Museums in France

History

Muséum de l’Histoire Naturelle
Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées
www.museum.toulouse.fr

The museum (called a museum as this is the French word to refer to a place showcasing natural history) reopened in January 2008 after a ten year closure. The artefacts are displayed in a brand new 1,000-square-metre exhibition space and divided into three themes – Man, Nature and Environment.

Château de Chantilly
Chantilly, Picardy
www.chateaudechantilly.com

The grand château de Chantilly has stood majestically in Le Massif de Trois Forêts near Paris since the Middle Ages. It offers one of the finest museums of historical paintings in France with the best collection after the Louvre.

Musée du Septennat
Château-Chinon, Burgundy
www.cg58.fr/patrimoi/sept

An Aladdin’s cave of rare and valuable gifts presented to President Mitterand during his seven-year term of office fills this 17-room former convent in the town where he was mayor for 21 years.

Musée National de la Préhistoire
Les Eyzies, Aquitaine
www.musee-prehistoire-eyzies.fr

The National Museum of Prehistory opened three years ago and houses a rich collection of ice-age artefacts including a 15,000-year-old bison carved in bone and many 30,000-year-old stone engravings.

Musée Carnavalet
Paris, Ile-de-France
www.carnavalet.paris.fr

Two sumptious Renaissance mansions form the museum dedicated to the memory of Paris and the quality of the ever-increasing collections of paintings, sculptures and decorative arts attract a lot of scholars.

Centre Historique Minier de Lewarde
Nord-Pas-de-Calais
www.chm-lewarde.com

The Centre Historique Minier de Lewarde is France’s biggest mining museum and is situated in what was once an important mining area in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. A guided tour is a must, not least because all of the guides are former miners themselves.

Musée Portuaire
Dunkerque, Nord-Pas-de-Calais
www.museeportuaire.com

A thoroughly engaging museum for anyone, of any age, interested in the sea and the life and history of a port. Located in one of France’s most strategic ports, the museum is set in a converted 19th-century tobacco warehouse with models, posters, charts and photographs on display.

Musée Français de la Photographie
Essonne, Ile-de-France
www.photographie.essonne.fr

The museum was founded in 1960 by passionate photographers, Jean and André Fage. Its exceptional collections have around 15,000 exhibits, two million photographs and a library.

Musée de l’Arles et de la Provence Antiques
Arles, Provence-Alpes-Côte D’Azur
www.arles-antique.cg13.fr

Set opposite an unexcavated Roman circus on the outskirts of Arles, the contemporary museum is full of ancient Roman relics. There are regular lectures and workshops for children looking at how the Romans and other ancient people lived.

Mémorial de la Paix
Caen, Basse-Normandie
www.memorial-caen.fr

Inaugurate on 6 June 1988 (the D-Day anniversary) and situated within easy distance of the landing beaches, the Mémorial de la Paix is a flagship museum dedicated to the history of the 20th century, concentrating specifically on World War II, the Cold War and the efforts of peace.

Musée de la Tapisserie
Bayeux, Basse-Normandie
www.tapestry-bayeux.com

This unique masterpiece dating from the 11th century is displayed within its old seminary building. Visitors can enjoy an audio guide of the tapestry and a simpler version is available for children.

Musée des Arts et Métiers
Paris, Il-de-France
www.arts-et-metiers.net

Houses the collection of the Conservatoire National des Art et Métiers which was founded in 1794 as a depository for the preservation of scientific instruments and inventions.

Musée d’Archéologie Nationale
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
www.musee-antiquitesnationales.fr

The collection, which includes artifacts from archaeological expeditions, discoveries and methodology, is housed in the stunning Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Bizarre

Laguiole Knife Museum
Laguiole, Midi-Pyrénées
www.layole.com

Laguiole knives (pronounced lay-ole) are the kings of French cutlery and in rural France most countrymen carry a Laguiole pocket knife. The museum has a replica workshop from the early days of knife production and houses a remarkable collection of exceptional knives.

Le Petit Musée du Bizarre
Lavilledieu, Rhône-Alpes
Tel: (Fr) 4 75 94 83 28

Built in a former forge on the ground floor of a typical Vivarais house in the hamlet of Bayssac, near Lavilledieu, is one of the oddest of France’s excellent small museums. There are around 200 paintings and sculptures on display which have been collected by the museum’s founder Serge Tekielski.

Musée du Tire-Bouchon
Ménerbes, Provence-Alpes-Côte D’Azur
www.domaine-citadella.com

The museum houses a private collection of more than 1,000 pieces, shows all sorts of weird and wonderful contraptions for getting to one’s wine. The museum is set in a beautiful vineyard with 1 different grape varieties.

Musée International de la Chaussure
Drôme, Rhône-Alpes
www.ville-romans.com

The museum showcases a huge collection of footwear from all around the world dating back to 1300 BC. All great 20th-century creators are also represented.

Culture/Art

Musée International Pétanque et Boules
Saint bonnet-le-Château, Pays-de-la-Loire
www.petanque.com

After football, tennis and skiing, pétanque is the most popular activity sport in France and the little town of Saint-bonnet-le-Château is regarded as the pétanque capital. Not only are the metal boules made here, there is a fascinating museum dedicated to the history and evolution of the game.

Musée Victor Hugo
Maison Vacquerie, Haute-Normandy
Tel: (Fr) 2 35 56 78 31

This beautiful house made of pink bricks is situated right by the River Seine in a well manicured garden and holds a rich collection that pays homage to Victor Hugo and his friendship with the Vacquerie family. As you wander through you will find period furniture, engravings, photographs and sculptures.

Centre National de la Bande Dessinée et de l’Image
Angoulême, Poitou-Charantes
www.cnbdi.fr

This is France’s leading centre of comic strips and image and is divided into six ‘imaginary’ museums which provide an overview of the extensive collections. Visitors can find out about how comic strips are made and learn about different types of comic book heros dating back several decades.

Écomusée d’Alsace
Ungersheim, Alsace
www.ecomusee-alsace.fr

The museum was started by a group of activists in the early 1980s trying to save historical rural buildings. Since then, they have dismantled 70 cottages, barns and farm buildings brick by brick and rebuilt them to create this open air museum.

The Louvre
Paris, Il-de-France
www.louvre.fr

Home to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, the Louvre is one of the greatest art collections in the world. It has countless kilometres of galleries housing more than three million works of art.

Musée de l’Orangerie
Paris, Il-de-France
www.musee-orangerie.fr

The museum in the Jardin des Tuileries houses a collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings including Claude Monet’s Water Lilies series.

Pompidou Centre
Pairs, Il-de-France
www.centrepompidou.fr

Named after the former President of the Republic, Georges Pompidou, the 1970s style building is home to the National Museum of Modern Art as well as a major public library. It includes collections from some of the great 20th-century artists like Picasso, Magritte, Matisse, Klee and Kandinsky.

Musée d’Orsay
Paris, Il-de-France
www.musee-orsay.fr

Converted from a huge railway station on the Left Bank, Musée d’Orsay houses a remarkable collection of Impressionist paintings from the likes of Renior and Monet. With its high, arched ceiling and ornate station clock that silhouettes visitors behind its frosted glass, the museum is an exhibit in its own right.

Musée Fabre
Montpellier, Languedoc-Roussillon
www.montpellier-agglo.com

The museum was renovated last year and now shows more than 800 pictorial works, 3,500 drawings, 900 engravings and paintings by Courbet and Bazille.

Musée National Picasso
Paris, Il-de-France
www.musee-picasso.fr

The museum has the largest collection of Picassos anywhere in the world and is housed in the magnificent 17th-century Hôtel Salé which was converted into the museum in 1985.

Monet’s Garden
Giverny, Haute-Normandie
www.fondation-monet.com

The beautiful gardens of Claude Monet in Giverny are world-renowned. The garden is made up of the French-style Clos Normand featuring archways of climbing plants and the Japanese-inspired Water Garden where he painted his famous Water Lillies series.

Toulouse Lautrec Museum
Albi, Midi-Pyrénées
www.musee-toulouse-lautrec.com

The museum, undergoing a long-term renovation, remains open and displays more than 1,000 works including the 31 posters that brought Albi-born artist Henri Toulouse Lautre fame.

The Maeght Foundation
Saint-Paul, Provence-Alpes-Côte D’Azur
www.fondation-maeght.com

This gallery hold one of Europe’s finest collections of 20th-century art. A series of interconnected buildings, all at different heights and built from combinations of pink bricks and concrete, display work s from Marc Chagall, Alexander Calder and Joan Miró.

Musée Rodin
Paris, Ile-de-France
www.musee-rodin.fr

Rodin leased the beautiful 18th-century Hôtel Biron near Les Invalides from the State in return for bequeathing his work to the nation on his death. Rodin’s former home houses many of his finest sculptures including The Thinker, The Kiss and The Burgher of Calais.

Musée Christian Dior
Granville, Basse-Normandie
www.musee-dior-granville.com

The museum is housed in fashion designer Christian Dior’s former residence, Villa les Rhumbs in Granville. It showcases a huge collection of his creations.

Musée Matisse
Nice, Provence-Alpes-Côte D’Azur
www.musee-matisse-nice.org

Since 1963 the Museum has been welcoming visitors to its collection of works left by the artist to the city of Nice where he lived from 1918 until 1954.

Guimet musée national des Arts Asiatiques
Paris, Il-de-France
www.museeguimet.fr

Guimet is the biggest museum of Asian arts in the Western world and gathers together the rich collections of its founder Emile Guimet and those of the former Indochinese Museum of Trocadéro.

Musée National du Moyen Age
Paris, Il-de-France
www.musee-moyenage.fr

The museum of medieval art is housed in the Hôtel de Cluny, one of only two remaining medieval homes in Paris.

Family

Cité de l’Espace
Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées
www.cite-espace.com

The Cité de l’Espace is as much theme park as a museum. There are life-size models of space rockets, the Mir space station as well as a planetarium and a superb IMAX cinema with a screen higher than a six-storey building.

Musée Jacquemart-André
Paris, Ile-de-France
www.culturespaces.com

The Jacquemart-André is the showcase of the passions of painter Nélie Jacquemart and the banker Édouard André who travelled around Europe collecting porcelain, tapestries, precious furniture and works of art. Includes a cultural treasure hunt for children.

Food & Drink

Planète Chocolat
Biarritz, Aquitaine
www.lemuseeduchocolat.com

Chocolatier Serge Couzigou and his team have created a museum dedicated to the history and manufacturing process of chocolate. Visitors not only get to taste traditionally made chocolat chaud and crunchy chocolate slabs but are also given a secret hot chocolate recipe.

Plaisirs en Beaujolais
Romanèche-Thorins, Burgundy
www.plaisirenbeaujolais.com

The museum has a variety of exhibitions, theatres and automated displays dedicated to this history of Beaujolais. Georges Duboeuf, who pioneered the Beaujolais Nouveau craze, opened a wine hamlet in the region 1993.

Musée Bénédictine
Fécamp, Haute-Normandie
www.benedictine.fr

Half gothic, half Renaissance the Palais Bénédictine at Fécamp harbours a distillery, a museum and an art gallery. Within these walls 3.5 million bottles of Bénédictine are produced each year.

Musée de la Moutarde Amora
Dijon, Burgundy
Tel: (Fr) 3 80 44 44 52

Dijon has been the master of mustard-making since the 13th-century. The museum allows visitors to learn more about the fascinating story of mustard and how it’s made.

Musée Regional du Cidre
Valognes, Basse-Normandie
Tel: (Fr) 2 33 40 22 73

The museum celebrates all everything to do with Cider, synonymous with this region of France, from the picking process through to production.

Transport

Musée International de l’Automobile
Mulhouse, Alsace
www.culturespaces.com

There are some 437 cars on display in this converted woollen mill ranging from the very first motor cars – dating from 1895 – to modern racing models from the likes of Ferrari and Maserati. The collection also tells the story of legendary car designer and Alsace resident Ettore Bugatti.

Musée Francais du Chemin du Fer
Mulhouse, Alsace
www.citedutrain.com

It’s not only the perfect museum for train spotters, it’s also great for families and anyone interested in anything to do with transport in France. The museum boasts a tremendous number of audio-visual presentations that portray the great moments in the history of the railways with dazzling realism.