Musée des Arts et Métiers — Attraction in Paris

This is a truly amazing collection of historical technological items; budget at least 3 hours if you want to read signs and learn how some of the items work. The visual display is done very well. But — the audio guide was INCREDIBLY painful. In the English version it was extremely sexist; I felt like I was being mansplained to for most audio clips. There was a female voice asking curious questions and exclaiming in amazement, and the male voice was giving all of the information, explaining the items to her. Another problem is that there were very few child audio guide items. We were looking around for audio numbers for my seven year-old, and there were some rooms with none, and some very famous big items with no child friendly commentary. Furthermore, the numbers for the adult and child guides were very often not in front of the actual objects the audio guide was talking about. I had to look around the display case and pay attention to clues from the audio guide as to how the object was supposed to look in order to find the thing we were talking about. Finally, the audio guide referenced other items in the room for comparison, and it was impossible to find those items based on the location or description. My guess is that the audio guide is very old, items have been moved around since it was created, and gender awareness was not as much of a concern in STEM...

The museum's treasures trace the history of technology since the 16th century in seven areas: scientific instruments, materials, construction, communication, energy, mechanics and transport. The former abbey of Saint-Martin-des-Champs serves as a showcase for the collections, presented chronologically. Visitors will discover a charming automaton from 1784, La Joueuse de tympanon, the unmissable Foucault Pendulum (1851) and an aeroplane from 1897. The visit ends... in the Arts et Métiers metro station, inspired by Jules Verne's Nautilus. A lot of things to see and understand. I hope you love to see how things work and the machinery involved in it. This was a treat for me as I loved to see the Lumière brothers' camera, the first plane to take off or the ancestor of the automobile dating from the reign of Louis XV, the greatest inventions, those which have revolutionized our civilization, can be found at the Museum of Arts and Crafts. It'll take a while, but do read and navigate through the fabulous inventory of 80,000 objects and 15,000 technical drawings, organized into seven thematic collections: scientific instruments, materials, construction, communication, energy, mechanics...

Technically Arts et Metiers translates as Arts & Crafts but this museum is more of a progression of technology through the ages with links to France (although this was not prevalent throughout). Exhibits includes examples of clocks, weaving machines, water power to steam power to nuclear power plants, computers and the like. The re-furbished church as an vaulted exhibit space is quite cool...with planes and cars on display and means to walk to the top and oversea the old main church area.

If you are into this kind of gizmos and tactile items (like I am) then it is cool...if not and you prefer fine arts then you don't need to see this one.

TIME: I would allocate between 1 and 1/2 hours for this visit.

NOTE: I erred and started my visit on the 2nd floor. Make sure to go to the top (3rd) floor and then progress along the route which ensures you see the entire exhibition...including the re-furbished church.

NOTE: I visited on a Friday during May. There were ALOT of young ones running around as I imagine it was the time of year when school trips are in session. This museum is a good one for young and...