Musée des Arts et Métiers

The Musée des Arts et Métiers is housed within the medieval priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, where the quiet, vaulted space of a former church now contains a collection of monumental machines. Established in seventeen ninety-four during the French Revolution, the museum was conceived as a repository for scientific instruments and useful inventions. Today, it preserves some eighty thousand objects, including the original plaster model of the Statue of Liberty and pioneering aircraft like Louis Blériot’s monoplane.