Spring city breaks

April is one of the finest months for visiting France or Belgium. Spring is sprouting everything green and flowery to life. The tourist seasons are officially beginning, with expanding hours at tourist attractions.

Annual events
The Marathon de Paris is back for it’s 32nd year, so if you fancy watching that on 6th April then make sure if you’re in Paris for then! 

In Brussels, on 4th and 5th April a special annual festival occurs -  Festival Bruxelles-Babel. As part of this, 250 children from all over Brussels will put on a lively show at the Marni Theatre called The Water Magician which is aimed at 12 to 21-year-olds.

Theme Parks
Only 18 miles north of Paris, Parc Asterix has gathered together all the ingredients to be the most fun place to be. With a superb mix of fun-tastic shows and wild rides all put together with Gaulish good humour.

Alternatively, 19 miles to the east of Paris, there’s Disneyland Paris with a whole range of rides, shows and special seasonal entertainment, for example, starting from the beginning of April is a new show, Tarzan Encounter – expect an abundance of acrobatics, acting, song and dance with a jungle theme.

Tourist hotspots
Situated in the heart of the Citadel Leisure Park in Lille (which itself is a huge open space of 50 hectares of well-tended walks and views), a veritable nature paradise in the middle of the city, Lille zoo has over 300 animals and 100 different species. The many educational boards enable visitors to learn in a fun way! Perfect for family outings and it's also free!

Something special in Paris starting mid April is “Les Grandes Eaux Musicales” at Versailles Castle. This is a show of water in sheets, sprays, jets, spouts and cascades accompanied by music, on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays. Not only this but the truly magnificent castle to explore.

The Atomium, which is a 103 metre tall monument built for Expo '58 with nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Something you can’t miss in Brussels!

Miniature attractions
Something for the whole family, on a 12,000 acre miniature map of France, France Miniature invites you to discover the most famous French monuments. It also has the longest outdoor miniature railway network of 3.5km.

Located at the foot of the Atomium, Mini-Europe is the only park where you can have a whitlestop tour around Europe in a few short hours. In total 300 models and sites in a quite unequalled craftmanship. Also don’t forget to visit the European Space full of interactive multimedia games.

Fun museums
The Natural Science Museum of Belgium gives a fascinating overview of natural life over the course of time. This large complex is on a hill overlooking Parc Léopold. It is an excellent place to visit with children. The major attraction of the Museum is its collection of the so-called "iguanadons of Bernissart". Skeletons of these dinosaurs were found in the late 19th century in the small village of Bernissart in the south of Belgium.

Lille's 19th-century Museum of Natural History and Geology contains examples of almost every member of the animal kingdom as well as sections on ethnography, science and geology. The 60,000 or so stuffed animals collected by the museum include reptiles, fish, insects and large mammals. One of its treasures is a Giant Penguin, made extinct by the extensive whale-fishing in the Antarctic.