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!).

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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;

Don’t forget to look for Janus, the 2-headed turtle . . .

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Temporary Exhibitions

[ note: you have to pay for the main temporary exhibitions, but this is FREE on the first Sunday of the month! ]

• « Tout contre la Terre » ⇒ 25th June 2023 / ” une exposition qui aborde, sous l’angle des émotions, le dérèglement climatique et l’érosion de la biodiversité. ” / ⇒ more information here;

•    « Miss Djeck raconte Trésors » – in conjunction with the MEG, and as part of the Trésors exhibition on the 3rd floor, this exhibition tells the story of a poor circus elephant and her demise . . .

•  « 40 ans d’archéozoologie au Muséum » / ⇒ more information here;

• « Plastic Léman » ⇒ 22nd April 2023 / ” une exposition entièrement dédiée à la pollution par les plastiques et les microplastiques dans le lac Léman Comment expliquer cette pollution ? D’où provient-elle et en quelle quantité ? Quels sont les dangers ? Existe-t-il des solutions ? Retrouvez les réponses à ces questions sur une vingtaine de panneaux où se mêlent explications scientifiques, infographies et compositions photographiques. “;

 current artist in residence : Bernard Garo, with an installation called Rendez-nous la beauté;

Previous temporary exhibitions that MBFF has enjoyed at the Muséum Genève:

• 🦕 « 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!);

There is a dinosaur skeleton to greet you on the ground floor . . .

•  🐜 « Fourmis » – after « Dinosaurs », the museum turned its attention to a much smaller creature – 🐜 ANTS ! This fabulous exhibition put a huge ants nest in place;

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Eating options 

The museum has a ☕️ spacious cantine – café, 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). 🍕 Luiga takes reservations via its app. You’ll get a truly Italian welcome . . .  we were introduced to this restaurant by Geneva friends, so thank you to them!

website

address: rue Adrien-Lachenal 24a, 1207, Geneva / tel: (+)41 22 840 15 15;

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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 current workshops . . . ]

🦇 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!

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Gift Shop

There is a great 🎁 gift shop at the entrance; a great place to pick up some birthday presents, stickers, postcards or posters!

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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.

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Parc du Muséum

Leave some time to explore the grounds surrounding the museum !

You’ll find animal sculptures, lots of green grass, fountains, a huge boulder and a playground around the back of the building.

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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!

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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).

🅿 parking: Villereuse car park (paying) is just next door, otherwise you may find some free parking at the weekend on the adjacent streets;

website / FB page / Instagram

address: 1 route de Malagnou, 1208, Geneva, Switzerland;

tel: +41 (0) 22 418 63 00;