Mineral/Geology Museums in France
| Photo | Museum Name | Location | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | |||
| Musée Crozatier | Le Puy-en-Velay, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | The museum is currently closed for renovation. Check website for updates. The collections, built from the early nineteenth century, are very diverse and have a remarkable encyclopedic character. They are presented in galleries devoted to archeology, the fine arts, ethnology and lace, paleontology and natural ... | |
| Musee des Confluences | Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | Includes paleontology: vertebrates, invertebrates and fossil plants from excavations, donations and acquisitions. The abundance, diversity and quality of fossils from now famous deposits such as La Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère), Saint-Vallier (Drôme), La Fage and Jaurens (Corrèze). The petrology and the mineralogy: ... | |
| Musée des Cristaux | Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | Minerals from Mont Blanc, particularly smoked quartz and pink fluorspars. | |
| Musée des Minéraux Bourg d’Oisans | Le Bourg-d'Oisans, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | Remarkable specimens: gold and quartz of the Gardette, axinite of the Armentier, prehnite of the Combe de la Selle or epidote of the Cornillon have long fascinated and still fascinate the "crystal hunters" and collectors . The first French collection of alpine minerals, the museum revives this fascinating story and ... | |
Brittany | |||
| Maison des Mineraux | Crozon, Brittany | The museum presents four exhibition themes: the geology of the Crozon Peninsula, the rocks and minerals of the Armorican Massif, the landscapes of Finistère and the fluorescent minerals. | |
Grand Est | |||
| Musée de minéralogie | Strasbourg, Grand Est | The museum displays 30.000 minerals from all over the world as well as several thousands of objects such as scientific instruments and pedagogical material. The origin of the collection goes back to the 19th century. The historical collection is a reference in France and unique in its wealth which does not compare to ... | |
 | Parc minier Tellure | Ste Marie-aux-Mines, Grand Est | The museum complex features the mining park, opportunity to visit The Saint-Jean Engelsbourg silver mine (800m long). Museum showing mining histrory in the area, exposition of copper minerals, gemstones. |
| Terrae Genesis | Le Syndicat, Grand Est | Exhibition of minerals from the Vosges and around the world. Among the highlights are the phantom quartz of Brazil or a rare native copper hippocampus. | |
Ile-de-France | |||
| Collection de Minéraux | Paris, Ile-de-France | This collection was originally dedicated to teaching and research. In 1954, she was enriched by the Vésignié collection, donated by a colonel who had assembled one of the most important mineral complexes in the world. Selected among the most aesthetic or the most important, they represent about 500 of the 4,200 ... | |
 | Musée de Minéralogie MINES ParisTech (Ecole des Mines de Paris) | Paris, Ile-de-France | For more than 200 years, preserved in the setting of the hotel of Vendôme, MINES ParisTech's mineralogical collections are among the most complete and spectacular in the world. They contain some 100,000 samples of which 4,000 presented in showcase, representing about 2 900 mineral species. The systematic collection ... |
| Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle | Paris, Ile-de-France | The collection of minerals and gems incorporates the specimens that had been gathered since 1626 under the reign of Louis XIII in the collections of the Royal Garden of Medicinal Plants. The collection also recovers some of the King's Cabinet specimens and some crown jewels. More than 4,000 meteorites, nearly 24,000 ... | |
Nouvelle-Aquitaine | |||
| Musée de minéralogie et de pétrographie | Ambazac, Nouvelle-Aquitaine | A very varied sampling of mineral species coming from 5 continents: an "aesthetic" petrology showing the ideal forms and compositions, as well as many "field" samples, intended for macroscopic recognition and to the reality of their presentation in nature - the discovery of the minuscule index of a mineralization or a ... | |
Pays de la Loire | |||
 | Musée du Mange Cailloux | Mortagne-sur-Sèvre, Pays de la Loire | Privately founded and owned by Thierry Charrier, formerly a geologist working in worldwide mining exploration. The Musée du Mange Cailloux is situated in the west of France, not far from Nantes. It was built by Thierry himself in an old school building. There is also a shop within the museum, specializing in French ... |
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | |||
 | Musée de la Mine du Cap Garonne | Le Pradet, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | The copper mine that was turned into an adventure visit and a museum. The Cap Garonne mine is remarkable for its mineralogical diversity, with nearly 130 species, including 14 found for the first time in the world. |