Musée de l'air et de l'espace (Plane museum)

Edited: One of the exhibition halls of the museum was once the main building of Le Bourget Airport. It's also the airport where Charles Lindbergh landed after his famous Atlantic solo flight of 21 May 1927.

It’s absolutely worth a visit. Much to see about the pioneering period and there is an interesting section with experimental planes. There is a hangar with two Concordes. To my opinion this is one of the best museums for those passionate about aviation. You can spend the 2-3 hours you plan there easily.

I was so lucky visiting this museum during the first week of the 2013 Paris Air Show. That’s the week for professionals, customers only, with flight demonstrations of all kinds of aircraft. It was an exciting experience I would have missed if visiting this museum a week earlier or so.

L’Hélice Café is a self-service café there, no experience but get good reviews according google maps.

If coming from CDG Airport, you could either take the RER B from CDG to Le Bourget, and then get a bus or taxi, or simply take a taxi directly from CDG.

This is one of my favorite places in France! It's fantastic. Absolutely the best collection of pre-1918 aircraft I've ever seen, and I've visited a huge number of aviation museums worldwide. If you get out in less than 3 hours you missed a huge part of it. I usually end up eating there and spending most of the day. Lot's of unique and rare stuff. Very popular for school field trips.

The cafe inside is actually good. The food is better than anything you'd get at the Louvre, but the setting's a bit more industrial. You might want to check the hours, because I don't know if they do breakfast. The area outside is a bit run down, as with most airports.

Be advised that English translations are very limited.

Yes, go! Loved it!

I visited in 2023, they were prepping for the Paris Air Show, so I couldn't see the A380 but that was the only disappointment. The main building is, alone, fabulous as an art deco bldg (also where Mrs. Harris arrives in the reboot of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris).

The cafeteria was pretty decent and you can eat right in front of the AF 747.

As mentioned, the translations aren't great but google translate should help with that.

My husband and I went on his birthday in 2016. He worked at airports his whole life and he loved it. I found it very interesting as well.

Thank you very much. Your responses sound so positive that I’ve now booked a room at the Hyatt House near the museum. I plan to take a taxi to the hotel. It’s not far from the hotel to the museum. None of us like hotel breakfast buffets. Coffee and a baguette or croissants would be enough. Hopefully, the museum restaurant sells something like that. I have no idea how to find out. I can’t find any information on the museum’s website. That bothers me. Not that it will “ruin” my surprise.
Thanks again. I really appreciated all the information.

Wholeheartedly agree with the ideas to go. We took our then 11 yr old son about 10 years ago and it was amazing
The original arrivals hall is beautiful Art Deci We loved every bit of it ( esp the Spitfire, Concordes and the history of flight)

FYI if you're a Concord fan you can easily see 7, the two here, three in Toulouse, and two in Sinsheim (one of which is the Soviet version.)

It’s been many years since I had the chance to admire the Concorde in Sinsheim. It was great because you could also tour the inside of the plane (though unfortunately, it had been cleared out). I even got to walk on the wings of a Boeing 747. What can I say? Airplanes are just beautiful.

You can walk through both of the Concorde; one is fitted out as a passenger plane, the other was used for scientific research.

The museum houses a large number of unique aircraft, truly one of a kind or last remaining examples.