What Makes France's Strangest Museums So Compelling?

France has one of Europe’s richest cultures of unusual collections, but its strangest museums rarely form a single, obvious trail. They range from solemn public institutions preserving human remains and pathological specimens to private attractions built around magic, folklore, fairgrounds, taxidermy and eccentric personal collecting.

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Preview for What Makes France's Strangest Museums So Compelling?

Introduction

Visitors should distinguish carefully between active museums, specialist collections with restricted access, commercial attractions and famous venues that have closed. The Musée Fragonard, Paris Catacombs, Musée des Arts Forains and Museum of Popular Beliefs are genuine public-facing collections, though their purposes differ sharply. By contrast, the former witchcraft museum in Berry and the much-publicised Paris vampire museum should no longer be treated as reliable visitor destinations.

Overview image for What Makes France's Strangest Museums So...

Where France’s strangest collections come from

Many French oddity museums descend from the early modern “cabinet of curiosities”: a room in which natural specimens, artworks, mechanical devices, antiquities and alleged marvels could be displayed together. The aim was not simply entertainment. Such collections attempted to compress the variety of the world into a manageable space, even when genuine scientific specimens sat beside doubtful identifications, legends or objects valued chiefly for their rarity.

France later absorbed this collecting instinct into state institutions, medical schools and technical museums. The result is an unusually broad spectrum. At one end are carefully documented teaching collections, such as the anatomical specimens at the National Veterinary School of Alfort. At the other are immersive private museums where atmosphere, participation and theatrical storytelling matter as much as classification.

This distinction helps explain why two French museums containing equally strange objects may feel completely different. A malformed skeleton in a veterinary collection is presented as evidence within the history of science. An automaton or optical illusion in a private magic museum is intended to preserve wonder and performance. A werewolf figure in a regional folklore display illustrates an oral tradition rather than asserting that werewolves exist.

Anatomy, disease and the displayed dead

The Musée Fragonard

The Musée Fragonard at Maisons-Alfort, outside central Paris, is perhaps France’s clearest surviving example of an anatomical teaching cabinet. Founded alongside the royal veterinary school in 1766, it preserves the atmosphere of a late nineteenth-century scientific museum, with specimens arranged in tall glass cases rather than modern interactive displays. More than 4,200 objects are exhibited, while the museum’s inventory contains around 11,000 pieces. Its rooms cover comparative anatomy, skeletons, animal diseases, congenital abnormalities and veterinary history.[Vet Alfort]vet-alfort.frVet Alfort Un lieu d'exceptionVet AlfortUn lieu d'exception - Vet AlfortLe musée Fragonard est un des plus anciens musées de France. Il a été créé en 1766, en même tem…

The most famous exhibits are the preserved, flayed anatomical figures associated with Honoré Fragonard, the school’s first professor of anatomy. These are not theatrical waxworks. They are prepared bodies, produced through elaborate anatomical preservation methods and posed as compositions. The best-known example shows a human figure riding a dissected horse. The museum states that this large work is the only surviving figure that can be attributed to Fragonard with certainty, an important qualification because his name has often been attached loosely to related preparations.[Vet Alfort]vet-alfort.frVet Alfort Les écorchés de FragonardVet AlfortLes écorchés de Fragonard - Vet AlfortIl y décrit 3033 pièces dont les célèbres Ecorchés qui font aujourd'hui le succés du Musé…

The museum is unusual because it retains the visual language of an old teaching collection rather than disguising disturbing material behind contemporary exhibition design. Yet it remains an academic institution, not a horror attraction. The specimens were assembled to teach anatomy and pathology, and their strangeness reflects older scientific practices of preservation, comparison and display. Current visitor information also warns that some material may be unsuitable for young children; access is by a monumental staircase, and opening days are limited.[Vet Alfort]vet-alfort.frVet Alfort Horaires, tarifs et accèsVet AlfortHoraires, tarifs et accès - Vet AlfortMusée Fragonard ・ 14h à 18h Visites: 3 euros / enfant + 75 euros par guide ・ 6 euros / p…

What Makes France's Strangest Museums So... illustration 1

Wax diseases at Saint-Louis Hospital

The Museum of Casts at Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris preserves nearly 5,000 coloured wax models of skin diseases. Produced mainly during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these casts allowed doctors and students to compare symptoms before colour photography became a dependable teaching tool. The hospital describes the collection as unique in the world, while France’s heritage authorities classify it as an important record of medical history and the representation of illness.[Hôpital Saint-Louis]hopital-saintlouis.aphp.frHôpital Saint-Louis Le musée des moulages | Hôpital Saint-LouisIl fût rendu célèbre par le premier dermatologue qui y fût affecté: Jean Louis Alibert, charismatique, celui-ci, bâti sa réputation grâc…

To a modern visitor, rows of meticulously modelled lesions can appear more unsettling than bones or skeletons because the wax reproduces living skin with remarkable immediacy. Their purpose, however, was clinical accuracy rather than shock. The ethical questions concern dignity, anonymity and the transformation of patients’ suffering into permanent teaching objects.

This is not an ordinary walk-in museum with extensive daily opening. Public access has often been associated with organised visits, medical events and heritage open days. Anyone planning a visit should therefore verify arrangements directly rather than assuming that the collection operates like a conventional tourist attraction.[EADV]eadv.orgOpen Day – Visit Musée des MoulagesOpen Day – Visit Musée des Moulages - EADVAugust 5, 2025 — The Musée des Moulages of the University Hospital Saint Louis is a fascina…Published: August 5, 2025

Instruments and the history of surgery

The Museum of the History of Medicine in Paris offers a less graphic but still unusual encounter with medical practice. Its displays include surgical instruments gathered from the eighteenth century onwards, together with devices representing the development of surgery into the late nineteenth century. These objects can look ingenious, brutal or incomprehensible when separated from their original procedures.[Paris Je t'aime - Office de Tourisme]parisjetaime.comParis Je t'aimeParis Je t'aime

The collection’s value lies in showing that medical oddity is often a matter of historical distance. An instrument that looks like a torture device may have represented an attempt to reduce suffering, improve diagnosis or make a dangerous operation possible. Good interpretation therefore depends on understanding what a tool was designed to do, not merely reacting to its appearance.

Bones, mortality and the Paris Catacombs

The Paris Catacombs are France’s best-known public display of human remains, but they are not a burial chamber created for Gothic tourism. The ossuary developed during the late eighteenth century when overcrowded and insanitary Paris cemeteries were emptied and bones were transferred into former limestone quarries. It opened to visitors in 1809 as a place intended partly for reflection on death and human transience.[The Times]thetimes.comThe Times Welcome back to the empire of death: Paris catacombs to reopenIsabelle Knafou, the catacombs' administrator, emphasized the importance of preserving the site’s solemn atmosphere. A comforting audio g…

Only a small section of the wider underground quarry network is open legally. The visitor route extends for roughly 1.5 kilometres and passes carefully constructed walls of skulls and long bones, with other remains piled behind them. The arrangement is architectural rather than archaeological: the bones were moved in bulk, so individual identities are generally lost. Stories that famous figures such as Molière or Robespierre are “in the Catacombs” may be plausible at the level of cemetery history, but no displayed skull can responsibly be identified as theirs.[Paris Musées]parismusees.paris.frOpen source on paris.fr.

Following major conservation work, the Catacombs reopened on 8 April 2026. The renovation introduced improved lighting, air handling, environmental monitoring and security while retaining the site’s character as an ossuary and memorial space. Visitor numbers remain controlled because humidity, carbon dioxide, water penetration and physical disturbance threaten both the quarry and the bone arrangements.[Secrets of Paris]secretsofparis.comSecrets of Paris Visiting the Reopened Paris CatacombesSecrets of Paris Visiting the Reopened Paris Catacombes

The Catacombs matter within France’s strange-history landscape because they sit at the intersection of municipal engineering, public health, funerary practice and tourism. Their fame sometimes encourages sensational claims about secret societies or endless accessible tunnels. In reality, the official site is tightly managed, while unauthorised exploration of the larger quarry network is a separate subculture rather than part of the museum visit.

Magic, automata and mechanical wonder

The Museum of Magic

The privately run Museum of Magic in the Marais preserves stage apparatus, optical devices, illusions, posters and objects connected with conjuring. Its emphasis is entertainment rather than academic history alone: demonstrations, children’s workshops and live tricks remain part of the visitor experience. The museum is currently open on selected days rather than continuously, so checking the official timetable is essential.[Musée de la Magie]museedelamagie.comOpen source on museedelamagie.com.

Its companion automata collection contains mechanical figures and toys from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Such objects belong to a long European tradition in which clockwork bodies could imitate musicians, animals, magicians or scenes of everyday life. They are curious because they occupy an uncertain space between sculpture, machinery, theatre and the illusion of life.

The collection should be approached as a private, family-oriented attraction. Some visitors may expect a scholarly survey of occult practice and instead encounter performance history, trick mechanisms and playful spectacle. That is not a failure of authenticity, but it is a different proposition from a national museum or research archive.

The Musée des Arts Forains

The Musée des Arts Forains at the Pavillons de Bercy is one of France’s most ambitious examples of immersive private collecting. It houses genuine nineteenth- and twentieth-century fairground objects, including rides, games, scenery, mechanical music and performance equipment. Visits are normally guided and require advance booking rather than casual entry.[Les Pavillons de Bercy]arts-forains.comLes Pavillons de Bercy An entertaining museumLes Pavillons de Bercy An entertaining museum

Unlike most museums, it allows selected historic attractions to operate. Visitors may ride century-old fairground machines or participate in restored games, turning the collection from a static display into a reconstruction of commercial popular entertainment. The theatrical guides and elaborate staging mean that preservation, nostalgia and event production are deliberately intertwined.[Les Pavillons de Bercy]arts-forains.comOpen source on arts-forains.com.

This is an important reminder that French curiosity culture is not confined to death or the occult. Fairgrounds historically presented mechanical marvels, exoticised displays, feats of skill and manufactured illusions to mass audiences. The museum preserves the apparatus of that world while also packaging it as an unusual contemporary experience.

What Makes France's Strangest Museums So... illustration 2

Animals, monsters and the collector’s room

The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris is nominally a museum of hunting, but its presentation resembles an inhabited cabinet of curiosities. Founded by François and Jacqueline Sommer and opened in 1967, it combines historic paintings, weapons, taxidermy, trophies and contemporary art in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century interiors. Its stated subject has broadened from hunting alone to the changing relationship between humans and animals. Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature[chassenature.org]chassenature.orgMusée de la Chasse et de la Nature Le Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature à ParisMusée de la Chasse et de la Nature Le Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature à Paris

The museum’s strangeness comes from deliberate juxtaposition. A mounted animal may appear beside fine furniture, mythological imagery or an unsettling contemporary installation. Drawers, hidden compartments and carefully staged rooms encourage visitors to look for traces of beasts rather than follow a simple chronological narrative. The effect is closer to entering an eccentric collector’s residence than walking through a conventional natural-history gallery.

This atmosphere does not make the collection uncritical. By placing hunting culture beside ecological anxiety, fantasy and contemporary art, the museum opens questions about possession, killing, admiration and the human desire to classify wildlife. Recent exhibitions have continued to mix taxidermied animals with imagined creatures and artistic interventions, unsettling the boundary between specimen and symbol.[Le Monde.fr]lemonde.frOpen source on lemonde.fr.

France also has commercial curiosity spaces such as the historic taxidermy house Deyrolle. Although frequently described in travel writing as museum-like, it is a shop and educational establishment rather than a public museum in the normal institutional sense. Its mixture of mounted animals, insects, teaching charts and decorative objects nevertheless preserves the visual logic of the old curiosity cabinet.

Witchcraft, ghosts and regional belief

The Museum of Popular Beliefs at Le Monastier-sur-Gazeille offers one of France’s strongest surviving public collections devoted to vernacular supernatural traditions. Its subjects include legends, ghosts, werewolves, witchcraft, superstition and peasant medicine, represented through collected stories, artwork, objects and modelled scenes.[My Haute-Loire]myhauteloire.frOpen source on myhauteloire.fr.

Its evidence base is oral history rather than proof of supernatural events. The museum explains that much of its material derives from interviews with elderly people who had lived in isolated farms on the Velay plateaux and recalled stories heard in childhood. This gives the displays value as records of memory, fear and local storytelling, even where the creatures or magical acts described cannot be treated as factual.[Musée des Croyances Populaires]museedescroyancespopulaires.comOpen source on museedescroyancespopulaires.com.

Visitors should therefore read its witches, revenants and werewolves as parts of a regional belief system. The museum preserves how communities explained illness, misfortune, strange noises, dangerous landscapes and social outsiders. Its handcrafted, personal character also distinguishes it from a heavily funded ethnographic institution: the interpretation is curator-led, evocative and folkloric rather than detached or encyclopaedic.

France’s most famous dedicated witchcraft attraction was once the Musée de la Sorcellerie at Concressault in Berry. It used staged figures, mythical plants and rural imagery to present both fantasy and the region’s reputation for sorcery. However, evidence from former listings and visitor notices indicates that the attraction closed after failing to secure a buyer. Current pages that still repeat old seasonal opening information should be treated cautiously, and travellers should not plan around it without direct confirmation.[Tripadvisor]tripadvisor.co.ukTripadvisor MUSÉE DE LA SORCELLERIETripadvisor MUSÉE DE LA SORCELLERIE

The disappearance of the Berry museum is itself revealing. Small private museums often depend on one collector, one property and one generation of management. When they close, collections may be sold, dispersed or simply vanish from public view.

Crime, prisons and uncomfortable archives

The Museum of the Paris Police Prefecture traces famous criminal cases, political conspiracies, policing methods and the development of forensic identification. Its displays connect sensational cases with institutional history, including the work of Alphonse Bertillon, whose systems of bodily measurement and police photography played a major role in early forensic classification.[GoExpo]go-expo.frOpen source on go-expo.fr.

This kind of collection requires more care than a “true crime” attraction. Weapons, photographs and case objects may illuminate policing and criminology, but they can also turn victims into background detail or present official institutions uncritically. The most useful reading asks not only how crimes were solved, but how evidence was produced, how suspects were classified and how police authority was represented.

France once had a National Prison Museum at Fontainebleau, but it closed and its collections ceased to function as a conventional visitor attraction. French prison history is now more fragmented across archives, heritage sites, specialist institutions and digital projects. Criminocorpus, for example, has developed a digital museum approach to the history of justice and punishment, allowing documents and prison heritage to be interpreted without pretending that a single national prison museum remains open.[OpenEdition Journals]journals.openedition.orgOpen source on openedition.org.

Outsider art and visionary environments

France also preserves strangeness through art made beyond conventional academies and galleries. The term “art brut”, coined by Jean Dubuffet, has been applied to work by self-taught creators, psychiatric patients, spiritualists and others considered outside established artistic culture. The label is influential but contested because it groups together people whose circumstances, intentions and identities may have little in common.[Le Monde.fr]lemonde.frLe Monde.fr'Art brut' to the point of saturation at the Grand PalaisArt brut"—a term coined by Jean Dubuffet—refers to art created by individuals outside mainstream cultural and artistic training, includi…

The LaM at Villeneuve-d’Ascq, near Lille, is one of Europe’s major museums combining modern art, contemporary art and art brut. Its holdings exceed 9,000 works and include the important collection assembled by the L’Aracine association. Following an eighteen-month renovation, the museum reopened on 20 February 2026.[euoffice.lillemetropole.fr]euoffice.lillemetropole.frafter year and half renovations lille metropoles museum modern art reopensafter year and half renovations lille metropoles museum modern art reopens

The art-brut galleries belong in France’s curiosity landscape because many works contain private cosmologies, obsessive diagrams, invented scripts, visions, spirit communications or elaborate alternative worlds. Yet they should not be reduced to “mad art” or displayed merely as psychological curiosities. Responsible curation treats the makers as artists and individuals rather than medical cases.

Visionary sites created outside the museum system form a related tradition. Ferdinand Cheval’s Palais Idéal, built over decades by a rural postman from stones collected on his route, is perhaps the best-known example. Such environments blur architecture, sculpture, dream imagery and personal mythology. They demonstrate that unusual French collections are not always assembled in glass cases; sometimes the collection becomes an entire building.

What Makes France's Strangest Museums So... illustration 3

Mummies, human remains and hidden collections

The French National Museum of Natural History holds a substantial mummy collection comprising 63 complete mummies, including Egyptian and South American examples, as well as isolated heads and other human remains. Not all of this material is necessarily on permanent public display, and a collection catalogue should not be confused with a promise that every object can be seen during a normal visit.[Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle]mnhn.frOpen source on mnhn.fr.

Such holdings reflect older scientific, archaeological and colonial collecting systems. Mummified bodies were once moved, studied and displayed with limited regard for the wishes of descendant communities. Contemporary museums increasingly face questions about consent, provenance, repatriation and whether human remains should be presented as specimens, ancestors or sacred persons.

France’s former Musée Dupuytren provides a cautionary example. The Paris pathological-anatomy museum closed in 2016, removing its extensive collection of diseased organs, skeletons and congenital abnormalities from ordinary public access. Debate surrounding its legacy concerns not only conservation but the ethics of displaying anonymous human material gathered under medical authority.[The Public Domain Review]publicdomainreview.orgmusee dupuytren cataloguemusee dupuytren catalogue

A closed museum has not necessarily lost its collection. Objects may survive in university storage, research facilities or successor institutions, but their public status changes. Older travel guides frequently fail to make this distinction.

What visitors should verify

France’s unusual museums vary more than standard attraction lists suggest. Before travelling, readers should check four points.

  • Public status: Determine whether the site is a state museum, private attraction, hospital collection, shop, archive or former museum.
  • Access arrangements: Specialist medical collections and private museums may require booking, guided visits or attendance on designated heritage days.
  • Current operation: Small museums can close without outdated tourism pages being removed. The former Paris vampire museum, for example, is listed by stronger current directories as permanently closed despite older pages discussing possible reopening.[World In Paris]worldinparis.comWorld In Paris The Vampire Museum in Paris (Musée des VampiresWorld In Paris The Vampire Museum in Paris (Musée des Vampires
  • Type of claim: A folklore museum documents belief; it does not authenticate magic. A stage-magic museum preserves illusion; it does not claim supernatural powers. An anatomical museum displays scientific preparations, though modern ethical standards may challenge how they were acquired or shown.

The strongest French collections are usually honest about their identity. The Musée Fragonard is an academic anatomical museum. The Catacombs are an ossuary and historic monument. The Museum of Popular Beliefs stages remembered folklore. The Musée des Arts Forains is a private, theatrical collection in which historic entertainment machines still perform.

Why France’s curiosity culture matters

France’s strange museums reveal a long tension between wonder and order. The cabinet of curiosities placed marvels side by side; scientific institutions later separated them into anatomy, pathology, zoology, archaeology and technology. Modern private museums often reverse that process, recombining art, spectacle, folklore and mechanical illusion to produce surprise.

They also show how the meaning of an object changes with its setting. Bones can become a memorial wall, a medical specimen or an archaeological record. A stuffed animal can be a hunting trophy, a biological example or a contemporary artwork. A witch figure can represent persecution, regional folklore, feminist reclamation or tourist fantasy. A clockwork body can be studied as engineering while still retaining the uncanny impression of simulated life.

For strange-history travellers, France is therefore less a land of isolated novelty museums than a layered landscape of collecting traditions. Its most memorable sites preserve not only unusual things, but competing ways of deciding what those things mean: evidence, relic, artwork, specimen, entertainment, warning, legend or wonder.

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Endnotes

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Il fût rendu célèbre par le premier dermatologue qui y fût affecté: Jean Louis Alibert, charismatique, celui-ci, bâti sa réputation grâc...

45. Source: hopital-saintlouis.aphp.fr
Link:https://hopital-saintlouis.aphp.fr/journees-europeennes-du-patrimoine-a-lhopital-saint-louis/

46. Source: thetimes.com
Title: The Times Welcome back to the empire of death: Paris catacombs to reopen
Link:https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/catacombs-paris-reopen-bpfgt59fg

Source snippet

Isabelle Knafou, the catacombs' administrator, emphasized the importance of preserving the site’s solemn atmosphere. A comforting audio g...

47. Source: secretsofparis.com
Title: Secrets of Paris Visiting the Reopened Paris Catacombes
Link:https://secretsofparis.com/sightseeing/museums-monuments/how-to-avoid-lines-at-the-paris-catacombes/

48. Source: museedelamagie.com
Link:https://museedelamagie.com/

49. Source: chassenature.org
Title: Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature Le Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature à Paris
Link:https://www.chassenature.org/en/le-musee

50. Source: lemonde.fr
Link:https://www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/article/2026/05/08/annette-messager-s-a-swallow-does-not-make-spring-exhibition-brings-her-menagerie-to-life-at-the-musee-de-la-chasse-et-de-la-nature_6753254_30.html

51. Source: myhauteloire.fr
Link:https://www.myhauteloire.fr/en/cultural-heritage/museum-of-popular-beliefs/

52. Source: museedescroyancespopulaires.com
Link:https://www.museedescroyancespopulaires.com/

53. Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
Title: Tripadvisor MUSÉE DE LA SORCELLERIE
Link:https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g1820345-d6984721-Reviews-Musee_de_la_Sorcellerie-Blancafort_Cher_Berry_Centre_Val_de_Loire.html

54. Source: go-expo.fr
Link:https://go-expo.fr/expo/collections-permanentes-musee-de-la-prefecture-de-police

55. Source: lemonde.fr
Title: Le Monde.fr’Art brut’ to the point of saturation at the Grand Palais
Link:https://www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/article/2025/07/05/art-brut-to-the-point-of-saturation-at-the-grand-palais_6743064_30.html

Source snippet

"Art brut"—a term coined by Jean Dubuffet—refers to art created by individuals outside mainstream cultural and artistic training, includi...

56. Source: mnhn.fr
Link:https://www.mnhn.fr/en/mummy-collection

57. Source: publicdomainreview.org
Title: musee dupuytren catalogue
Link:https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/musee-dupuytren-catalogue/

58. Source: worldinparis.com
Title: World In Paris The Vampire Museum in Paris (Musée des Vampires)
Link:https://worldinparis.com/secret-paris-vampire-museum

59. Source: offi.fr
Title: Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature
Link:https://www.offi.fr/expositions-musees/musee-de-la-chasse-et-de-la-nature-1772.html

60. Source: hopital-saintlouis.aphp.fr
Title: jep 2022
Link:https://hopital-saintlouis.aphp.fr/jep-2022/

61. Source: hopital-saintlouis.aphp.fr
Title: fr Histoire du Musée des Moulages | Hôpital Saint-Louis
Link:https://hopital-saintlouis.aphp.fr/histoire-du-musee-des-moulages

62. Source: facebook.com
Link:https://www.facebook.com/MuseedelaSorcellerie/albums/410316301206206/

63. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Cabinet of curiosities
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_curiosities

64. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Musée des Arts Forains
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_des_Arts_Forains

65. Source: chassenature.org
Title: Le Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature à Paris
Link:https://www.chassenature.org/le-musee

66. Source: chassenature.org
Link:https://www.chassenature.org/

67. Source: chassenature.org
Link:https://www.chassenature.org/en

68. Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
Title: MUSEU M OF MAGIC
Link:https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g187147-d1022207-Reviews-Museum_of_Magic-Paris_Ile_de_France.html

69. Source: parisjetaime.com
Title: Museums and monuments open
Link:https://parisjetaime.com/eng/article/museums-and-monuments-open-on-public-holidays-in-the-month-of-may-a1018

70. Source: parisjetaime.com
Title: Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature
Link:https://parisjetaime.com/eng/culture/musee-de-la-chasse-et-de-la-nature-p997

71. Source: parisjetaime.com
Title: Musée de l’Histoire de la Médecine
Link:https://parisjetaime.com/culture/musee-de-l-histoire-de-la-medecine-p976

72. Source: parisjetaime.com
Title: Annette Messager
Link:https://parisjetaime.com/eng/event/exhibition-a-swallow-does-not-make-spring-annette-messager-e2376

73. Source: parisjetaime.com
Title: Musée des moulages de l’hôpital Saint-Louis
Link:https://parisjetaime.com/culture/musee-des-moulages-de-l-hopital-saint-louis-p1062

74. Source: parisjetaime.com
Link:https://parisjetaime.com/eng/culture/musee-de-la-prefecture-de-police-p1067

75. Source: parisjetaime.com
Title: Musée des moulages de l’hôpital Saint-Louis
Link:https://parisjetaime.com/eng/culture/musee-des-moulages-de-l-hopital-saint-louis-p1062

76. Source: parisjetaime.com
Link:https://parisjetaime.com/spa/cultura/musee-de-la-prefecture-de-police-p1067

77. Source: parisjetaime.com
Title: Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature
Link:https://parisjetaime.com/culture/musee-de-la-chasse-et-de-la-nature-p997

78. Source: parisjetaime.com
Title: Musée de l’Histoire de la Médecine
Link:https://parisjetaime.com/spa/cultura/musee-de-l-histoire-de-la-medecine-p976

79. Source: centrepompidou.fr
Link:https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/lieu/lam

80. Source: aphp.fr
Title: Musée de l’AP-HP | APHPMUSÉE DE L’AP-HP Adresse Hôpital Bicêtre
Link:https://www.aphp.fr/musee

81. Source: pantou.org
Title: Musée de la Sorcellerie
Link:https://pantou.org/mus%C3%A9e-de-la-sorcellerie

82. Source: sortiraparis.com
Title: The Musée des Arts Forains
Link:https://www.sortiraparis.com/en/what-to-visit-in-paris/exhibit-museum/articles/170547-le-musee-des-arts-forains-pavillon-de-bercy-an-unusual-and-enchanting-museum-in-paris

83. Source: hotelkanai.com
Title: the lam
Link:https://www.hotelkanai.com/en/passeport-lille/the-lam

84. Source: lemonastiersurgazeille.fr
Link:https://lemonastiersurgazeille.fr/a-voir-a-faire/musee-des-croyances-populaires/

Additional References

85. Source: journeesdupatrimoine.culture.gouv.fr
Link:https://journeesdupatrimoine.culture.gouv.fr/w/391796/evenement/19963434/visite-dune-collection-de-cires-pathologiques

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Si ces derniers ne font plus partie aujourd’hui des supports d’enseignement de la dermatologie, ils restent un élément déterminant de l’h...

86. Source: youtube.com
Title: The haunting history of the Paris Catacombs
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngarNTPMclE

Source snippet

Annette Messager at the Museum of Hunting and Nature...

87. Source: sortiraparis.com
Link:https://www.sortiraparis.com/en/what-to-visit-in-paris/exhibit-museum/guides/52393-may-8-2026-museums-and-monuments-open-on-this-public-holiday-in-paris-and-ile-de-france

88. Source: artbrut.ch
Link:https://artbrut.ch/en/art-brut-in-the-world

89. Source: lecomptoirgeneral.com
Link:https://lecomptoirgeneral.com/en/magazine/fishing-nature/article/cabinets-of-curiosities/

90. Source: philharmoniedeparis.fr
Link:https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/fr/musee-de-la-musique/histoire-du-musee

91. Source: paris-conciergerie.fr
Link:https://www.paris-conciergerie.fr/en/discover/history-of-the-conciergerie

92. Source: gevangenismuseum.nl
Link:https://gevangenismuseum.nl/en/info-for-the-english-visitors/

93. Source: instagram.com
Link:https://www.instagram.com/p/DYfOsTugCvU/

94. Source: eumiesawards.com
Link:https://eumiesawards.com/heritageobject/lam–lille-museum-of-modern-contemporary-and-outsider-art/