Paris is not only a cultural city where the arts and creative industries flourish: it also has many places dedicated to the major scientific disciplines, from natural and earth sciences to astronomy and medicine. Here are 8 places, known or unknown, to perfect your scientific culture and follow in the footsteps of the most illustrious scientists in Paris’ history.

1/ Museum of Arts and Crafts

In this unusual museum in the 3rd arrondissement, more than 2,500 objects, devices, instruments, drawings, inventions, tools and other scientific and technological devices of all kinds and of all periods are on display for our discovery. From the first clock mechanisms to the first iPod, not to mention the oldest model of sewing machine, there is reason to be amazed by all these innovations made by Man over the centuries!

2/ Palais de la Découverte

Opened since 1937 in the west wing of the Grand Palais, this museum has set itself the task of showing all audiences “science in the making”. 80 years later, the place continues to satisfy this objective: at the Palais de la Découverte, discovering how viruses work, how animals communicate and how volcanoes form becomes simple and interactive !

3/ Curie Museum

Located in the premises of the former Radium Institute, inaugurated in July 1914, the Curie Museum not only allows visitors to discover the life and history of one of the most important families of scientists of all time, but also to learn more about the work that took place in this building, the former workplace of Pierre and Marie Curie, but also of Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie.

4/ Collection of Jussieu minerals

Created in 1822 by the mineralogist François Sulpice Beudant, the Pierre and Marie Curie University mineral collection is one of the oldest and most remarkable in the world. The selection of 1500 minerals offered to visitors is based on the rarity and quality of the minerals but also on the impact they have had in the scientific world. A collection as beautiful as it is interesting !

5/ Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie

Located in the heart of the Parc de la Villette, this immense museum for children and adults is the Parisian temple of science and technology: exhibitions, workshops, films, conferences, scientific games and activities for children at the Cité des Enfants, the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie promises long moments of experimentation and discovery of the world !

6/ Army Health Service Museum

This little-known museum, located in the cloister of the Val de Grâce, is dedicated to the history of military medicine. A place that shows the work of surgeons, doctors, nurses, stretcher bearers during the First and Second World Wars or the Korean War, but also looks at the evolution of surgical devices and medical techniques.

7/ House Deyrolle

Almost ten years after the fire that ravaged its premises, the emblematic Maison Deyrolle has regained all its splendour! Naturalized insects and animals, skeletons, shells, minerals, scientific books, illustrated plates, there are several hundred naturalist objects that can be appreciated in this museum shop dedicated to the art of taxidermy and entomology.

8/ National Museum of Natural History

Would you rather walk between the skeletons of extinct animals, explore the southern flora or wander through hundreds of geological rocks? Thanks to these 12 sites, located in the capital and in the Île-de-France region, the Muséum National d’Histoire naturelle allows visitors to discover all areas of naturalist scientific culture. The plant garden, the great gallery of Evolution, the gallery of Mineralogy and Geology, the gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy, the choice is vast for this establishment which is positioned as a true sanctuary of scientific discovery.