Musée Carnavalet

The Musée Carnavalet presents the history of Paris from prehistoric times to the present day. It is located in two beautiful hôtels from the 16th and 17th century, right in the middle of the equally beautiful Marais district.

Since the museum belongs to the city of Paris, the permanent collections are freely accessible and definitely worth a visit for the whole family.

If you're looking for a nice place to have some tea or coffee after your visit, I strongly recommand you go to the Swedish Institute nearby (11 rue Payenne), where you can relax in a lovely old courtyard (and they have very reasonnable prices).

To reach the Musée Carnavalet from Ivry, simple take subway line 7 and get off at Pont Marie, from here it's a lovely ten minutes walk along old streets to the museum.

Le Palais de la Découverte

Le Palais de la Découverte is currently closed for extensive renovation work and should reopen in 2025 !

Le Palais de la Découverte is Paris oldest science museum (compared to la Cité des Sciences de la Villette) and is located in a gorgeous Art Nouveau building next to the Champs Elysées. It's presents exhibitions and experiments about all disciplines in natural sciences (Maths, physics, chemistry, biology...) and it's a great place to visit with kids from 4. There's also a beautiful planetarium that is accessible to children above 6 and that always was a great favorite of mine when I was a child.

To reach the Palais de la Découverte from Ivry, you can either take subway line 7 toward La Courneuve, change for line 1 in Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre toward La Défense and get off at Franklin D. Roosevelt. Or, if the weather is nice, you can take RER B toward Paris and get off at Invalides, from here it's a lovely 10 min walk across the Seine via the beautiful Alexandre III bridge to the museum.