5 Art Museums in Eure That You Shouldn't Miss

Le musée de Bernay est l’image, presque l’archétype, des musées de Province conçus au 19e siècle : encyclopédiques et didactiques, mêlant les collections Beaux-Arts, les Antiquités, les Sciences et l’Histoire naturelle. L’idée d’un musée à Bernay va germer dans les esprits dès le début du 19e siècle, et s’accentuer suite à plusieurs découvertes archéologiques qui seront achetées et transférées à Paris : le Cabinet des médailles achète le trésor de Berthouville découvert de 1830, et le musée de Cluny à Paris et celui de Saint-Germain-en-Laye acquièrent une crosse en bronze doré d’un abbé de Bernay découverte dans l’abbatiale en 1858. Alphonse Assegond, dans une lettre datée du 19 mai 1865, propose de céder sa collection de faïences à la ville de Bernay, à condition de devenir le premier conservateur du musée. Sa proposition est acceptée le 5 mai 1866. Le musée des Beaux-Arts de Bernay était né.

The Martainville castle The castle, built in 1485 by Jacques the first of Martainville, is one of the rare examples of the first Renaissance architecture in Normandy. It has been keeping its original inside arrangement. The visit of the castle can be completed with a visit of the dovecot, the bread oven and other outside annexes. The museum of traditions and arts of Normandy installed in the castle shows a notable collection of regional furniture from the Renaissance and the 19th century. The ethnographic section for Normandy is a reconstitution of farms made with objects and testimonies of the life in the 18th and 19th centuries. The last floor presents the large collection of Norman headdresses, costumes and jewels, and traditional music instruments. The museum has temporary exhibitions every year. Since 2014, a Renaissance garden was created in the rear side of the castle.

Can you imagine a lovelier place for a fine arts museum than Giverny? One hour from Paris and Rouen, in one of the most beautiful villages of Normandy, the museum focuses on the history of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Throughout exhibitions of paintings, drawings and pictures, experience the art of the late 19th century to the present day, through a new approach.

The Nicolas Poussin Museum is an art and history museum named after the famous painter of the 17th century whom borned in Les Andelys and started to paint there with his first master Quentin Varin. In the museum you’ll find one painting by Nicolas Poussin “Le Coriolan”, a rich collection of furnitures, paintings, religious and archeological items and each year a temporary exhibition.