10 Budget-friendly Things to do in Ain That You Shouldn't Miss

Maison d’Izieu, Memorial to the Exterminated Jewish Children In the heart of the Bugey, in the South of the Ain department, the Maison d’Izieu is located only 35 minutes from Chambéry and Bourgoin-Jallieu, 1 hour from Lyon, Bourg-en-Bresse, Grenoble or Annecy. A unique place of remembrance in France and Europe, it is the first place in remembrance of the children in the Shoah established in France in 1994. The Maison d’Izieu was opened by Sabine and Miron Zlatin and welcomed more than a hundred Jewish children from May 1943 to April 1944 in order to help them escape anti-Semitic persecution. On the morning of 6th April 1944 the 44 children and 7 educators who were there were rounded up and deported under Klaus Barbie’s orders, one of the leaders of the Lyon Gestapo. Today it is a place of remembrance, education and life in order to understand crimes against humanity and to act against all forms of discrimination. The memorial and its permanent exhibition make a complex contemporary

The website gives full details of this great fun place for the family focused on birds but with lots of really good play areas

With an extra 3000m², there is a new area to visit indoors and out over a 20 ha site. It is a major cultural site and a reference for enhancing the ethnological heritage. In the Bresse region, over a land with a wealth of cultural influences and famous for its art de vivre and gastronomy, the museum is an invitation to explore both contemporary and historic buildings and the meadows and wood of the estate. Landscape and environment, construction and habitat, cultivation and breeding, food and culinary traditions, costumes and finery... So many themes, so many exceptional collections, often on display for the first time. Countless objects have been researched and restored: enamels from the Bresse region, musical instruments, menus, cookery items and tableware... An illustration of the regional heritage and a doorway to universal cultural dimensions, they reflect the issues that society faces today: eating, producing and consuming... being and being noticed, constructing our identities... It gives everyone the chance to compare their present life with a common past. Opening from march to november, from monday to sunday 10h to 18h; closing day: tuesday. Entrance: 4€, PassMusées: 7€ (it permits to visit 4 museums in the departement and an old silk factory), free entrance for less than 26 years old and the first sunday of the month.

The royal church of Brou in Bourg-en-Bresse was built between 1505 and 1532 by Margaret of Austria as a monument to the memory of her husband, Philibert the Fair, Duke of Savoy. It is a masterpiece of the Flamboyant Gothic style and is richly ornamented with magnificent tombs, a fine altarpiece, statues and choir stalls that testify to the artistry of 16th century Flemish craftsmen. A museum is housed in the monastic buildings.