National Museum of Natural History, Paris

France's national collection, rich in historic French falls such as L'Aigle, Chassigny and Orgueil.

Key facts

Where

Paris, France

Kind

Museum

Visiting

Public galleries

The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle holds one of the largest and oldest meteorite collections in the world, with several thousand specimens. It is especially rich in French meteorites, several of which changed the science.

In 1803 a shower of some 3,000 stones fell at L'Aigle in Normandy. The physicist Jean-Baptiste Biot investigated for the French Academy of Sciences, and his report finally persuaded scientists that stones fall from the sky; many L'Aigle stones are in Paris. Chassigny, which fell in 1815, is the type specimen of the chassignites, one of the three main families of Martian meteorites. Orgueil, a shower of black, crumbly stones that fell in 1864, is a CI carbonaceous chondrite, the rare kind whose make-up matches the Sun's, and the museum holds a large share of it.

The collection supports active research in cosmochemistry, and it lends meteorites to exhibitions across France.

Highlights

• L'Aigle the fall of 1803 L6
• Chassigny Martian, type specimen of the chassignites Martian (chassignite)
• Orgueil CI chondrite CI1

Related pages

Opening times, what is on display and access to research collections change over time, so check with the institution before you visit.