Barcelonnette museum - La Sapinière

Since 1988, the museum has been housed in La Sapinière, a villa built in 1878 by Alexandre Reynaud on his return from Mexico. Its eclectic collections combine history, archaeology, local and exotic ethnography (America, Asia, Africa, Europe), fine art and contemporary art.

The dual theme of emigration to the Americas (Louisiana, Mexico) and the evocation of life in Ubaye through the gestures and objects of daily life offer a glimpse of rural Alpine society at the beginning of the 20th century.

These collections are open to the world, the Americas (Mexico and Louisiana), China, Japan, India, Burma... but also to the Valley, its history and its rich heritage. The fine arts collection includes paintings by Jean Caire (1855-1935), Marie Tonoir (1860-1934), Charles Bertier (1860-1924), Pierre Michel (1900-1984), caricatures by Marguerite Reynaud (1888-1967) and the Gilles and Laurence Aillaud collection, which is currently being assembled. The villa has preserved its marquetry parquet floors, its Sarreguemines earthenware bathroom (1910), its Art Nouveau stained glass windows (the Pavots) and the salon-fumoir.

Don't be surprised to come across objects from Asia, Africa and, of course, America as you pass through the Doric-columned porch of the Villa La Sapinière (1878), which has been home to the Musée de la Vallée - Musée de France - since 1988.

They all have a story to tell, closely linked to the lives of the people of Ubaye: 1000 petits chefs-d'œuvre du Mexique (1,000 little masterpieces from Mexico) recount the popular culture of the country that welcomed Barcelona emigrants to Mexico, who brought back emblematic objects (metate, molinillo, sarape or the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe); statues and various works from China, Japan and Burma collected by the Barcelonnette traveller-naturalist Émile Chabrand (1843-1893) at the end of his world tour (1882) and placed in his recently reconstituted ‘cabinet of curiosities’.

There are still eggs, a chimera, naturalised birds and fish, corals... and a samurai suit of armour brought back from Japan.

The same mix of cultures can be seen in the Orientalist canvases by the traveller painters Jean Caire (1855-1935) and Marie Tonoir (1860-1934), who also responded to the call of the Orient (stays in Biskra, Algeria).