Musée de la chimie, Science museum in Jarrie, France

The Musée de la chimie occupies part of the pale yellow Jarrie town hall, a former Jouvin glove-making family property, with grey-blue shutters and the words "MAIRIE DE JARRIE" on the facade. Its entrance, marked "Musée de la Chimie" above a dark door, leads to 300 m² of cellars in the Jouvin house. The displays include a 2-metre model of a distillation column, a Pyrex pilot reactor and a photochemical chlorinator.

The museum was established in 1987 and is housed in a former estate that belonged to a glove-making family. The building was designed around 1880 by landscape architect Gabriel Luizet.

The museum's name comes from the chemistry that grew around Jarrie and Pont-de-Claix, and its founding association was set up in 1982 by former employees of the Péchiney Ugine Kuhlmann plant, including René Romano and mayor Roger Bayle. Visitors can handle free-access laboratory benches and watch reactions, fuel-cell operation and polymer properties demonstrated with Polytech students.

The museum is closed for an indefinite period, so check locally before travelling. It occupies the cellars of the Jouvin house, the same building as the Jarrie town hall, within the Clos Jouvin park laid out around 1880 by Gabriel Luizet. The guided tour lasts about 1 hour 30 minutes and is aimed at visitors aged 11 to 12 and over.

The collection documents the development of the local chlorine industry, which began in 1915 to meet demands during World War I. This specialized industry remained an important economic factor for the region for many years.