The 🐧 Muséum Genève, Geneva’s natural history museum, was our go-to museum for ☔️ rainy days when our boys were small! We have – over the years – pushed 💤 sleeping babies around the exhibits there, watched our toddlers crawl, run and topple over there, and we have spent plenty of time running after them too! (now we actually have time to read the information!).
Permanent Exhibitions
What a wonderful museum this is! Set across 4 floors, the permanent exhibitions include: 🦌 local fauna, 🐘 animals of the world and an extensive 💎 mineral collection.
Temporary Exhibitions
BICENTENAIRE – 200e anniversaire du Muséum
To celebrate 200 years of history, the Muséum Genève brought you 4 exhibitions, two of which are still running:
- Bouteille à la mer 2120 – Te Ao Mãori – until January 2022 / a plastic exhibition, reminding us of our polluted world, brought to us by Maori artist George Nuku;
- Trésors, 200 ans d’histoire naturelle à Genève – 200 objects of display from the museum’s archives;
2021’s NEW temporary exhibition: « Tout contre la Terre » – from 14th October 2021 ⇒ 6th November 2022 / ” une exposition qui aborde, sous l’angle des émotions, le dérèglement climatique et l’érosion de la biodiversité. ” / more information here;
[ note: the temporary exhibitions are PAYING, but they are FREE on the first Sunday of the month! ]
Previous temporary exhibitions that MBFF has enjoyed at the natural history museum:
🦕« Dinosaurs » – this breathtaking exhibition, with its several dinosaur skeletons to gawp at and a myriad of interactive activities, had the MBFF team absolutely enthralled! We even came away with the perfect 📷 “ selfie with a scary dinosaur ” souvenir, courtesy of the museum (and a ” dinosaur tooth ” or two!);
🐜 « Fourmis » – after « Dinosaurs », the museum turned its attention to a much smaller creature – 🐜 ANTS ! – this fabulous exhibition put a huge ants nest in place;
Eating options
The museum has a ☕️ spacious cantine – café (recently renovated) with good lunch options.
No picnics are allowed indoors, but on a warm day, there is plenty of space for a picnic outside. And, from summer 2019, you may find a food hut in the summer months at the entrance to the museum!
Another option is the fabulous Italian restaurant 🍕 Luiga, located just down the road from the museum. This Italian restaurant is spacious, serves delicious food and is very family friendly (baby-changing facilities, high chairs, children’s play area). It doesn’t take reservations, but we have never waited long for a table. You’ll get a truly Italian welcome . . . we were introduced to this restaurant by Geneva friends, so thank you to them! 🗓 open 7 days a week, from 12h / website;
address: rue Adrien-Lachenal 24a, 1207, Geneva / tel: (+)41 22 840 15 15;
Workshops for children
The Muséum Genève offers 🎨 workshops for children on certain Wednesday afternoons from 14h to 16h30 and on some weekends too.
⇒ check the museum’s website for more details . . .
🦇 La Nuit du Chauve-Souris 🦇 is an annual evening event organised at the museum in the summer . . . lots of fun activities for the whole family!
Gift Shop
There is a great 🎁 gift shop at the entrance; a great place to pick up some birthday presents, stickers, postcards or posters!
Family facilities at the museum
As well as the ☕️ restaurant / café on-site, there is a cloakroom, a place to leave pushchairs (not supervised) and there are 🚼 baby changing facilities.
Other activities in the area
You are unlikely to spend ALL day at the museum (more likely a couple of hours, depending on age and attention span of youngsters!), so here are some ideas (tried and tested by the MBFF family!) of what to do in the vicinity:
🌈 PLAYGROUNDS – did you know that school playgrounds remain open at the weekend in Switzerland? No? Neither us; we learned this fact from various Swiss resident friends! One fine weather day, after a Muséum visit, we playground-hopped (we just stumbled upon each playground!) all the way to the 🌳 Parc de la Grange . . . here is a photo-montage of what we found that day:
🌹 Parc des Eaux-Vives (Parc de la Grange) – a 30 minute stroll from the Muséum brings you to this beautiful park. You’ll find a small ☕️ café, plenty of grass for running around . . . for young children, think to have 🛴 scooters and draisiennes at hand to get here without whining!
💦 Lac Léman – also accessible à pied, is Lac Léman and its iconic Jet d’Eau. 🏖 Baby Plage is located near the lakeside entrance to the 🌳 Parc de la Grange – a perfect spot for playing in the sand and watching the boats . . . There is also a new beach area in Eaux-Vives!
Practical Information
🗓 opening hours: the 🐧 Muséum Genève is open every day except Monday, 10h to 17h / CLOSED: Mondays, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day;
💶 price: it is FREE to visit the permanent exhibition space! / 🖼 temporary exhibitions have an entrance fee, but they are FREE on the first Sunday of each month (be sure to ask for a children’s booklet to accompany the visit).
address: 1 route de Malagnou, 1208, Geneva, Switzerland; tel: +41 (0) 22 418 63 00; website / FB page / instagram
🅿 parking: Villereuse car park (paying) is just next door, otherwise you may find some free parking at the weekend on the adjacent streets;
Fantastic museum or as Sascha points out : His museum! Very save rainy day option. Looking forward to our next visit. By the way – the quality of the mbff pictures is remarkable!
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The montblanfamily team looks forward to many more visits to “our” museum tous ensemble! It’s fun watching our boys grow a bit bigger with each visit! Each visit rewards us with a new reaction, with new questions, with new knowledge!
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