Musée de la Magie — Attraction in Paris

First things first, to enter, you descend a long set of stairs, so inaccessible to wheelchairs.

Next, at 15 euros when I visited, it's a pretty steep entry fee for what you get.

And a warning: the place is very much aimed at small children, so if you're not one of those or a parent of one, or a serious connoisseur of magic and magic history, you may find it a bit of a tourist trap.

My first impression was it had fantastic ambience with low light (I'm light-sensitive) and cave-like ambience as it's in a former basement.

On arrival, depending on the schedule, you're invited to a magic show in a little theater. While conducted in French, I understood enough to enjoy. The tricks and illusions were on the basic side, so if you are a magic connoisseur, you might not be taken with them, but I found them--and the magician--very entertaining.

Once the show's over, they funnel you into the heart of the museum, which has a number of genuinely fascinating pieces. The optical illusions were a highlight. Though once you've taken those in, which takes, at most, half an hour, that's kind of it. Being near-sighted, I didn't even bother reading most of the signs, so that probably detracted from my experience.

The other half of the museum is the automotons. For those who don't know, these are little doll-like figures constructed to repetitively perform entertaining tasks when you press a button. Some were very cool while others I've completely forgotten about. In total, they take up about two and a half rooms.

And that's it! One big room full of artifacts and interactive optical illusions and another couple of rooms full of push-button performers.

One final warning: some of the pieces, especially the older posters, lean toward the culturally insensitive, so if you're not into that, maybe avoid.

Overall, it was a fun hour of exploration, so if you're looking for something for the kids, it's cheaper and closer than Disneyland, but you will run out of things to do before you know it. Without the very friendly and helpful staff, it would've been...

Phenomenal collection of antique magic machines (many 100+ years old), most of them still operational - they even let you to interact with all of them and see how they work. A range of original magic equipment from automatons, old magic devices, or props used in Georges Melies movies.

In the tour there is also included a 20ish minute magic show - the show is a collection of basic/classic sleight-of-hand tricks, but very professionally exectued - I knew these tricks but still didn't see how they were being done!

There is also a bookstore with collection of old (late XIX, early XX century) books on magic, occultism, tricks - in quite decent prices (though all in French).

Finally, I saw in many of the comments that many of the props don't work and for some you have to insert coin and pay 'extra' - when I was here I'd say 90%+ worked (incredible given they are so old), and if you interact with all the paid machines it may total you like 4EUR - but then you get to see how they worked exactly...

A really nice place to visit honestly! It’s a little small for the price, but I think it’s pretty worth it. The underground area is just stunning, it looks like an old wine cave from the South of France. The expos are fun and interactive, and you end up learning a lot.

Kids will be happy to press all the buttons, teens will have fun at the “will you dare put your hands in this” section, and for adults well honestly magic is always fun to watch.

Our tour guide was hilarious and very knowledgeable, it was a blast. And the magician was so good, honestly he did basic tricks but damn I couldn’t figure a single one out. He interacted a bunch with the audience and blew our minds with cool tricks and funny...