Musée Géologique de Vernet-les-Bains

This small private geology museum holds one of the most impressive fossil collections in the eastern Pyrenees, assembled over decades by the curator who still runs the place. The collection focuses on the local geology — the Pyrenees are rich in Palaeozoic and Mesozoic formations, and the fossils on display include well-preserved marine creatures from the era when this mountain range was the floor of a shallow sea.

Tours are given by the curator personally, in French, Spanish, Catalan, or English depending on who shows up. His enthusiasm for the material is infectious and he knows where every specimen was found. It is the kind of place that only exists because one obsessive person decided to build it, and it is all the better for that.

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