February holidays will take place from February 18 to March 6, 2023, and we have no shortage of ideas to share with you to take advantage of these two weeks. Chantilly cream workshop, Carnival parade, exhibition on Le Petit Nicolas, meeting with the healers of the Jardin des Plantes menagerie… you won’t be bored! Here are our 7 activity ideas according to each age.
1. Take a visit to the Château de Chantilly
For the February holidays, the castle invites you with family or friends with a whole series of guided tours, creative workshops, games, or even equestrian activities! First of all, you can come and explore the masterpieces of the painting collections of the Conde museumas well as Theater Library usually closed to the public. For the greediest, you can participate in the design of the mythical whipped cream during a workshop located in the former kitchens of Vatel. The riders of the Compagnie équestre des Grandes Écuries will also be accompanied by ponies and will offer you equestrian events narrated in music. And of course, you can always take a walk in the splendid park that surrounds the castle: a treasure hunt awaits even the youngest visitors!
Chantilly Castle
60500 Chantilly
Until March 6, 2023
2. Go to the Télérama Enfants Film Festival
Every year the Telerama Cinema Festival invite them movie buffs to (re)discover the best movies of the year 2022 in cinemas Arts and Essays for only €3.5 per person! And for six years, the program has been extended to the youngest, with the Télérama Children Film Festival during the month of February. The opportunity to discover about fifteen films ranging from animation (Ernest and Celestine, Titina), fiction films (The Little Band) or great classics (my cow and me). Programs of short films are also invited, and offer works from 3 years old, such as The Tiger who invited himself for tea. Finally, we will be able to attend a few previews, including that of the film The Lion and the Three Brigands Rasmus A. Sivertsen.
Télérama Children Film Festival
Several Parisian cinemas
Until February 28, 2023
3. Participate in immersive games
The capital is not lacking in immersive games, the scenarios of which take place in the most beautiful monuments. On the side of Small palacewe offer you an investigation game: find the parrot Papagaïo so that the animal carnival may well take place. Throughout the rooms of the museum, we come across actors and contemplate works, until we see the few colored feathers of the runaway appear! But you can also go to Palace garnishwhere the secret ofArsène Lupin remains to be discovered. The opportunity, there too, to stroll through the luxurious rooms of the Opera which keep in them precious clues… A word of advice, reserve your place quickly.
Small palace
Avenue Winston Churchill, 75008 Paris
From February 18 to March 3, 2023
Palace garnish
Place de l’Opera, 75009 Paris
4. Marching at the Paris Carnival
It’s the return of the traditional Carnival of Paris with its thousands of floats, puppets, costumed characters, dancers and musicians. For its 26th procession, on Sunday February 19, we can enjoy the famous Fatty Ox Walkand on Sunday, March 19, the Mid-Carême Laundress Queens Day. If you want to come in disguise and take part in the parade, the theme for 2023 is “The plant world under the stars”, but it is free: no one is forcing you to follow it! To join this joyful stroll, the procession will meet you on the Place Gambettain the 20th arrondissement, from 1 p.m.
Carnival of Paris
Meet at Place Gambetta, 75020 Paris
Sunday February 19, 2023, from 1 p.m.
5. Explore the exhibitions
Many exhibitions are to be visited during the February holidays: at the musée du quai Branly, we pay homage to the Senegalese poet and statesman Leopold Sedar Senghorwhile at the European House of Photography, we discover for the first time a French retrospective of the activist Zane Muholi. For lovers of urban art, go to the side of the Hôtel de Ville de Paris where exhibits Invader, JR, Miss Tic ou Banksy, but also at the Espace Voltaire where a strange exploration awaits you… And of course, the museums don’t forget the children! During the February holidays, you can visit a free and immersive exhibition on The little Nicolas at Deyrolle (46 rue du Bac). Until March 11, 2023, you will dive into Sempé’s character’s classroom, and browse the large educational drawing boards.
6. Meet the healers of the Jardin des Plantes Menagerie
The healers of the Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes are waiting for you to present their work alongside the animals. Thus, it will be possible to meet the cassowary, the golden lion tamarin, the Malay tapir, the orangutan or the red panda every day during school holidays. During this free entertainment, the caretaker will discuss their behavior, their diet, daily care, as well as the particularity of life in a zoo. You will have to pay to enter the menagerie, then go to the animal enclosures to participate in this unpublished visit.
Menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes
Jardin des Plantes, 75005 Paris
Every day during February holidays
7. Get away from it all near Paris
It is surely unnecessary to quote Giverny and its impressionist garden composed by the painter Claude Monet, the place has become so famous… On the other hand, you can take a walk aroundAuvers sur Oise, a place less known, and yet adored by 19th century painters, in particular Vincent Van Gogh who painted a large series of canvases there, and who now rests in his cemetery alongside his brother. And of course, we don’t forget the large forests that surround the capital, such as those of Rambouillet or of Meudon. If you are looking for a total change of scenery, head for nearby Normandy: go to the pretty village of Saint-Cénéri-le-Gereifour hours from Paris, in which you can explore beautiful medieval facades in a relaxing calm.
Read also: Where to go on a getaway this winter around Paris?
