Osarium - Musée de la Vannerie

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The museum houses over 800 wickerwork objects, including baskets, mats, wickerwork bundles and other wonders, as well as tools and miniature wickerwork.

A large number of paintings and videos explain the use of basketry, its manufacture, its tools and its production, as well as the role of basketry in the Montagne Bourbonnaise and the influence it still has on the lives of its inhabitants.

This museum, the brainchild of a local vet (Christian Ponsonnard), was set up by the A.M.B. association in 1996, not only in line with the aims of its articles of association, but also to promote folk art and traditional basketry in the Montagne Bourbonnaise region and beyond.

At first, basketry was a family activity, a rural evening activity, which also proved to be a source of extra income for families, before gradually becoming an indispensable part of everyday life.

However, the success of a museum depends not only on the exhibits on display, but also on the animation and interactivity that will undoubtedly interest the visitor a little more.

To achieve this objective, the association and its volunteers have rethought, created, purchased and transformed this site, which had already existed but closed at the beginning of 2015.

The aim is to recreate a more interactive museum in Le Mayet-de-Montagne, with visits that the volunteers wanted to be more dynamic, fun and lively, with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. We hope this museum will hold the attention of young and old alike.

Throughout the 230 m² of exhibition halls and corridors, visitors will be able to discover a large number of wickerworks, paintings and videos explaining their use, manufacture, tools and manufacture...

In one of the small projection rooms, an 18-minute video narrated by a former schoolteacher from Saint-Clément will tell visitors about the role of basket-making in the Montagne Bourbonnaise and the influence it still has on our lives.

In the main hall, 6 theatrically-staged tableaux tell the story of wickerwork's importance in "War and the medical world", "The rural world", "The bakery", "Daily life", "Fishing and leisure activities"...

They'll discover settings featuring exceptional works such as Admiral Nelson's trunk, one of Deauville's rare beach sentry boxes and many other very rare basketworks, making this museum, we hope, one of the most important of the 4 existing in France.

A few steps from the museum is the Salicetum, maintained by students at the Lycée Claude Mercier, where several species of wicker are lined up in a garden that can also be visited.