Musée de La Poste (Musée Postal), Paris

The Musée Postal, still widely known as the Musée de La Poste, is France's museum of postal history and stamps at 34 Boulevard de Vaugirard in Paris's 15th arrondissement, 300 m from Gare Montparnasse. It suits stamp collectors, families and travellers with an hour or two before a train.

From the Hôtel de Choiseul-Praslin to André Chatelin's building

The museum was inaugurated on 4 June 1946 as the Musée postal de France, in the Hôtel de Choiseul-Praslin on Rue Saint-Romain. It moved to a purpose-built building designed by André Chatelin, built between 1969 and 1972 and opened on 18 December 1973. It closed in 2015 for a full redevelopment and reopened on 23 November 2019 under the name Musée Postal. Its facade received the Architecture contemporaine remarquable label in 2021.

Three floors on messengers, mail transport and postmen

The permanent exhibition spreads over three floors and follows written communication from the first messengers to the present day: letter writing, the transport of mail by horse, rail, road and air, and the daily work of postmen, shown through uniforms, tools, letter boxes and vehicles.

Philately is a major theme. A stamp room shows about 3,500 French postage stamps arranged by date and theme, and the museum looks after the state's archives on stamp production. Its holdings run to more than 1.2 million items, searchable online.

Stamp engravers and Laurent Pernot in late 2026

In late 2026 the Galerie Marianne shows De l'acier au papier, photographs by Sophie Brändström of the people who make engraved stamps: illustrators, engravers, printers and collectors. The artist Laurent Pernot's Éclats d'amour, built from old letters in the collection, looks at love in wartime from the Siege of Paris onward. Weekend guided tours, philatelic tours and workshops for children run through November 2026. The museum also runs a €15,000 photography prize on the contemporary postal world.