International Shoe Museum, Shoe museum in Romans-sur-Isère, France

The International Shoe Museum occupies a former convent with stone walls and displays footwear spanning different periods and regions. The collections are arranged in exhibition spaces that show the variety of shoe forms and how they changed over time.

Marie-Madeleine Bouvier, founder of the Empi et Riaume folk group, began the collection through her research on folk dances; the museum became municipal in 1962 when she donated it to Romans. In 1968 the city bought the 2,000-piece collection of Parisian designer Victor Guillen, covering five continents and four millennia. Installed in the former Couvent de la Visitation, bought by the city in 1908, it opened on 11 December 1971 and took the name musée international de la chaussure in 1993.

The name reflects its global scope, displaying footwear from many countries and traditions. These objects reveal how people dressed for different occasions and what craftsmanship techniques mattered in their daily lives.

The museum occupies the former Couvent de la Visitation, acquired by the town in 1908, and shares the building with the Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation, set up in 1974. Ten monumental shoes placed around the town centre extend the visit beyond the convent walls, among them creations by Charles Jourdan, Robert Clergerie, Roger Vivier and Christian Louboutin.

About 2,500 of the roughly 20,000 pairs and accessories are on display; the rest stay in storage. Among the objects are buckles and button hooks, and part of the holdings is on deposit from the Musée National de Cluny in Paris.