Muséum de Toulouse

The Muséum de Toulouse holds one of France's major natural history collections outside Paris, and its roots go back to the years just after the Revolution, when the naturalist Philippe Picot de Lapeyrouse began assembling specimens in the city. In the nineteenth century it became an early centre for the new science of prehistory, and archaeologists such as Émile Cartailhac worked closely with its collections.

Today the museum combines its historic building beside the Jardin des Plantes with a contemporary extension. Displays range across zoology, mineralogy, palaeontology and prehistory, with skeletons, fossils, minerals and mounted animals presented to show how living things relate to one another and to their environments. The museum also runs botanical gardens on a separate site in the north of the city.

It draws more than 300,000 visitors a year and suits families as well as adults with a particular interest in the natural sciences.