Last updated on 10 January 2025
Great museums are great places of discovery and always provide quality support to discuss a multitude of topics with its students.
On-site visit where possible, virtual tours of major museums, animations, … books there are many entrance doors. But this time, I do not propose to open your eyes wide, but rather to close them and listen.
Listen to museums through a selection of the best podcasts of French museums. Another way ofexplore these cultural spaces.
Table of Contents
The best podcasts of museums
Fascinating stories and inspiring interviews with curators, artists and art experts.
From in-depth analyses of exhibitions to untold narratives behind works of art, each episode offers you a unique audio guided tour and original. A diveee in the rich history of art, from archaeology to natural sciences. I chose them because they are suitable for a young audience.
1- Podcasts of the Museum of Natural History
These podcasts offer an audio tour of the Natural History Museum, allowing young listeners to discover the fauna, flora and natural history. Exploration fun and exciting topics such as paleontology, ethnology and zoology.
Two series are particularly successful. “Bestioles”, a podcast on the animal world for children produced with France Inter and “Curieux des Sciences” which aims to put science at the level of a child. Find here all the podcasts of the Natural History Museum.
2- The podcasts of the Louvre Museum
The Louvre multimedia portal, which is particularly well stocked, offers you a section of podcasts of high quality.
I advise you to dive into the podcast series “Les recherches du Louvre”. Remarkably written and directed by Martin Quenehen with the voice of Romane Bohringer, these podcasts have fun mixing art and crime … The recipe works wonderfully.
On the agenda of this series of extraordinary investigations: crimes, thefts, kidnappings, poisonings … The works of the museum are used to support real police investigations carried out by the voice of Romane Bohringer. Formidable. Listen to the podcasts of the Louvre.
3- Podcasts for children at the Musée d’Orsay
The most beautiful of Parisian museums has also planned a whole series of resources for young visitors. Among them, the podcast “Les promenades imaginaires”.
Orsay offers you a sensitive journey for the 19th century with its imaginary walks. Béatrice Fontanel has selected paintings from the museum to invent the stories that the young visitor will discover. He will thus be able to travel through time by observing the paintings in the museum, on a book, or by imagining them with his eyes closed.
The podcasts of the Musée d’Orsay can be found here.
4- The podcasts of the Centre Georges Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou offers “A podcast, a work”. A series of very neat podcasts that address major societal issues through a work and its author.
Feminism, consumption, ecology, exile … podcasts are classified by major themes. In the form ofinterviews, of conferences or darchives, each 20-minute episode addresses the theme through one of the museum’s works.
Listen to the podcasts of the Centre Pompidou.
5- The National Picasso Museum podcast
Arguably one of the most original creations on this podcast list. The Picasso Museum offers ‘Imagine Pablo’, a series of immersive podcasts that immerse the listener in the artist’s world through poetic descriptions and imaginary lyrics.
Conceived as an "imaginary journey", this podcast offers a truly original auditory experience that changes from the simple factual description of the works. Instead of offering traditional academic explanations, ‘Imagine Pablo’ immerses the listener in the sensory and emotional world of the Spanish artist through ‘imaginary words’ and ‘singular descriptions’.
A poetic and creative narrative, carried by several voices, which creates an atmosphere that stimulates the listener’s imagination. Beautiful.
The Picasso Museum podcasts can be listened to on SoundCloud
6- The podcast of the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon
The large museum in Lyon invites you to discover behind the scenes of a large museum institution. The macLYON podcast series invites you to explore behind the scenes of the museum and meet the people who bring it to life.
The podcast takes you through the key stages of the museum’s life: exhibition editing, collaborations with artists, crafts, actions outside the walls … Behind the scenes, which we do not always see. Exciting.
Next stop Musée art contemporain de Lyon on Ausha.
7- The podcast of the Palace of Versailles
It is not one but dozens of podcasts that offer you the sound gallery of the Palace of Versailles. High-quality works to explore the history of the castle or made on the occasion of major exhibitions. Historical fiction, interviews, lectures, and children's content … Available for free on all your favourite listening platforms.
The sound gallery of the Palace of Versailles.
8- Masterpieces in reserve
We end this sound journey in the reserves of some major museums.
Masterpieces in Reserves offers a trip to the reserves of several major museums. Like the attics of our old family homes. They contain hidden treasures. Private visits to the reserves of the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, the BEaux-arts museums in Belgium, the Piscine de Roubaix, the Musée de la Marine and many others.
Unusual visits lasting around 30 minutes, to meet the dormant masterpieces of our cultural heritage.
The series is at listen on Spotify or on Apple Podcast
So much for this list of museum podcasts to listen to freely and for free. I am counting on you to help me complete this selection of resources with your own sonic favourites.
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