National Gendarmerie Museum
The National Gendarmerie Museum (French - "Musée de la Gendarmerie nationale") is a museum on the history of France's National Gendarmerie. It is sited at 1-3 Rue Émile-Leclerc in the town of Melun. It first opened in 1946 but has since been repeatedly extended. Thanks to a protocol signed in 2005 between the Minister of Defence, the communauté d'agglomération Melun Val de Seine and the town of Melun, it closed between 2007 and 2015 for a complete refurbishment and redisplay in a building near the Gendarmerie's officer-training establishment. It has over 30,000 objects , documents and photographs, including over 1,000 photographs. 2000 of these objects, documents and photographs are displayed over 1200 square metres of permanent display space. There is also a 200 square metre temporary exhibitions space, a 135 square metre reading room, a conference room and education spaces. The Museum was made a 'Musée de France' by France's haut conseil des musées on 14 January 2011.