Musée Mécanique
Reviews
This is such a great attraction. It is free to come in and you can relax and look around or you can interact with the dioramas or play some games. The machines are very old and make for a good attraction for all. You can get quarters at the machines and you can break bills with one of the attendants at the Musee. The dioramas are really special to see. So much detail and to think that all of those tiny parts still work to this day is spectacular. For the more risqué of us, there are some old Adult only peep shows which are not too graphic but give you an idea of the style in the past. There are also 3D gallery's with old timey pictures of the San Francisco Earthquake. There are also modern arcade machines in the back for the Cruisin' USA and Area 51 fans.
What an amazing place! I've been living here for almost 10 years and never knew this place existed. There are some really cool attractions and some fun vintage games to play. It's a great way to spend an hour and would make a fantastic first date place. Be weary that some of the machines will only last three seconds, but there are some really interesting and lovely animatronics there.
This ranges from more than 100 year old mechanical games and music machines to 1980ies video games or air-hockey - a cross-cut through the generations. But really, the old machines are the most interesting: well weathered but survived the times, they are still withstanding use every single day (yes, all of them still work, typically just cost a quarter). Hand-painted 'fortune teller' machines, 3D films of 1906 earrthquake, paper-roll operated pianos or a capella-singing wooden dolls - a wide range of curiosities from the last 100 years. I discovered it once by accident on a photo-walk, but now whenever someone visits the city, I take them there and they end up being as enthusiastic as me.
It's a really interesting place with lots of old cool machines. It's also free to visit which makes it even nicer! And don't forget to bring some pennies and quarters :)
Great fun here. The museum is free to enter and you get to play with really cool and interesting machines -most of them are just a quarter.
