Two weeks. Two weeks is a long time when it gets dark at 6.30pm and the rain settles in on Tuesday and only leaves on Thursday. The All Saints' half-term holidays in Bordeaux come down to a simple balance: one outing outdoors while the light holds, one under cover when it gives out, and one or two things spectacular enough that nobody asks for a screen.
Here is our programme for the All Saints' holidays in Bordeaux with kids, from Saturday 17 October to Sunday 1 November 2026. Everything below has been checked on the venues' own websites. When a price or opening time is not published, we say so rather than make it up. And if you want the version for the rest of the year, our guide Bordeaux with kids is still the place to start.
The dates, and the 1 November trap
The holidays run from Saturday 17 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, with school starting again on Monday 2 November. First day off: a Saturday. Last: 1 November, which falls on a Sunday this year.
That last day is not as good as it looks. 1 November is a public holiday, and Bordeaux's municipal museums close on public holidays. The Muséum and the CAPC, which we cover below, will therefore be shut that Sunday. Keep 1 November for the outdoors or for the funfair.
The Foire aux Plaisirs, the one you can't avoid
May as well start with this one, because your kids have already spotted it from the tram anyway. The autumn funfair takes over place des Quinconces from 9 October to 1 November 2026, which covers the whole holiday.
How it works is worth knowing. At 11am, only a few food stalls, the games and a handful of rides are running: the big wheel, the bumper cars, the children's rides. Everything else opens at 2pm. So if you go in the morning with little ones, it's quiet and that's plenty. If you want the full fair, come in the afternoon.
It closes at midnight from Sunday to Thursday, and at 2am on Fridays and Saturdays.
The real tip is the last day. On Sunday 1 November, the showmen cut their prices by 30 to 50% depending on the ride. Same budget, twice as many goes.
- Where: place des Quinconces, 33000 Bordeaux
- Dates: 9 October to 1 November 2026
- Opening hours: 11am for some of the rides, 2pm for all of them, closing at midnight (2am on Fridays and Saturdays)
- Discount day: Sunday 1 November, 30 to 50% off
- Getting there: tram, Quinconces stop, and leave the car at home
- Info: foireauxplaisirs.com
Four museums where kids don't stare at their shoes
Bordeaux has a real advantage here: four venues have scheduled specific activities for these holidays, with dates and age groups. Not just "come and have a look", but a proper calendar.
The Muséum and its Félins exhibition, the big autumn opening
It's the opening of the season. The Félins (Wild Cats) exhibition opened to the public on 10 October 2026 and runs until 19 September 2027: the 38 species of wild cat still in existence, 23 of them shown as mounted specimens, across more than 300 m². Hunting adaptations, threats, and a whole section on the tiger.
Around it, the holiday programme is packed, and that's where it gets interesting for you:
- Contes et légendes des félins (wild cat tales and legends), Tuesday to Friday from 2.30pm to 4pm, ages 6 and up, €7 per family workshop, booking required, exhibition visit included
- Cri'minou, a detective game, Tuesday to Sunday from 1.30pm to 4.30pm, ages 6 and up
- Il était une fois au Muséum (once upon a time at the Muséum), story reading at 11am, Tuesday to Sunday, for ages 0 to 6
- Saturday screenings, from 3.30pm to 5.30pm: The Lion King on 17 October, Kimba the White Lion (Léo, roi de la jungle) on 24 October, and the documentary Félins on 31 October
The Muséum is open from 10.30am to 5.30pm, closed on Mondays and public holidays. Admission during a temporary exhibition costs €8 full price and €3.50 for 6 to 18-year-olds. The combined ticket with the Jardin botanique is €10. There's no online ticketing, you buy on the spot, and the ticket desk closes thirty minutes before the museum.
- Address: 5 place Bardineau, 33000 Bordeaux
- Phone: +33 5 24 57 65 30
- Programme: museum-bordeaux.fr
The Bassins de Lumières, where a ten-metre T-rex comes at you
Throughout the holidays, the show running in the former submarine base in Bacalan is Planète Préhistorique : Dinosaures (Prehistoric Planet: Dinosaurs). 360° projections on the concrete and on the water, life-size dinosaurs, pterosaurs, mosasaurs, a tyrannosaurus, narrated by Gérard Lanvin (in French). Allow 1 to 1.5 hours, suitable for all ages.
It's the largest digital art centre in the world, and we've told elsewhere how a German submarine base became this venue.
The thing to check before you set off, and the one nobody will tell you: the dinosaurs aren't on every day. The venue alternates two shows depending on the day, Dinosaurs and Matisse / Frida Kahlo, and the schedule is listed day by day on their opening hours page. In the week of 12 to 18 October, for example, the dinosaurs were on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, but not Tuesday or Thursday. Check the schedule for the week you're after, or you'll promise a T-rex and deliver Matisse.
Two more tips from experience: the basins are chilly, so bring a jumper even in October, and book online, because the holiday slots go fast.
- Address: impasse Brown de Colstoun, 33300 Bordeaux
- Opening hours observed: 10am to 6pm on weekdays, until 8pm on Saturdays and 7pm on Sundays
- Prices: €16 full price, €9 for 6 to 25-year-olds, free for under-6s, €43 family ticket (2 adults and 2 young people aged 6 to 25)
- Getting there: tram C to Ravezies, then bus 9 to Base sous-marine, or bus 5 from Tourny
- By car: there's a free municipal car park in front of the submarine base, subject to availability
- Schedule and tickets: bassins-lumieres.com
The CAPC and its Cool Kids Space, free for under-18s
The contemporary art museum in the Entrepôt Lainé has set up a permanent space for children, the Cool Kids Space, open until April 2027. And admission to the museum is free for everyone under 18, which settles the budget question.
The holiday calendar comes down to six sessions, all bookable online:
- Playful tour of Alexandra Bircken's exhibition SomaSemaSoma, for 20 months to 3 years, from 4.30pm to 5.30pm, on Saturdays 17, 24 and 31 October
- "Drôles d'oiseaux" (Funny Birds) modelling workshops with artist Sébastien Vonier: Tuesday 27 October from 10am to 11.30am for ages 4 to 6, Tuesday 27 October from 2pm to 4.30pm for ages 7 to 11, and Wednesday 28 October from 2pm to 4.30pm for ages 11 to 14
The stone nave alone is worth the trip, even for a six-year-old who never asked contemporary art for anything. Last entry to the Cool Kids Space is at 5.15pm.
- Address: 7 rue Ferrère, 33000 Bordeaux
- Opening hours: 11am to 6pm Tuesday to Sunday, closed on Mondays and public holidays
- Prices: free for under-18s, €8 full price, and free for everyone on the first Sunday of the month except in July and August
- Phone: +33 5 56 00 81 50
- Info: capc-bordeaux.fr
The Musée Mer Marine and its stencil workshop on 21 October
At the Bassins à flot, street artist A-MO's Bleu Sauvage exhibition runs until 3 January 2027: large-format paintings of wildlife in a maritime museum, which works very well on children. We went to see what A-MO has hung on the walls of the Musée Mer Marine.
For the holidays, the museum is running a creative workshop, "Mon animal en Paintag & Pochoir Sauvage" (my animal in paint tags and wild stencils), on Wednesday 21 October at 2pm and 3.30pm. For young visitors, built around the exhibition.
- Address: 89 rue des Étrangers, 33300 Bordeaux
- Opening hours during the school holidays: 10.30am to 7pm, closed on Mondays
- Prices: €14 full price, €11 reduced, €10 young people, free for under-6s
- Getting there: tram B, Rue Achard stop
- Info: mmmbordeaux.com
Halloween in Bordeaux: a free concert at the Opera, and the fair open until 2am
31 October falls on a Saturday this year, and Bordeaux doesn't turn into a theme park for all that. There are still two solid options, one classy and one noisy.
On Friday 30 October at 8pm, the regional symphony orchestra plays Nuit de Sabbat (Sabbath Night) at the Opera's Auditorium: a programme of Halloween-themed symphonic poems by d'Indy, Wagner, Munktell and Mussorgsky, conducted by Debora Waldman. 70 young musicians from Nouvelle-Aquitaine on stage, a 1.5-hour concert billed for ages 0 to 99. And it's free with booking, which probably makes it the best cultural outing of the fortnight for a family.
For Saturday 31 in the evening, back to the Quinconces: it's a Saturday, so the fair runs until 2am. You're obviously under no obligation to stay that late.
- Nuit de Sabbat: Friday 30 October 2026, 8pm to 9.30pm, Auditorium of the Opéra National de Bordeaux, 8-13 cours Georges Clemenceau, free with booking, details on bordeaux.fr
Outdoors, while the light holds
In October, Bordeaux's parks close at 7pm, and at 6pm from 1 November. So the useful window is the middle of the day.
The Jardin public and the Va, Petit Mousse boat
The Jardin public's best-kept secret: during the school holidays, the Va, Petit Mousse boat runs every day, from 10am to 12.30pm and then from 1pm to 6pm, for €3.50 per person. Outside the holidays, it only sails on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. There's also an old-fashioned carousel, a puppet theatre and play areas, right in the city centre.
- Address: cours de Verdun, 33000 Bordeaux, other entrances on place Bardineau and rue d'Aviau
- Park opening hours in October: 7am to 7pm, then 7am to 6pm from 1 November
- Good to know: the Muséum is right next door on place Bardineau, so you can do both in the same morning
The Parc bordelais, the one with the sheep
In Caudéran, the city's big family park. A renovated playground in three areas, including a 140-metre tree-top course with platforms, tunnels, slides and a rope descent, a cork area with a carousel accessible to children with disabilities, a bird's nest swing and a trampoline. A little train that goes all the way round, electric cars, rides, a 123 m² cabin and hammocks.
And a meadow grazed by sheep of local breeds, a dovecote, swans and ducks. Enough to keep everyone busy for two hours without spending a penny, apart from the rides.
- Address: rue du Bocage, 33200 Bordeaux, several entrances including avenue Charles de Gaulle and avenue Carnot
- Opening hours in October: 7am to 7pm, then 7am to 6pm from 1 November
- Info: the park's page on bordeaux.fr
Darwin, for older kids on wheels
On the right bank, in the former Niel barracks, the Hangar Darwin houses one of the largest indoor skateparks in France. If you have a teenager with a board or a scooter, these two weeks are made for it. The rest of the site is free to wander: street art on every wall, Babel Bread open from 7am to 8pm, the Origines chocolate factory, and the Magasin Général canteen.
- Address: 87 quai des Queyries, 33100 Bordeaux
- Skatepark: closed on Mondays, 2pm to 9pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 2pm to 7pm on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays
- Info: darwin.camp
- Combine it with our family bike loop along both banks, which goes right past
Ice rink and climbing, the fallback plan when it pours
Two addresses for the afternoons when the sky leaves you no choice. And if the rain really sets in, our guide Bordeaux in the rain takes over.
At the Mériadeck ice rink, the slot to note is Sunday morning: from 9.30am to 12pm, the Jardin des Glaces is reserved for children under 12. That means Sundays 25 October and 1 November. Otherwise, public skating on Wednesdays 21 and 28 October from 2.30pm to 5pm, on Saturdays 24 and 31 October from 2.30pm to 5pm, and evening sessions from 9pm to midnight Thursday to Saturday, more for older kids. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Times change around the Boxers' ice hockey matches, so check before you go.
At Hapik, in the Ginko shopping centre, kids climb on fun climbing walls from age 4, in one-hour sessions. The treetop-style course requires a height of over 1.20 m. We'd already tried Hapik and its climbing for the whole family. Booking online is recommended, as capacity per hour is limited.
- Mériadeck ice rink: 95 cours du Maréchal Juin, 33000 Bordeaux, +33 5 57 81 43 81, schedule on axelvega.com
- Hapik Bordeaux Ginko: 90 avenue des Quarante Journaux, 33300 Bordeaux, hapik.fr
Bordeaux Pessac zoo, twenty minutes from the ring road
If you want one full day out and only one, this is it. The zoo sits in the Bourgailh forest, at exit 12 of the ring road (rocade), twenty minutes from the centre. Lorikeet aviary, lemur maze, jaguar pool, Aquajungle, and the Cîmes treetop course for those who want to climb.
The animal feeding sessions take place all year round, with animals that change with the season: jaguars, cheetahs, gibbons, otters, red pandas. It's the moment children understand the real size of a jaguar's paw.
- Prices: €19.50 from age 12, €16.50 for 3 to 11-year-olds, free under 3, €14 for disabled adults and €10 for disabled children
- Carte Jeune Bordeaux Métropole: €16.80 adult, €12.30 child
- Unlimited annual pass: €56 adult, €42 child, worth it from the third visit
- Opening hours: the opening calendar changes through the season and is published on the Plan your visit page
Practical tips for planning your two weeks
Three habits that change the week.
Book the workshops now. The Muséum, the CAPC and the Musée Mer Marine run with limited numbers, with workshops set in slots of an hour and a half. They're the first things to go.
Forget the car for the Quinconces. Looking for a parking space next to the funfair is an activity in itself, and not the most fun one. Tram B goes down to Rue Achard for the Musée Mer Marine, and you can reach the Bassins de Lumières by tram C then bus 9. Tickets are sold on the app or in the TBM online shop.
Keep 1 November for the outdoors. Public holiday and a Sunday: municipal museums closed, but parks open until 6pm and the fair at the Quinconces with 30 to 50% off. The day plans itself.
Going further
More ideas to pick from depending on the weather and the mood: our 20 family-tested outing ideas, the five finest museums in Bordeaux on foot, unusual Bordeaux and its 10 little-known places, our 10 picnic ideas around Bordeaux for the dry days, and our hour-by-hour Sunday in Bordeaux if the weekend of 24 and 25 October leaves you a free morning.