Espace Pierres Folles, Geological museum and botanical garden in Saint-Jean-des-Vignes, France.

Espace Pierres Folles combines a geological museum and botanical garden on a former cement factory site. The museum displays rocks and fossils from the region, while the garden grows hundreds of plant species in different sections reflecting local soil types.

The museum opened in 1987 on a 2-hectare former cement works site. The geological trail followed in 1988, inaugurated by Haroun Tazieff, and the botanical garden opened in April 1995. Closed in 2020, the building gained a floor and two wings and reopened as Fossilea on 17 May 2025.

The site shows how soil, plants, and wine production connect in this region. You can observe how the rock types and ground conditions shape which plants grow here and influence local farming methods.

The museum reopened on 17 May 2025 after a renovation that added a floor and two wings, so the old Espace Pierres Folles layout no longer applies. The site sits in a former quarry within the UNESCO-labelled Beaujolais Geopark, with a 4-hectare park and a permanent route plus a temporary exhibition space. The geological trail, inaugurated in 1988 by Haroun Tazieff, links four sites where you can read stacked rock layers and fossil imprints.

The garden sections are designed to recreate the natural soil types found in southern Beaujolais. This allows visitors to see which plants naturally thrive in each type of ground.