Maison de Jules Verne
Jules Verne lived and wrote in Amiens for the last 35 years of his life, and his distinctive red-brick house on Rue Charles Dubois has been meticulously restored to look exactly as it did when he was dreaming up his Voyages Extraordinaires. It's one of the most atmospheric literary museums in France.
Inside the inventor's imagination
The five-storey house — built to Verne's own specifications in 1882 — contains his personal library, writing desk, globe collection, scientific instruments and the famous tower study where he worked each morning from 6 am. The rooms are crammed with the curiosities of a Victorian polymath: maps, models, correspondence and first editions. It feels genuinely lived-in rather than sterile.
Temporary exhibitions on the upper floors explore themes from his novels — submarines, hot-air balloons, polar exploration — with original illustrations from the Hetzel editions. The museum has English-language audio guides and is very well set up for children, who tend to be transfixed by the models.
Context: Verne's Amiens years
Verne moved to Amiens in 1871 after marrying Honorine de Viane, a widow from the city. He became a city councillor, championed local theatre and wrote some of his most celebrated works here, including Around the World in Eighty Days, Michel Strogoff and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The city is rightly proud of him — his tomb is in the Cimetière de la Madeleine, about 1 km north of the house, and is itself a remarkable piece of funerary sculpture.
The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 12:30 pm and 2 pm to 6 pm (longer hours in July and August). Admission is €8 for adults, €4 for children under 18. It sits on a hill above Saint-Leu, a 3-minute walk from Quai Bélu.
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