City of Sciences
Article reserved for subscribers
In Paris, the spaces of the Cité des sciences dedicated to youth are getting a makeover, notably with the opening of the Cité desBabies this Tuesday, December 17. Commissioners and managers intend to make them evolve at the same pace as society, highlighting the themes of the Earth, climate, diversity and inclusion.
Since it's a hit, we're going to put everything back in the boxes: this is the apparently confusing project of the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie, in Paris, for its spaces dedicated to young audiences. The “Children’s City” is getting a facelift in two stages, firstly closing – since this summer – its route for 5-12 year olds, the time to replace almost all of the collections. This part will reopen in the summer of 2025 while the 2-7 year old area will take over for a year of work. The historic furniture and decorations (giant resin globe, indoor greenhouse, TV studio to present the weather, etc.) were even sold at auction in June to make room and finance the construction. And all this at a time when the Cité des enfants is at peak attendance, with 833,000 visitors recorded in 2023 – a record. Isn't that a bit of a shame? On the contrary, explain to Liberation Bruno Maquart, president of Universcience (the entity which brings together the Palais de la Découverte and the Cité des Sciences): “It’s when everything is going well that you have to change everything. Because now we have the energy, the desire and the resources to do it.”
The Children's City is already more than thirty years old. And since its opening in 1992 in La Villette, the world has changed a lot, notes Bruno Maquart: “Environmental issues in particular have taken on crucial importance, we need to find a way to talk about them to younger generations in the most interesting way possible. And then
