This museum is also notable for its Pyreneist collection, a comprehensive overview of the Pyrenean iconography of the 18th and 19th centuries. It is the biggest in the region along with the collection in the Musée Pyrénéen in Lourdes, which is absolutely unmissable.
In the Lot département, it is the peasant life of the Quercy that is featured in the amazing Musée Départemental de Cuzals. An open-air museum… This attraction in the Célé Valley takes up an entire former traditional Quercy hamlet. Over some 40 hectares, it features different aspects of rural life: the crops grown, the tools used, craft workshops and more…
In Tarn et Garonne, the Conservatoire de la Ruralité in Donzac also preserves various traditional trades of old (post office clerk, bistro owner, ornamental plasterer, etc.), brought to life in very realistic recreations, along with collections of items that are fascinating to look at.
Treasures from here, there and everywhere
We continue our tour of Midi-Pyrénées with a look at some museums containing remarkable collections. These include an absorbing experience of life in the Pyrenean valley of Bethmale at the Bishops' Palace in Saint Lizier, the arts and customs of Bigorre at the Musée Massey in Tarbes, and the traditions of Gascony at the Musée des Jacobins in Auch. The last of these also has a surprise in store : its collections of pre-Colombian art and Latin-American religious art.
Local treasures blend with those of more distant origins, illustrating the way the region has been open to influences from cultures around the Mediterranean basin since Antiquity, at the Musée Georges Labit in Toulouse (oriental, Asian and Egyptian art) kept inside a Moorish villa on the Canal du Midi, which is worth making a special trip for.