Postal Museum

About

Philatelist Arthur Maury proposed founding a postal museum after the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris. Eugène Vaillé revived the idea in 1936, and a decree establishing the museum was issued on August 20, 1943, with Vaillé heading its governing council. The museum first opened on June 4, 1946, as the "Musée Postal de France," housed in the Hôtel de Choiseul-Praslin in Paris's 6th arrondissement. A new building was constructed between 1969 and 1972 in the Necker district near Montparnasse, and the museum reopened there on December 18, 1973, inaugurated by Postal Minister Hubert Germain, at what is now 34 Boulevard de Vaugirard in the 15th arrondissement. Designed by architect André Chatelin in the Brutalist style, the building is notable for its concrete relief façade by sculptor Robert Juvin, evoking the engraving of a postage stamp. The museum closed in 2015 for extensive architectural and curatorial restructuring, reopening on November 23, 2019; in 2021 its façade received the "Remarkable Contemporary Architecture" label. The permanent exhibition unfolds across three floors around a central "Totem," presenting postal route maps, postal workers' uniforms, original stamp designs, stamps, and mail art that trace the history of the French postal service and its philatelic heritage.