NATIONAL MUSEUM (FØROYA FORNMINNISSAVN)

Natural history enthusiasts will be delighted by this National Museum, housed in a vast new building 4 km from the town center. An educational way to learn about local flora and fauna, geology and life in the archipelago, before discovering them on your travels. To see live puffins, you'll have to go to Mykines. Otherwise, you'll find them under the Lyndi label, but it's customary to call them puffins. Standing fairly high on its legs with a long red beak: the Faroese national bird, a Tjaldur, an oystercatcher. Look up: hanging from the ceiling, the giant skeletons of Grindahvalur. These are the famous right whales, related to dolphins, which the Faroese traditionally hunt when their herds approach the coast. In French, they're called globicéphales.

A little further on, sheep naturalized in 1844: a wild breed whose last representatives were slaughtered in 1866 on the islet of Lítla Dímun. A species closely related to the Soyay sheep of the Hebrides.

The exhibition's cultural treasures include a typical Faroese rowing boat, a complete collection of Kirkjubøur 's legendary ^15th-century benches, a variety of national costumes and Viking-era artefacts such as this wooden racket from a game that is the ancestor of tennis.

Among the fishing tackle and all manner of knives, lanterns and sextants, take a close look at a tongue box, with 2 compartments and a flap. Here, each fisherman deposited the tongues of the fish he had caught in order to be rewarded. On one side, the catch of the day, on the other, the catch of the week. These were counted every Sunday.

You'll also gain a better understanding of the difficulties faced by the inhabitants under Denmark's royal monopoly (1709-1856), which guaranteed outlets for local products (such as the sheep's wool socks on display here) and imported goods, but kept the archipelago dependent and economically stagnant for almost two centuries. A view of Tórshavn, painted in 1700, is the oldest known representation of the town.

As a side trip, visit Hoyvíksgarður farm, set in a beautiful green valley just outside Torshavn. Here you can visit an old traditional farmhouse with houses and stables. Originally located in Kúrdalur majs, it was moved by the farmer-owner in 1772.