🐧 Geneva’s Natural History Museum (Muséum Genève) has been our go-to museum on ☔️ rainy days for the last 7 years! We have – over the years – pushed a 💤 sleeping baby around the exhibits here, watched our toddlers crawl, run and topple over here, and we have spent plenty of time running after them too!

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.

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« Célébrons! 50 ans du Muséum à Malagnou »

Until January 2018, the Muséum Genève was celebrating its 50 year anniversary – Célébrons! 50 ans du Muséum à Malagnou – and it did so with two fabulous temporary exhibitions:

🦕« Dinosaurs » – this breathtaking exhibition, with several dinosaur skeletons to gawp at and a myriad of interactive activities, the MBFF team was 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;

🖼 current temporary exhibitions:  « Prédations » – this new exhibition will plunge you into the world of PREDATORY ANIMALS, that is animals whose strategy it is to kill in order to eat! Kill, eat, survive – a natural cycle, present since the birth of time, far from the image of the Big Bad Wolf and Jaws. The life of a predator is often difficult and dangerous, a ” catch me if you can ! ” challenge with its prey! And we humans in this chain; are we the worst type of predator, seeing as we are omnivores and meat eating is a choice? / more information . . .

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🍏 Eating options 🍏 

The museum has a ☕️ spacious café (recently renovated) with good lunch options (no picnics allowed, but on a warm day, there is plenty of space for a picnic outside).

food hut summer 2019 – at the entrance to the museum!

Another option is the fabulous family-friendly 🍕 Luiga restaurant, 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 through Geneva friends, so thank you to them! / 🗓 open 7 days a week, from 12h / address: rue Adrien-Lachenal 24a, 1207, Geneva / tel: (+)41 22 840 15 15 / website;

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🎨 Workshops for children 🎨 

The Muséum Genève offers 🎨 workshops for children on Wednesday afternoons from 14h to 16h30 and on some weekends too. Check the museum’s website for more details . . .

summer 2019 workshops: on Wednesdays 7th & 14th August, from 14h until 16h30, there will be a workshop all about tiny soil predators: 🔎 Prédateurs sous la Loupe – led by scientist Mickaël Blanc / FREE! / children 6+ years / reservations recommended: mickael.blanc[at]ville-ge[dot]ch

🦇 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! / this year, on 23rd August 2019, from 19h30 until midnight / recommended for 6+ years;

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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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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:

🌹 Le 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 . . .

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Practical information 

🗓 opening hours: the 🐧 Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle 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).

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Practical information

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

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

website: http://institutions.ville-geneve.ch/fr/mhn/

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