Visit to Louis Braille's birthplace

Organised in the context of the week from the 4th to the 8th January 2009 commemorating the bicentenary of Louis Braille’s birth, a visit to the house where the brilliant inventor was born is to take place on Thursday the 8th January.

This house, in Coupvray-bas, is a solid rural cottage dating back to the 18th century. You will quickly learn how the family lived at that time. The Brailles, saddlemakers from father to son for over a century, lived in this typical house. Come and discover some of the furniture and tools of the saddlemaking craft: the workbench, the mould for the horse’s collar, the saddle tree and the branding iron are sill to be seen in the workshop, the very placer where Louis Braille lost his sight.

Louis Braille always felt deeply attached to his birthplace. When he was ill he came back here to rest. In the room he arranged for himself at that time, moving family souvenirs are on show, together with documents and items relating to the invention of writing for the blind.

Since 1956, the house has been a museum, open to the public. A municipal museum and a “Musée de France”, Louis Braille’s birthplace is now run by the World Blind Union.
The museum is open all year round.

How to get there from Paris

• Motorway A4, exit 14 (Disney-Paris/Coupvray)
• By train from Gare de l’Est (the Meaux line) to Esbly, then taxi or bus to Coupvray
• By suburban train RER A to Marne-la-Vallée-Chessy, then taxi or bus to Coupvray

Admission charge

• 4 euros per adult, children free
• 3 euros per head in a group visit
• 1.5 euros per head in a school visit

LB's birthplace Maison Natale de Louis Braille

13, rue Louis Braille – 77700 Coupvray
Tél./fax. 01 60 04 82 80

E-mail : musee.braille@wanadoo.fr