Throughout the year in 🇨🇭 Geneva, Nyon & Valais many of the 🖼 museums and their temporary exhibitions are 🗓 FREE on the FIRST Sunday of the month!
In addition, the 🖼 museums often put on some 🎨 wonderful workshops & guided tours for children and families (also FREE!) on this day.
NB – this initiative does not apply to private museums & collections.
The next FREE Sunday will be 🗓 Sunday 1st October 2023!
Here, below, is a brief description of 🖼 some of the museums in Geneva, Nyon & Valais involved in this initiative – and their 🖼 current or upcoming temporary exhibitions – that the MBFF family has visited (and enjoyed!).
GENEVA
In Geneva, the public museums are FREE, but they often have temporary exhibitions with an entrance fee. On the first Sunday of the month, these are also FREE !
[ ⇒ see here for more details about Geneva’s museums ]
Muséum de Genève (Natural History Museum)
The fabulous 
Muséum Genève (Natural History Museum) is still one of our go-to rainy day options! / 
opening hours Sunday: 10h to 17h;
[ ⇒ see see MBFF article for more details for more practical advice about a visit en famille to this fabulous museum ]
The 🖼 permanent collection of this museum is always FREE to visit, but the 🖼 temporary exhibitions are paying – these are FREE on the first Sunday of the month !
🖼 current temporary exhibitions :
« 40 ans d’archéozoologie au Muséum » / ⇒ more information here;
website & FB page
address: 1 route de Malagnou, 1208, Geneva, Switzerland / tel: +41 (0) 22 418 63 00
Musée d’Histoire des Sciences
This museum is located within the pretty 🌳 Parc du Perle du Lac, next to Lac Léman, and opposite the Botanical Gardens; it occupies the beautiful 🏛 Neo-Classical Villa Bartholoni (from the 1830s), and hosts a collection of 🔬 scientific apparatus belonging to scientists and researchers from the 17th to 19th centuries.
This 🖼 permanent collection of this museum is always FREE to visit; check for the temporary ones !
🗓 opening hours Sunday: 10h to 17h;
good to know: ask for the 🗺 orienteering parcours leaflet for the park at the reception, and go explore!
website & FB page address: Parc de La Perle du Lac, 128 rue de Lausanne 1202, Geneva, Switzerland / tel: 41 22 418 50 60
🖼 current temporary exhbition: « Par la force des choses » ⇒ 2nd March 2025 / “ Se prendre les pieds dans le tapis, perdre l’équilibre, tenter de se rattraper et finalement, tomber en roulant sur le sol. Cela vous est sans doute déjà arrivé. Mais savez-vous quelle en est la cause, outre la maladresse ? Eh bien, un phénomène physique omniprésent dans nos vies : la force de gravitation. Comment expliquer la cause de la chute des corps ? La compréhension de la gravité a évolué depuis l’Antiquité, portée par des grands noms de l’histoire des sciences d’Aristote à Einstein. Ces savants ont accompagné leur pensée de célèbres expériences : Galilée et son plan incliné, Newton et sa pomme, Foucault et son pendule et c’est par ce biais que l’exposition vous propose de cheminer. Rien de tel que des éléments interactifs : plans inclinés, pendules, gyroscopes et autres toupies pour illustrer les forces qui font tomber, tourner ou rouler… en un mot, pour comprendre un phénomène et passer un bon moment de science ! ” / 4+ years;
MEG (Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève)
The MEG is one of our favourite museums in Geneva! It is innovative and puts on fabulous temporary exhibitions, with accompanying workshops for families that are often inter-generational. You have to pay to visit the fabulous temporary exhibitions, but these are FREE on the first Sunday of the month, and the MEG has a fabulous 
children’s pack available (be sure to ask at the ticket office)!
The permanent exhibition at the MEG is Les archives de la diversité humaine, and this is always FREE to visit; here you will find more than a thousand objects from different world cultures!
On the first Sunday of the month, there are regularly animations and guided visits;
opening hours Sunday: 11h to 18h;
[ ⇒ for more information about the MEG, see separate MBFF article here ]
website & FB page
address: boulevard Carl-Vogt 65-67,1205, Geneva, Switzerland / tel: +41 (0)22 418 45 50
current exhibition: « Etre(s) ensemble » ⇒ 7th January 2024 / ” Dans son exposition «Être(s) ensemble», le MEG questionne de manière originale les relations entre les humains et la nature. Peut-on communiquer et se comprendre entre espèces différentes ? Pour essayer de répondre à cette question, le MEG présente six relations particulières qui se sont nouées entre des humains, des végétaux et des animaux. Ces compagnonnages surprenants nous suggèrent des pistes à suivre afin d’être ensemble, toujours un peu plus, toujours un peu mieux. ” / MEG website information;
The MEG also has 🌈 a fabulous playground next door . . .
. . . and an American-style donut shop around the corner: 🍩 Loops & Coffee (address: boulevard Carl-Vogt 71, Geneva) . . .
MAMCO (Musée d’art moderne et contemporain)
The 🖼 modern and contemporary art museum in Geneva is fabulous to visit en famille ! The 🖼 temporary exhibitions change regularly, so do check website agenda!
for children and families, the MAMCO offers fabulous guided tours (one on a Sunday) for children: 
Mini et Petit Rendez-Vous;
🗓 opening hours on Sunday: 12h to 18h;
[ ⇒ for more information about a family visit to the MAMCO, see separate MBFF article here ]
for children and families, the MAMCO offers fabulous guided tours for children:
- Mini et Petit Rendez-Vous – on the first Wednesday and Sunday of the month (11h15 et 11h40), there are shorter guided visits for smaller children (for 2 to 4 olds, with an accompanying adult AND 5 to 10 year olds with an adult) / duration: 20 – 45mins;
website & FB page address: 10 rue des Vieux-Grenadiers, CH-1205, Genève / tel: +41 22 320 61 22
MAH (Musée d’Art et d’Histoire)
The MAH in Geneva is housed in a magnificent building, and is one of the largest museums in Switzerland, displaying over 650,000 sculptures, objects and paintings over 5 floors.
The MAH is always free to visit (both permanent and temporary exhibitions), but you are asked to donate the amount that you feel appropriate !
🗓 opening hours on Sunday: 11h to 18h;
[ ⇒ see MBFF article for more information here ]
current exhibitions: see website for more information;
for children and families: the MAH has a great play area – Espace #mahfamily – next to the café & restaurant, and there is a full programme of guided visits for families and children !
website & FB page address: MAH, rue Charles-Galland 2, 1206, Geneva
Musée Rath (near Parc des Bastions)
The 🖼 Musée Rath hosts the MAH‘s larger temporary exhibitions. Located next to the Grand Théâtre and the Conservatoire de musique on the Place de Neuve, the 🏛 Musée Rath is a protected building since 1921. Open to the public in 1826, thanks to the generosity of the Rath sisters, it was the first museum of fine art in Switzerland, « un temple des muses ».
MBFF once saw a fabulous Hodler exhibition here!
🗓 opening hours on a Sunday: 11h to 18h;
current exhibition: Loving: ils s’aiment / ⇒ see here;
website address: place Neuve, 1204, Geneve / tel: +41 (0)22 418 33 40
🏺 Musée Ariana (Musée Suisse de la Céramique et du Verre)
The 
Musée Ariana is located near the UN and the Red Cross Museum in Geneva. The 
palatial neo-Classic, neo-Baroque building which houses the Musée Ariana was built at the end of the 19th century by generous collector Gustave Revilliod, always with the intention of it becoming a museum; he chose the name Ariana in honor of his mother, from whom he had inherited his fortune.
This 🖼 permanent collection of this museum is always FREE to visit, and it recounts the history of ceramics and glass chronologically, but the 🖼 temporary exhibitions are paying – these are FREE on the first Sunday of the month !
good to know: there is a beautiful park to explore outside;
🎨 for children & families: a coin enfants, treasure hunts and more / ⇒ see here;
🖼 current temporary exhibitions: Fenêtres sur l’Univers by Yan Zoritchak – ” les stèles de verre optique de Yan Zoritchak promettent une immersion poétique et esthétique au cœur du Big Bang. “, until 21st January 2024 (free to visit) / ⇒ more information here;
🖼 current & upcoming temporary exhibitions: see here;
opening hours Sunday: 10h to 18h;
website address: avenue de la Paix 10, 1202 Genève / tel: +41 22 418 54 54
Quartier Libre SIG – Pont de la Machine
There are regular 🖼 temporary exhibitions at this super little exhibition space on Pont de la Machine, a tiny islet on the Rhône and next to Lac Léman . . . they are generally FREE all the time, not just on the first Sunday of the month !
website address: Quartier Libre SIG, Pont de la Machine, 1204, Genève
current temporary exhibition: Pablo Picasso et ses affiches – works of art in themselves, collected by Werner Röthlisberger / ⇒ more information here;
NYON
In Nyon, 🎫 a combined ticket covers entrance to all 3 museums in the town (and all three are FREE on the first Sunday of the month!), valid 12 months:
- 🐟 Musée du Léman;
- 🏛 Musée romain;
- 🏰 Château de Nyon;
🐟 Musée du Léman & Aquarium
The 🐟 Musée du Léman & Aquarium is a museum dedicated to the 💦 history of Lac Léman and 🐟 an aquarium too!
🗓 opening hours Sunday: 10h to 17h (and November to March 14h to 17h);
good to know: 🌈 there is a super playground right next door and great picnic spots!
website & FB page address: quai Louis-Bonnard 8, 1260, Nyon, Switzerland / tel: +41 (0) 22 316 42 50
permanent exhibition: « Petite Nature? » (36 questions to decode the the secrets of the lake!);
temporary exhibitions: see here;
🏛 Musée Romain de Nyon
The foundations of the basilica of the forum were discovered in 1974 and since 1979 the Musée Romain has been here, within the walls, allowing visitors a glimpse into the world of ancient Noviodunum . . .
MBFF visited in 2019, and the boys really enjoyed the museum, with a little treasure hunt available for kids!
opening hours Sunday : November to March, 14h to 17h and April to October, 10h to 17h;
good to know: there are workshops available on Sundays and a treasure hunt is available for children!
website address: rue Maupertuis 9, CH-1260, Nyon / tel: +41 22 316 42 80
Le Château de Nyon
Originally a maison forte (fortified house) dating from the middle of the 12th century, 
the Château de Nyon was altered in the 16th century by the Bernese. After the Vaud Revolution of 1798, the castle was bought by the City of Nyon, and it therefore contains: courts, assemblies of the municipal council, prisons and, since 1888, the museum. The castle was completely restored between 1999 and 2006, and it holds a large collection of porcelain produced in the 18th century in the famous Nyon factory as well as objects that tell us about Nyon’s 3000 year history. It also offers temporary exhibitions devoted to historical themes or contemporary art;
current exhibitions: see here;
website & FB page address: Château de Nyon, Place du Château, CH - 1260 Nyon / tel: +41 (0)22 316 42 73
VALAIS
There are some fabulous little museums in neighbouring Valais, and we’ve been to some of them . . . you can explore many for free in November, on the Nuit des Musées.
Three of them, the Musées Cantonaux du Valais, are FREE on the first Sunday of the month
SION
Musées Cantonaux du Valais (Sion)
This groups together the Musée d’Art, the Musée d’Histoire and the Musée de la Nature.
website & FB page
Mont Blanc Family Fun 
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