Blue Penny Museum

The Blue Penny Museum exists chiefly because of two pieces of paper: an unused one-penny orange-red and a two-pence deep blue from the first Mauritius issue of 1847, printed with the words Post Office rather than Post Paid, which makes them among the rarest stamps in existence. A Mauritian consortium bought them at auction in 1993 and brought them home, and they are displayed in a darkened case with the lights raised only for short intervals to protect the ink. Around them the museum covers the island's maritime history, early cartography, the Dutch and French periods, and the story of Paul et Virginie, including the marble statue of the pair carved by Prosper d'Epinay.

What you actually see

• The 1847 stamps - the Post Office penny and two-pence, lit briefly.
• Early maps - the charts of the island from the age of exploration.
• The Paul et Virginie statue - d'Epinay's marble of the novel's characters.
• Maritime history - the Dutch, French and British periods of the island.

When to go

Year round; the museum is indoors and air-conditioned. It closes on Sundays. The stamps are illuminated only at set intervals, so timing a visit to those moments is worth asking about at the desk.

Honest expectations

The stamps are shown in low light for a few minutes at a time and are physically small, which disappoints some visitors. The museum is compact and covered in an hour. It sits inside a shopping complex. Photography is restricted.

Nearby

Aapravasi Ghat is a short walk; the central market lies inland.