia · Checked 2026-09-09

About Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie

Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie sits inside Parc de la Villette in the north-east of Paris and opened in 1986 inside the shell of a large, unfinished cattle-market building from the 1960s that was repurposed for the museum rather than demolished. The original building had been intended as a modern abattoir and wholesale meat market for the city, a project that stalled and was abandoned before completion, leaving a huge steel-framed structure that planners eventually redirected toward the science museum instead of tearing it down.

It is the largest science museum in Europe by floor area, and the wider Parc de la Villette around it — laid out with a mix of themed gardens, follies and event spaces — was designed at the same time as the museum's setting rather than added afterward, so the museum and the park read as one planned development from the 1980s.

Checked 2026-08-24 · Source

What's inside

Explora is the main permanent exhibition, spread across several floors and covering space, the ocean, mathematics, computing and sound among other themes, with hands-on exhibits throughout designed to be touched and operated rather than viewed behind glass. Cité des Enfants is a separate, dedicated section for children, split into two age bands — roughly two to seven, and five to twelve — with its own timed entry and exhibits scaled and paced for each age group, from water-play tables for the youngest visitors to simple engineering challenges for the older band. On the plaza outside stands the Géode, a mirrored geodesic sphere housing a giant-screen cinema, ticketed on its own, its reflective steel skin visible from across the park and one of the most recognisable single structures anywhere in Paris. Alongside it is moored the Argonaute, a decommissioned French Navy submarine open for a separately ticketed tour through its original cramped interior, giving a sense of shipboard life that a display case never could, and the site also runs a planetarium with its own scheduled shows on a separate ticket.

Checked 2026-08-24 · Source

How long to spend

Half a day, three to four hours, covers Explora plus one extra attraction such as the Géode or the submarine. A family visit centred on Cité des Enfants alone can easily fill two hours by itself, and a full day is realistic for a visitor determined to cover Explora, the Géode, the submarine and the planetarium in one trip rather than spreading them across two visits.

Checked 2026-08-24 · Source

Season and crowds

Closed on Mondays. Cité des Enfants runs on timed sessions with a capacity cap, and weekends plus school holidays fill those slots early, so booking ahead matters more here than for Explora, which admits visitors more freely across the day without the same session structure.

Checked 2026-08-24 · Source

Tickets

Treat the tickets details as provisional when arranging this stop in Paris. Check the operator's own site for the travel date before relying on a schedule, fare or closure notice. Keep enough flexibility to move the visit within the same area if current conditions differ from the plan. This guide does not infer practical facts from the venue category, nearby attractions or an aggregator. Check the operator's own site for the travel date before relying on a schedule or fare.

Checked 2026-08-26

Getting there

In Parc de la Villette, served by Métro Porte de la Villette on line 7, with the museum's entrance a walk of several minutes into the park from the station rather than immediately outside it, so first-time visitors should allow extra time before their booked Cité des Enfants session.

Checked 2026-08-24 · Source

What to watch out for

Cité des Enfants sells out on busy weekends and during school holidays, so it is worth booking that slot before arriving rather than on-site. The site is large and its paid extras — Géode, submarine, planetarium — run on their own timed schedules, so a plan for which of them to add is worth making in advance rather than discovering the next Géode screening is an hour away. Parc de la Villette itself, the park surrounding the museum building, is free and public, which sometimes leads visitors to assume the museum inside it is too, and the walk from the métro across the park to the entrance is longer than it first appears on a map.

Checked 2026-08-24 · Source

Photography

The Géode's mirrored sphere, reflecting the plaza and sky around it, is the exterior image most visitors leave with, and it changes character through the day as the light and the reflected sky shift. Photography inside Explora is generally allowed, and the large-scale interactive exhibits photograph well precisely because they are built to be handled rather than viewed from behind a rope.

Checked 2026-08-24 · Source

Common questions

Is the park around the museum free?

Yes, Parc de la Villette is a free public park; the museum building inside it is paid separately.

Is the Géode included in the Explora ticket?

No, it is ticketed on its own.

What age is Cité des Enfants aimed at?

Two age bands, roughly two to seven years and five to twelve years, each with separate timed sessions.

How long should I plan for a visit?

Three to four hours for Explora plus one extra attraction; longer if Cité des Enfants is the focus.

Which day is the museum closed?

Monday.

Can I tour the submarine outside?

Yes, the Argonaute is open to visitors on a separately ticketed tour.

Where it is

Nearby

Within 4 min on foot
  • Boom Boom Villette 45 min
    2 min walk · Paris 19e Arrondissement

    Boom Boom Villette

    • Notable
    • Market
  • Argonaute 1 hr 30 min
    3 min walk · Paris 19e Arrondissement

    Argonaute

    • Must see
    • Museum
  • parc de la Villette 1 hr 30 min
    4 min walk · Paris 19e Arrondissement

    parc de la Villette

    • Notable
    • Nature site

In Paris 19e Arrondissement

Same category

Fit it into a plan

External links

Last updated:

Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·