
When visiting the Gard department with children, you are almost obliged to take them to the Haribo Musée du Bonbon. Finally, a museum the kids won’t complain about going to! The entire museum is about candy. Haribo candy that is.
Tourist trap
As I had spoken to a few people and read some reviews of the museum, I was expecting the Haribo Musée du Bonbon to be a tourist trap, disguised as a commercial and non-interactive museum. For once, it was me who wasn’t too happy about our visit. Le Musée du Bonbon is open in the morning, but even I thought that was a bit too enthusiastic. So we went in the afternoon, around the French ‘goûter’ time or snack time. Plus, it was around Halloween, when all the French kids are off school enjoying their “Toussaint” holiday. Way to go for my planning skills. Let’s just say that we weren’t quite alone…

Bright and colourful
To my surprise, the museum wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was quite entertaining. The fun started right at the entrance, where we were given little bags of sweets and tokens to throw in the candy machines. Our excitement was running high! If you follow the numbered path through the museum, you will get to see the whole thing, starting with some history. Everything was very bright and colourful, with not too much information, but interesting enough despite the short explanations. After all, we were mostly here for the candy! As it was Halloween, the children went on a treasure hunt. And, throughout the whole museum, there were Halloween characters distributing sweets. The Mad Hatter was especially brilliant!

A dream come true
After absorbing a sufficient amount of information, eating some candy (our kids are very picky when it comes to sweets) and playing some games, we were ready for the last floor. At last, we understood why we were given the tokens at the entrance of the museum. You could pick an old vending machine with the candy of your choice, and, after inserting the token, a few little bags rolled out. You cannot exit the museum without paying a visit to the shop. Finally, the museum shop was everything our kids were dreaming off: all kinds of sweets in huge packages. Phew… After spending a fair amount of time in the shop, we could finally go. This was a sweet and sugary visit our kids absolutely loved!
