Muséum d'histoire naturelle — Attraction in Geneva

I would have rated this actually nice place in a much better way if it wasn't the stupidity of the two guards ( the ones who were there at 15:40 , today, 7th July). When my daughter and me entered the place , we had her mini scooter ( trotinette in French) , which I wanted to fold and carry myself ( I even had a special bag for this in my backpack but the ignorant man didn't even give me any chance to explain it!) . One of these two guards was already on duty at the entrance and as said , he didn't give me any chance to explain myself. He said : " You have to leave the scooter upstairs!" , I replied : " Ok, is it at least secure?" , he said sharply : " I don't guarantee you that it won't disappear in thirty seconds". I was shocjed by this answer , I immediately told him : " This scooter can be small and foldable but costs a good money , how come you a guard cannot guarantee that it is not safe and I still am supposed to leave it there?!? " . After this question , he suddenly decided that we could leave the mini scooter in a cabine which was full with a stuff from the Museum. After more or less one hour, we were going outside because my three years daughter was hungry . My idea was to go outside , eat the snack sitting next to the Entrance door if Museum and then just come back to see more. I passed by the guards saying : " We are outside sitting next to the door , my kid will eat her snack and we are back". Already the both "hard-working creatures" started saying : " Nooo, you have to take the mini scooter with you and we are already closing in less than an hour....Bye bye"I was even more shocked than before!!! First the Museum closes 17 pm and they start announcing it at 16h45 pm ( the first announcement is in German, my child and me, we have been many times to the Museum before) . Second, have we given them too much work?!?I wanted to go back after my girl's snack time!! We were practically expelled!!! I just have one thing to say : Gentlemen from 15h40 , 7th July, please do a huge favour to Geneva's society and you , too : quit your jobs immediately and give them to somebody who actually wants to work! You are anyway useless, rude and ruthless. I don't know why the direction of such a nice place like Museum , wants to keep...

Though we didn’t make around the whole museum due to my son teething terribly I will so my best to review what we did see, because up until the point of very sorrowful tears we had found it to be one of the better museums in the city. First of all it is quite noticeable that this is the place to go if you have children, most notably because the access was very easy for those with buggy’s and the cloak room was also full of them though you could easily take the through almost all the exhibits because of a large lift. Because of the family friendly nature though don’t expect the usual quiet and somber museum experience, we had one birthday party happening there and a school trip. Not that either were a bother. Secondly the displays were excellent! Nice low windows for the kids and wide open “habitats” with not only a large range of animals on the first floor but so so many of each! I have to say though some have obviously been in the collection for longer than others as they weren’t quite as convincing, but probably just amusing for us adults. Cafe looked great, clean and lots of space, nothing fancy. Cloak room as seems to be the way here is unmanned but I felt safe leaving our things seeing as it was all families wandering around. And lastly Janus the two headed tortoise was happily munching away easily seen by everyone. Will definitely do again when the whole of our party is feeling a little...

Weirdly hostile to kids, considering it is a kids’ museum. We have enjoyed this museum a lot over the last few years before closure, particularly on Sunday when not much else is open. But the experience is always slightly tense as we wonder whether our child will receive a telling-off from the staff. It is the same experience in most cultural institutions in Geneva, who seem to think it is appropriate to make children feel unwelcome and on edge simply for being a child and being present. My child and his friend, who love looking at the animals in this museum and are excited and happy during their visits, have been told no running (while they have been sitting down), no climbing (before the age when they could even walk), and chastised for various other transgressions that that they have not yet undertaken but possibly could in the future simply because they are children. The experience is sadly similar in most other cultural institutions in Geneva. They need a fundamental rethink about their attitude to children, stop telling them off simply for looking and behaving like children, and treat them with a little more respect. That is how to ensure they will treat you with respect and courtesy when they are...