Louis Braille’s Home Is A Museum

Louis Braille is the man who took the blind out of the dark ages and into the living world of readers. His home in Coupvray (Seine-et-Marne) has been a museum since 1956 and lies just outside Paris.

He was injured in 1812, at the age of three, while reaching up for one of his father’s saddle making tools. The tool pierced his eye, causing an infection, and blinded him. By the age of five the infection, which had spread to the other eye, caused total loss of his sight.

While studying at the Royal Institute for the Blind in Paris he developed the Braille writing system of six raised points and taught music. Although buried at a young age (1809-1852) next to his family in Coupvray, his body was transferred in 1952 to the Panthéon. Only a relic of his hands remains in Coupvray, in a sealed urn on his original tomb.

The visit begins in the workshop from the 1700s and proceeds through the home. The museum is open between April 1 and September 30 (Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.) October 1 – March 31 (Tuesday 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday is for groups)
Visits begin on the hour.
Admission: five euros (free for children under 10)
13 rue Louis Braille 77700 Coupvray
Telephone: 01 60 04 82 80
Send inquiries to: musee.louisbraille@orange.fr