Cité des enfants

Being in Paris with small children has allowed us to experience a different Paris from when we visited years ago.  When planning out our days we look for fun and entertaining things to do for Amelie and Liam instead of doing the normal sit-in-a-cafe-and-drink-coffee aspect of Paris.  So, today we went to Cité des enfants which is apart of Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie.  In other words, we went to the Science Museum for Children. 

The fun began with the Shadows and Light exhibit.  We had so much fun making shadows, copying shadows, learning how shadows are formed, manipulating lights and objects to make new shadows, and more. 

Once you made your shadow, the shadows kept cycling through on the screen behind you.

Amelie's profile.

Liam's profile.

Making more shadows in another area...Amelie is closer to the light source and Liam is closer to the screen which is why their sizes are so different. :)

The real fun was had during our schedule time in the 2-5 year old area of the museum.  They had different zones for children to play in for around 2 hours total.  It was nice that you had to schedule at time to play so that it was not over crowded and you could enjoy the activities.  We started with the water area.  Both kids loved pouring, splashing, and shooting the water at the different stations.  Liam actually was having so much fun that he kept squealing in laughter.  This reaffirmed our desire to move back to the beach one day.  He LOVES the water. :) 

Next, the kids played in mazes.  There was one for smaller children and another for bigger kids. Liam had fun in the smaller maze, but he really wanted to join his sister.  The mazes were so narrow there was no way an adult was fitting in too.  For Amelie's age, the maze had tunnels, different textured pieces to push through, uneven ground to walk over.  The mazes were really neat.

Another room had blocks made into towers with balls that you could put in different spots and watch them roll around and through the tower.  There was a big Rube Goldbergian contraption in the center that children would have to turn levers, push buttons, lift handles, spin wheels, etc to get the ball to go the end of the line. 

Both Amelie and Liam loved the construction worker room.  Again, there was an area for 2-3 year olds and then another area for the older children to work on a construction site.  There were wheelbarrows, bricks (made of rubber), assembly lines, security gates, and more.  They, of course, had to be safe and wear proper safety attire. 

There were lots of other areas with mirrors, wires to walk through, magnetic letters, matching animals, and more.  Luckily, we purchased an annual pass so that we could come back as many times as we want to over the next 2 months.  I will be sure to take pictures in every area over the course of our stay.  Both kids were going in different directions almost the entire day.  It was a good day that wore us all out! ;)