Until July 18, 2027
At the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie Villette- (Paris 19th)
🇫🇷 FR and EN 🇬🇧
“Magic – Believing and Knowing”
At the frontiers of reality, the exhibition “Magic” shatters our certainties… In the world of Fakirs, mentalists, and other magicians!
What if it was your head playing tricks on us? At the Cité des Sciences, the exhibition “Magic” takes us into the world of illusion, mentalism and phenomena that defy the laws of reality
Between installations, interactive experiences and surprises, our senses are put to the test throughout the tour. But here, far from a simple demonstration, magic tells us how our brain works
Why do our eyes deceive us? How does the magician divert our attention?
A journey between wonder and scientific observation
The route is divided into four areas to discover and experiences to try out some magic tricks
- Extraordinary powers: the limits of the human body. What is possible and what is an illusion
- Mentalism 🙀: How does your brain let itself be convinced? Experiments show us what makes the magician seem to read minds
- Appearance / disappearance: discovering illusions such as teleportation to understand how our perception can be deceived
- Levitation : a sphere that seems to float in the air…
General information
- Where : At La Cité des Sciences de La Villette (Paris 19th)
- When : Until August 29, 2027
- Age : From 9 years old, teenagers and adults
- Duration : 1 hour minimum
- Opening hours :
- Tuesday to Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Sunday: 10am-7pm
- All Saints’ Day holidays: exceptional opening
- Monday, October 19 to Sunday, November 1 : 9:15 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Closed: Mondaysand January 1, May 1 and December 25
- Languages : FR 🇫🇷and EN 🇬🇧
- Please note : Small strollers are allowed in the museum.
Around the exhibition “Magic”: the animations 🧙 ♀️
- Spectacle – Magie : sciences et secrets – Tout public dès 6 ans – Du mardi au dimanche à 16h – durée 45 min. (avec le billet de l’expo)- sur le balcon au niveau 2 des expositions
- Card tricks, mentalism and illusions of all kinds await you in a show that will retrace the origins of magic.
- Workshop – Magic Potion – All audiences from 9 years old – Tuesday to Sunday at 11:30 am and 3 pm – duration 1 hour – (with the exhibition ticket) Meet in front of the Biolab level 1 of the exhibitions 15 minutes before the start of the workshop
- Investigate in the lab to find out what a potion is made of.
- Workshop – Mathemagie – All audiences from 9 years old – Saturdays and Sundays at 5 p.m. From Tuesday to Friday at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m . – duration 45 min. – Meet on the balcony on level 2 of the exhibitions – (access with the exhibition ticket)
- What if mathematics could explain magic… with puzzles, visual effects and magic tricks to discover deceptive appearances
Activities during the All Saints 🍁’ Day holidays
Abracadabra At the Library
- Spectacle Abracada’eau – A partir de 6 ans – Les mardis 20 et 27 octobre de 15h à 15h40 et les mercredis 21 et 28 octobre de 15h à 15h40 – Accès libre et gratuit
- Theatrical magic show, both playful and ecological, which celebrates water, the Earth and the beauties of our world to be preserved
- Activités “du livre à l’objet “- 📚A partir de 6 ans – Les jeudis 22 et 29 octobre de 15h à 16h30 –
- A workshop to discover some visual illusions, the functioning of the eyes and the brain, and to make an illusion box.
- Atelier “Les petites pousses numériques” – A partir de 8 ans – Les vendredis 23 et 30 octobre de 15h à 16h30 –
- An image analysis workshop to see what is hidden in an image, understand and learn the keys to perspective and visual illusions.
- Activité “Cahier de dessin animé” – À partir de 3 ans – Les samedis 24 et 31 octobre de 15h à 16h30 –
- An activity where drawing comes to life on the screen: it moves, speaks and interacts!
- Listen to see – 👁From 3 years old – Sundays 25 October and 1November from 3 pm to 4.30 pm – A discovery of mysterious stories with the Bookinou and Lunii story boxes.
You can also find …
- Digital holidays: What if magic and digital had more in common than we think?
- Magic Wednesdays with new workshops
- And all the programming of the Cité des Sciences for the holidays
Science with the family in Paris
- Science Experiences at Bercy Village – from 5 years old
- The Sparks of the Palais de la découverte – from 6 years old – in the 15th arrondissement
- Gallery of Geology and Mineralogy at the Jardin des Plantes
- Guided tour of the Jardin des Plantes
- The Grande Galerie de l’Évolution
- MuAM – The Museum of Arts and Crafts – in the 3rd arrondissement
- The Curie Museum in the 5th arrondissement
- The National Maritime Museum – Place du Trocadéro in the 16th arrondissement
- The Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine – Place du Trocadéro in the 16th arrondissement
Frequently asked questions
It is accessible to children from 9 years old, as well as teenagers and adults
Yes! Some installations invite you to participate in experiments, to observe illusions and to put yourself in the shoes of an apprentice magician.
The exhibition does not seek to systematically unveil the secrets of magicians. It is mainly interested in the mechanisms of perception and cognitive phenomena that make illusions so convincing
At La Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in La Villette, Paris 19th
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