Going past the handsome building that houses the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (the strangely named Museum of Hunting and Nature), we imagined a place filled with stuffed animals and insects pinned under glass. Well be prepared to be surprised!

Run by the Fondation François Sommer, the museum’s collections are recognised as “national treasures” by the state, and the approach is through modern art, like the photo exhibition by our friend Yury Toroptsov that we’ve mentioned previously on the blog.

Read on for our surprising visit.

photos : JasonW

We discovered the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature for the first time during a Nuits des Musées event when museums stay open late. It was a very odd evening, with young actors disguised as animals hopiing around all the rooms and reading strange bits of poetry.

It was immediately obvious that this was not your usual kind of museum. In a beautiful building in the Marais, it mixes animals and animal-inspired contemporary art, often with surprising results.

At the beginning of our visit we came nose to nose with intriguing sculptures and photos by Julien Salaud. These embroidered stags were designed to fit in with the room’s four tapestries dating from 1728. Photos in another room show the genesis of the project (and, for some reason, a scantily-clad young man stuck in a giant spider’s web).
Another room has the spectacular installations by Irish artist Claire Morgan, mixing stuffed animals with geometric structures.
Other rooms also cleverly mix old and new, always around the theme of animals.
Certain rooms have a theme, like dogs or birds…
Others go for a more classic presentation, although with a slight twist.
And then just when you feel like your back in a standard museum, you’ll come across a room that’s completely crazy, brimming with kitsch colours and full of… monkeys!
And just a couple of rooms away from that, cleverly hiding the fire escape door, is Mark Dion‘s log cabin of curiosities…
And even if you don’t like all the exhibits, the building itself is pretty lovely.
Get ready for a new kind of experience then, a dreamlike adventure through a weird kind of nature. The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature has plenty to entertain for both kids and adults. recommended!

The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (here) is open every day except Mondays from 11am – 6pm (9.30pm Wednesdays). Last ticket 30 minutes before closing

Admission: 8€ / 6€

Website (no English): www.chassenature.org

Facebook: facebook.com/MuseeChasseNature

To check out all our photos of the museum, click here.