Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie — Attraction in Paris

We have the yearly PASS for 4 years now. Not because it's really great, but simply because we are just in neighborhood and it’s a spacious playground for children. During these four years we come and go, what we experienced today was the worst. Ticketing: Cité des enfants 12€, Explora 12€ ..There is combination that are cheaper too. Annual pass cost 95€ now. In general, Cité des enfants was quite alright, kids have fun. BUT to be honest, it lacks of variations, lack of choices to do, with many broken machines..If we don’t have the yearly pass, I would not spend the money for a children session, too expensive for those broken machines. Since once again, it’s in our neighborhood, my children go there to have fun for half an hour, to play the all same games they like. That’s all. So today was the worst visit, for a simple reason. The man at scanning ticket line for Explora. Our cards are valid until November 2016, even though it’s written until August 2016. Last year, Cité had fire and they had to close the Cité for renovation. So, as members, we got 3 months extension. WE never have had problem with our cards even though the extended validity is not written on our cards. I suppose that the employees are informed about this. Today was bad luck. After the 6 m queue the scanning ticket man refused to let us in, so I went to check it out at ticketing who said that our cards ARE VALID! We went back and forth 4 times! When I decided that it was enough, I asked his name so I could make official complaint to Cité des Sciences. He refused, so I took out my phone to take picture, he came to stop me violently, he was about to hit me! My children were children, begging him to not hurt me! Impressive! The managers came and surrounded me as if I were the criminal who didn’t pay! It was ridiculous and unnecessary. Our cards were valid this morning for us to go to Cité des enfants, if they have some error on their system, they supposed to check on it, and not blaming on customers! The nice ticketing lady couldn’t help much. If they really need us to provide tickets to EXPLORA, then, they should have made it available for online ticketing! Just like how they did with Cité des enfants. We booked the ticket online each time, paid nothing as we have the yearly PASS. The EXPLORA is not available to be booked online for those who have yearly pass, because they usually let us in when we show them our member cards. Somehow there is a bunch on uninformed employees who instead of getting themselves informed, chose to argue with customers with valid membership! Yeap, it only happens in France. And come on, we are in France, that scanning ticket man and manager kept talking in other language --- I don’t know whether it’s Algerian or Moroccan. Note well, I didn’t take his picture, got my phone checked by the security guy. Review your attitudes, monsieurs. I don’t know where exactly was wrong with them and their system. I do believe that the manager, who lower down his tone at the end, knew that he was wrong but refuse to acknowledge it. The scanning ticket guy was simply ignorant; he was not well informed to let extended membership people in or simply new employee. As simple as that. And the end, the higher rank manager took us to go up by lift, arrogantly ignoring us. Yeap. Review your customer service attitude, please. I know that what we experienced today won’t make any change for them. But honestly, don’t waste your money, your energy for mediocre Cité des sciences with their arrogant...

First off, I want to say that this place is worth taking the kids to—not because it's well-managed, but because kids will still have fun regardless. Our 3-year-old son had an absolute blast, and the little details that bug adults tend not to matter as much to children. That being said, there are definitely some areas for improvement:

The facility is quite run-down, with visible signs of mold, decay, and years of neglect. It’s clear that very little funding has gone into renovations.

The kids' show lasted about 15 minutes and lacked creativity. It was just a lady moving two dolls around on a table—disappointing and uninspired.

There are some serious safety concerns. There are rods that children can play with in the construction play area, but they’re heavy and could easily cause head injuries. There are also no proper breaks on these rods . This kind of oversight is unacceptable in a space for young children.

Fingerprint stains and general grime cover most of the glass surfaces.

The "aquarium" looks like an asian sea food restaurant.

The bathrooms are in poor condition—with broken or non-working hand dryers.

The on-site café is well below average. It sells overpriced drinks and snacks with no added value or appeal.

In the wet play area, the aprons provided didn’t fasten properly for any of the kids. The Velcro was worn out and just hung open.

One of the main interactive displays was clearly broken and left running on an automated loop, falsely presented as interactive.

It’s a real shame, because the original idea behind this was obviously visionary and brilliant for its time. But the current execution feels like it’s just being used as a cash grab, with minimal effort put into upkeep or service.

Overall, quite disappointing—especially if you've visited similar science exhibits in other countries that are clean, engaging, and...

This museum is listed as the biggest science museum in Europe. That may be true in square feet, but unlikely in number of exhibits. There is a lot of empty space in this museum. This museum is video intensive, with not many physical exhibits, apparatus, displays of artifacts, etc. There are some, but even most of these also have associated video components. There are video monitors everywhere. Some are movies, up to 1/2 hour long, some are interactive simulators, some are just displays of images and text. A lot of this material could be accessed on YouTube, or elsewhere on the internet without making a trip to a museum. Some on the interactive displays are interesting and some quite challenging. In addition to French, much of the signage is in English also. Some of the video screens allow you to select a language. There is a nice planetarium. Tickets for this are clearly advertised at the ticket office, and you can also get tickets inside the museum, near the planetarium (which is not true at the other science museum in Paris). Some of the planetarium shows have translations into other languages (including English) You access this using a cell phone sized audio device you can pick up near the staircase leading to the planetarium. The museum is the destination of a lot of school field trips, which line up first thing, so you may find a bit of a line when the museum first opens. The museum is easy to get to. There is a metro stop a few hundred yards from the entrance. There is an i Max theater, but I didn't visit it. I'm giving this three stars mainly because going to a museum to watch computer monitors (which I can do just as well at home) did not appeal to me, but there were a few things interesting enough to hold my attention for...