Museums and Collections in France

Discover 45 unusual museums and collections in France.

Ethereal Dancers

Musée des Automates

A centuries-old quest to create artificial life is alive and well in the French town of Limoux.

Saint-Just-d'Ardèche, France

Musée d'art Moderne St Just D'Ardeche

This massive and eclectic collection is filled with thousands of sculptures, masks, and assemblages.

The 20-stater coin at the Cabinet des Médailles, 2010.

Gold 20-stater of Eucratides I

The heaviest gold coin ever minted.

The headquarters of the Paris Mint.

Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint)

The oldest continuously operating mint in the world that has been making coins since the 9th-century.

A bust of Xavier Jouvin and his invention, the "iron hand."

Grenoble, France

Musée de la Ganterie (Museum of Glove-Making)

The cellar of a former factory is now home to a collection of gloves, machines, and tools of the trade.

Van Gogh, "Starry Night."

L'Atelier des Lumières (Workshop of Light)

An immersive projection art installation uses sound, scale, and light to take visitors inside classic works of art.

Reconstruction of a Vodou prayer room.

Strasbourg, France

Château Musée Vodou

This fascinating museum in an old water tower holds the world's largest collection of Vodou artifacts from western and central Africa.

The museum exterior.

Museum of Natural History and Ethnography

A charming little museum founded by the designer of the Statue of Liberty.

View of the museum ground floor with mammoth skeleton in the foreground.

Lille Natural History Museum

An astounding collection of taxidermy, fossils, skeletons, and even a few strange live beasts.

The Lumière Villa.

Lumière Villa

Antique cinematography artifacts fill this museum dedicated to the inventors of the moving picture.

An antique bike.

Bailleau-Armenonville, France

Musée Ateliers des Pionniers

A small museum of antique transport that's a must-see for bicycle lovers.

Romagne-Sous-Montfaucon, France

Romagne 14-18

A unique museum tells the story of the day-to-day life of World War I soldiers.

Permanently Closed

Vampire Killing Kit

Museum of Vampires

The macabre collection of Jacques Sirgent, an expert scholar on the undead and all of their trappings.

Provencal scene

Aubagne, France

Santons Maryse Di Landro

This workshop and small museum is dedicated to tiny, delicate figurines that began as a subversive craft after the French Revolution.

Main display from ground level

Aubagne, France

Little World of Marcel Pagnol

A miniature diorama that recounts the brilliant stories of author and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol.

Tobacco leaves drying

Le Musée du Fumeur

Dedicated to the history and culture of smoking, this small museum now includes a vape lounge.