Museums & Exhibitions

Also at Forges-les-Eaux is the Museum of Jean Guillot's Scale Models, which holds about one hundred models of horse-drawn vehicles and recreates the life of a time now long past. You will see vehicles used for transport, deliveries and work in the fields, along with every type of agricultural device pulled or operated by horses, from the plough to the threshing machine, all set out against a background representing the Pays de Bray. 4 rooms are accessible to the less able.

Near Bellencombre, at Rosay, is the Museum of Apples, Cider and Traditional Crafts, featuring a 19th century forge, a bread oven and a schoolroom of yesteryear. This educational and recreational museum is a truly authentic testimony to the past - telling the story of the apple from the beginning of this century up to modern times. Behind the tools appear the faces of typical village craftsmen and workers - including a blacksmith, a washerwoman, a quilt-maker and a clog-maker.

Neufchâtel-en-Bray hosts the Museum Mathon-Durand, where, in a typical 16th century upper-middle-class house you will find 5 rooms devoted to Norman arts and crafts, and local traditions.

At the Town Hall Museum In Forges-les-Eaux (a former major pottery centre) is an exhibition of a magnificent collection of 19th century fine earthenware and also a thicker type known as "Black Bottoms", certain of which are now extremely rare but were very popular when made at Forges-les-Eaux in the 19th century.

Forges-les-Eaux is also home to the Departmental Museum of the Resistance and Deportation, located right at the heart of this thermal spa resort in Rue Maréchal Leclerc. This museum recounts over 2 floors the dark years of the Second World War through numerous artefacts and documents (weapons and battlefield uniforms of the period, aviation items, papers, letters, etc.). There is a video cinema seating 20 persons.

Near Forges-les-Eaux, at Beaussault, is an exhibition called "Man and the Times", located at the premises of a jewellery craftsman. From Paleolithic and Neolithic times until the present day, you will see cut and worked stones, minerals, fossils (Egyptian and Gallo-Roman) and Norman jewellery. There is also a watchmaker's workshop.

Also near Forges-les-Eaux, at Rouvray-Catillon, is the Centre for the Memories and Identity of the Pays de Bray, at a 16th century manor house called Le Randillon which boasts a monumental façade, fireplaces with wooden sections, and vaulted cellars.

At Saint-Germer-de-Fly is the Museum of Art and Popular Traditions, where you can discover the rural life of yesteryear and its forgotten country crafts. Passing by the old-fashioned bakery and close to the grocery, an instructive visit awaits you at the lecture room.

Near Saint-Germer-de-Fly, at La Chapelle-aux-Pots, is the Municipal Museum of Pottery, a place of living memories. It tells the story of the local pottery tradition with a collection of 300 everyday pieces (bottles, fountains, salt-tubs, etc.).and works of art created by the well-known potters Delaherche, Pissareff and Bouché.

At Beauvais is the Departmental Museum of the Oise, situated at the foot of the cathedral, charmingly framed by the ancient Episcopal palace which is the object of a vast restoration project. Pending completion of the works, a representative selection of permanent collections draws the visitor on a journey which commences on the ground floor of the medieval entrance towers and continues on into the 18th century house on the left at the bottom of the courtyard. There you will see the stone and wooden sculptures of the Gallic warriors of Saint Maur from the Middle Ages, after which you will end up in the 19th and 20th centuries with the paintings of Huet, Corot and Maurice Denis, followed by the remarkable art-nouveau dining room created by the artist Gustave Serrurier-Bovy famed for his work in cork. There is also a rich collection of local ceramic work, including some by Delaherche and Charles Gréber.

At the Château de Martainville-Epreville, 15 kilometres from Rouen on the RN31 is the Museum of Norman Arts and Traditions. Here you may enter the fairytale world of a château-museum, with 20 great rooms furnished with the finest collection of items from Haute Normandie, including earthenware, ceramics, glassware, clothing, jewellery, basketwork, etc. There are specific ethnic sections covering the Pays de Bray, the Pays de Caux and the Pays de l'Eure.

At Vascoeuil is the Château de Vascoeuil (ISMHS), which is the Centre for Art and History, offering important exhibitions of work by internationally-renowned contemporary artists, plus the Museum Michelet, a sculpture park, and a French garden. You may also enjoy its tearoom, "La Cascade".

Not far away from the region you will find the Gallery Bovary Museum of Automata, located in an 18th century cider press where there are 500 mechanical models of which 300 represent the principal scenes from Gustave Flaubert's famous novel, Madame Bovary.