Museum of Magic and Automata, instruments and conjuring shows

Musée de la magie et des automates, 11 rue Saint-Paul
Musée de la prestidigitation – mirror games and optical illusions
(metro Saint-Paul) (tel. 01 42 72 13 26, open from 2 pm to 7 pm on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, daily during school holidays except July and August)
The museum showcases "fun physics" props from the 17th and 18th centuries, known as "prestidigitation" only since 1815. Visitors can enjoy excellent magic shows included in the admission price, as well as instruments that make objects disappear and distort reality: the box of the woman sawed in two, small boxwood objects from the "fun physics" boxes given to children in the 19th century, "secret boxes" where jewelry vanishes, automata, and brassware – malleable brass objects made in Dinant, Belgium. Other vaulted cellars display mirror games and optical illusions based notably on concave reliefs. A film traces the paradoxical fascination of the Age of Enlightenment with magic.
Museum of Magic and Prestidigitation