Visiting the Museum of Musical Instruments
Nestled in the foothills of the Alps, our little village of Thollon is ideally placed for exploring the romantic shores of Lake Geneva and the rugged mountains that surround it.
This little gem of a museum is almost on our doorstep, in Les Gets, and is well worth a visit. On the way, you can admire the stunning scenery and stop at one of the little cafes or restaurants that dot the roadside.
Musical Marvels
If you’re traveling from the lakeside, take the ‘Route des Grandes Alpes’ and head through spectacular mountain scenery to Les Gets for a visit to the Museum of Mechanical Music. Small museums and landscape gardens were amongst the first businesses allowed to reopen after the pandemic in France. Most are run by volunteers and struggled to survive without visitor income.
This ultra-modern museum, housed in one of the oldest buildings in Les Gets, is home to a collection of over 800 musical marvels. It’s the largest collection in Europe. Every form of honky-tonk piano, ghost accordion, and phantom violin is represented and all are in full working order.
Ever wondered who the mother of the Wurlitzer was? Well, she’s here, in the form of giant circular metal discs pierced at strategic points, playing lively polkas and whirling waltzes to turn of the century pleasure seekers. From jazz to alpine melodies, from tiny delicate musical boxes to giant, colourful fairground organs they’re all here and the best thing is….. you get to hear them all.
My favourite? It has to be the huge Belgian dancehall extravaganza. This incredible organ was built in the 1950s in Antwerp. It’s painted in ice-cream colours with neon lighting, and it’s fronted by two Belgian saxophones, alongside mechanical accordions, trumpets, drums, and percussion. It’s a Saturday night at the ‘bal populaire’ kind of beast that could certainly tell a story or two.
On the next visit
When we visited, only half of the museum was open to visitors. We weren’t able to see the collection of the earliest gramophones or visit the ‘Salle des Machines Parlantes’ with the first reproduction of the human voice. I would also have loved to see the automatons from the shop windows of the Faubourg St Honoré in Paris with their fairy story and Jules Verne themes. Still, that’s a good reason for a second visit sometime in the future!
Current opening times: Check the website for opening hours
Entrance fee: Adult 9 Euros, Child 5 Euros
Full details at www. http://www.musicmecalesgets.org/
