Museum of Dolls and Antique Toys

The building on your right until recently housed one of the last remaining doll museums in France. Although it closed in 2017, it is worth mentioning because it was created thanks to Lucien Mahé, former president of the Tourist Office. In 1998, he founded an association to save an exceptional collection of antique dolls that was threatened with dispersal, and on July 13 he opened the Museum of Dolls and Antique Toys here.

More than three hundred dolls were displayed, true works of art requiring the expertise of around twenty artisans, from sculptors to seamstresses and wigmakers. Set within settings faithful to life at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, they evoked Parisian salons, jointed babies or delicate “mignonettes,” all dressed in their original outfits.

The museum also showcased miniature furniture, accessories, porcelain tea sets, old games and period children’s clothing, subtly revealing the evolution of fashion, education and social differences. For twenty years, up to fifteen thousand visitors per year came to marvel at this unique collection.

The museum closed permanently for safety reasons following a fire in the neighbouring buildings. The collection has since been dispersed, but the memory of this singular place remains within these walls.