Parc de la Villette

Parc de la Villette Review

This 130-acre ultramodern park was once an abattoir, but don't let its history put you off: Today it's the perfect place to entertain sightseeing-weary kids, with futuristic gardens, an excellent science museum, a music complex, and a cinema. You could easily spend a whole day here.

The park itself was designed in the 1980s by postmodern architecture star Bernard Tschumi, who successfully incorporated industrial elements, children's games (don't miss the dragon slide), lots of green space, and dreamlike light sculptures along the canal into one vast yet unified playground. A great place for a picnic, the lawns of La Villette attract rehearsing samba bands and pickup soccer games. In summer there's a free outdoor cinema festival—people gather at dusk to picnic and watch movies on a huge inflatable screen.

In cold weather, you can visit the museums, the submarine, the Espace Chapiteaux (a circus tent featuring superb contemporary acrobatic theater performances), and La Géode —it looks like a huge silver golf ball but is actually an Omnimax cinema made of polished steel, with an enormous hemispherical screen. The postmodern Cité de la Musique is a music academy designed by geometry-obsessed Christian de Portzamparc. It has a state-of-the-art concert hall and the

All that's left of the slaughterhouse is La Grande Halle, a magnificent iron-and-glass building now used for exhibitions, performances, and trade shows.

The ambitious Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie tries to do for science and industry what the Pompidou does for modern art. There are 60 or so colorful interactive contraptions, and the multilingual children's workshops are perfect ways to while away rainy afternoons. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 9:30-6 and Sunday until 7; admission ranges from €3, for the submarine, to €20.50, depending on whether you visit the planetarium, take a workshop, or see an exhibition. Young kids will like the fish-tank wall in the basement. 30 av. Corentin-Cariou, La Villette, 75019. 01-40-05-70-00. www.cite-sciences.fr. Porte de la Villette.

spectacular Musée de la Musique. The music museum contains some 900 instruments; their sounds and story are evoked through wireless headphones (ask for English commentary). The museum is open Tuesday-Saturday noon-6, Sunday 10-6. Admission is €8. 221 av. Jean-Jaurès, La Villette. 01-44-84-44-84. www.cite-musique.fr. Porte de Pantin.

Café de la Musique. Across the plaza, the outdoor terrace at Café de la Musique is an inviting place to have a drink on a sunny day. 213 av. Jean-Jaurès, La Villette. 01-48-03-15-91. Porte de Pantin.