The best museums Réunion

Opened in 1992, then rehabilitated from 2011 to 2014, this science museum is a modern, family-oriented and fun discovery space. Inside, models, interactive terminals, video screens allow you to live the experience of the volcano! You will discover the reproduction of a lava tunnel, a panoramic projection room, a dynamic 4D cinema, a bathyscaphe and many holographic devices. It is the geological history of Reunion Island that you will remember: from the first eruptions at sea to the formation of today's Intense Island!

Nestled in the district of Piton Saint-Leu, the museum tells, with a lot of originality, the history of the island. A history marked by the work of slaves and those engaged in the transformation of cane into sugar, and today by the fate of the workers who lived at the pace of this factory, closed in the 1970s. The content is truly interactive and at the cutting edge of technology with amusing and very successful holograms that explain, for example, the process of sugar crystallization. Allow at least half a day for a visit.

This museum owes its existence to two Reunionese, Georges Athenas and Alexandre Merlot, who decided in 1912 to collect works and open a museum in their home town in honour of Léon Dierx, the famous local poet who died that year. In this superb Creole hut you can see a few sketches by Gauguin, a Chagall, a self-portrait by Vollard, paintings by Vuillard, Rouault, Caillebotte, Bourdelle, Carrière, Guillaumin... The curator regularly proposes temporary exhibitions. We never tire of them.

This 18th century estate, classified as a historical monument, breathes the history of coffee growing in Bourbon. It consists of a mansion with a huge courtyard. It includes a museum dedicated to furniture, textiles, porcelain and other art objects from Reunion and the Indian Ocean. In the store, you can buy beautifully crafted products in limited series and made with inspiration from the museum's works.

Located in the heart of the famous Isautier distillery created in 1845, the Saga of Rum is the only museum dedicated to rum in Reunion Island. Thanks to exhibition spaces and short films, you can discover the history and the successive stages of rum production. From elevated walkways, one can observe machines, stills and distillation columns. The visit ends at the "Dépôt de Rhum", a store fitted out as a Creole village where you can find all the ranges of rums and liqueurs, as well as local products from Reunion Island.

Located in the commune of Saint-Paul, Réunion's first "site-museum", built on a vast colonial estate, evokes the prosperity of a Creole family who left their mark on the island's history in the ^17th and ^19th centuries, during the era of slavery. This illustrious family, who built a sugar factory on their estate in Villèle in 1827, contributed to the island's economic development under the leadership of^Mme Desbassayns (1755-1846), an emblematic and highly controversial figure in Reunionese history. Her death marked the end of the estate's prosperity, which passed to the heirs, the fruit of an alliance with a noble family from Toulouse, the Villèle family. The guided tour takes in the master's house (where temporary educational, historical and artistic exhibitions take place), the master's kitchen outside the main building, the slave hospital (where a memorial was inaugurated in 1996) and the remains of the sugar factory. Finally, you can discover the small Pointed Chapel, built on a small hill between 1841 and 1843, a place of worship and the scene of the evangelization of the estate's slaves. The Musée de Villèle also boasts a number of collections, including period furniture, model ships, silverware, prints and lithographs... A fascinating visit that leaves no visitor indifferent. Educational tours are also organized.

Here is a small museum dedicated to the history of salt in Reunion Island. Perched on the magnificent site of the Pointe au Sel (which alone is worth the detour), this establishment offers an educational stroll through amusing questions and answers: why does the salary come from the word "salt"? Why is sea water salty? A twenty-minute film will be shown to you on your arrival and will retrace the interesting history of these places. We advise you to call beforehand to check the opening of the museum.

Situated in a superb mid-19th century Creole house, renovated and modified between 1987 and 1991, the mission of this art library is to promote contemporary art in Reunion Island by encouraging local and regional artists. You have to go there, if only for the place, which regularly hosts temporary exhibitions (vernissages are often great festive moments, with music, stories, etc.). The specialised library has 2,000 items, which it lends to art lovers for a minimum of €15 per year.

Located in the State Garden, this museum occupies the premises of the former Legislative Palace, a historic monument in colonial style built in 1834. Focused on biodiversity, it exhibits the flora and fauna of the islands of the southwestern Indian Ocean, including a beautiful collection of naturalized Malagasy lemurs on the first floor. The main attraction of the museum is undoubtedly the coelacanth, a fish from the Mozambique Channel. A good refreshment would do it good.

True Ali Baba's cave, this small museum retraces through objects of daily life, the Creole life of yesteryear, from slavery to the present day: period radios, irons, telephones, clocks, sewing machines... Some of these witnesses of the evolution of our lifestyles are more than two centuries old. The place is a bit absurd, but you can easily spend two or even three hours there in the company of the owner, Claude Govindin, a friendly Creole with a white moustache. A passionate collector.

Symbolically inaugurated on December 20, 2010, the anniversary of the abolition of slavery, the Ecomusée du Tévelave houses numerous utensils from Lontan Reunion Island collected by the passionate collector Dany Lepinay. Carpenters' tools, irons from the colonial period, mini stills, perfume flasks or toilet utensils... the whole social history of the 20th century in the Hauts region is open to you and reminds you that it is not so far away. Each object is carefully highlighted and illuminated by historical explanations.