Musée des Arts et Métiers
A 1794 science-and-industry collection set in the former priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, with early flying machines shown in its old church.
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The Conservatoire's collection fills the former priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, its largest objects kept inside the old church. Of more than 80,000 items, about 2,500 are on display — from an original Foucault pendulum to Bartholdi's own model of the Statue of Liberty.
What to look for
- Clément Ader's Avion III and Louis Blériot's Blériot XI, kept in the former church
- Cugnot's 1770 Fardier — the first self-propelled vehicle — and Pascal's Pascaline calculating machine
Métro station "Arts et Métiers," entrance at the corner of Rue Réaumur and Rue Vaucanson.
Musée des Arts et Métiers is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Paris, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Paris pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Paris
- Eiffel TowerThe 300-metre iron tower Parisian artists petitioned against before it was even finished.
- Louvre MuseumThe world's most-visited museum lives inside a 12th-century fortress that became a royal palace.
- Notre-Dame de ParisThe spire fell on live TV in April 2019; since December 2024 you can walk back inside.
- Musée d'OrsayVan Gogh and Monet hung inside a Beaux-Arts station built for the Paris–Orléans railway.
- Champs-ÉlyséesA single 1.9-km straight line runs from the Concorde obelisk to the Arc de Triomphe — Paris's ceremonial spine on the Axe historique.
- Place de la BastilleThe prison that lit a revolution is gone — and the mob that stormed it on 14 July 1789 came for gunpowder, not the seven forgotten men inside.