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Musée de la lavande ©OBRIEN T

1,2,3… Museums! The arts of producing wine and olives

Episode 1

Today, we are pushing open the door of amazing museums full of curiosities. As you go on your tours, we invite you to discover the secrets of unusual objects. As if you’re on a treasure hunt, let the atmosphere of the places invade you and find 3 works cherished by their owners (who we thank for being part of the fun). It’s now over to you, to find the oldest object, the most unlikely, and to choose your favourite.

THE CORKSCREW BECOMES A WORK OF ART AT THE DOMAINE LA CITADELLE, YVES’ PLACE

In Ménerbes, the Citadelle is a place that really is not like the others: it is a wine estate, botanical garden and corkscrew museum, the 3 passions of Yves Rousset-Rouard.

Watch your eyes! This museum is home to more than 1200 pieces from all over the world, all from Yves’ private collection (not the corkscrew we all have buried in a drawer that makes bottles pop, but that you always have to hunt for when you need to open the bottle…).
They are true works of art, some of which make you wonder what on earth the designer was thinking of. 3 works dear to Yves and the museum team are caught up in this whirl.

Find out more about the Corkscrew Museum
le saviez-vous ?

Did you know?

A corkscrew collector is a helixophile or pomelkophile in French (to keep tucked away in your mind for when you need to impress someone or your next game of scrabble 😉)

Corkscrew Museum
Compression de tire-bouchons
“The César of corkscrews”: the artist César gave this compression of several hundred corkscrews to Yves, the César also being the French Oscar. It is a unique César to see in the Luberon!
Tire bouchon à cage du XVIème
A cage corkscrew with a “tulip” handle and cage in wrought iron with an Archimedean screw / 16th century. The question is: how many bottles has it opened in the past 5 centuries? Make your bets!
Tire bouchon dague et pistolet
320-calibre pistol and dagger corkscrew. This is a one-of-a-kind piece, made in Austria in 1880, a Veneto weapon with a mother-of-pearl handle with space for 3 bullets inside. History does not say what it was used for most.

IN OLIVE COUNTRY, AT THE DOMAINE DE LA ROYÈRE

Olive oil museum - Luberon
Info pratique

Also read

The article dedicated to the olive of Provence

The Royère, which has been the kingdom of the Hugues family for several generations, has a tasty trio: it is an organic wine estate, an olive-growing estate (they even make an olive eau-de-vie!) and olive oil museum.

The museum traces the olive through history, from Antiquity to our days, through a nice circuit where objects mix with multimedia, in a hushed atmosphere, which invites you to take your time. Jean-Pierre Hugues founded the museum, which also looks back over the family history, which has been written between vines and olive trees.

Find out more
Lampe à huile
18th-century metal oil lamp. The traces of this means of lighting appeared quickly after fire was tamed, around 20,000 years before Jesus Christ.• 18th-century metal oil lamp. The traces of this means of lighting appeared quickly after fire was tamed, around 20,000 years before Jesus Christ.
Pressoir antique
Antique Press – 17th century – Fez, in Morocco. The press tree is the key element of the lever press. It’s the latin prælum. It is in fact a lever that weighs down on the pile of frails, or baskets.
Sourtin
The frail, which has been used since antiquity to extract olive oil, is a bag in the shape of a round beret that filters, in which the paste produced from crushing the olives is spread out. How is it cleaned between 2 seasons? You need to come and visit to find out

AT CHÂTEAU TURCAN, THE WINE PROFESSIONS AND ARTS OF YVES-DOMINIQUE

At the heart of the Luberon, at the edge of Ansouis, classed as one of the Most Beautiful Villages of France, a unique collection in Europe is waiting to be discovered at Château Turcan, which has been owned by the Laugier family for 7 generations.

Here, in 2 places and over several levels, more than 3000 pieces have been exhibited since 1981 over more than 1300 m², in various dedicated spaces:

• The Press square, in a dedicated hall over 400 m² specially built to accommodate them
• From the vine to wine
• Laboratory instruments
• The cooperage
• The bottles and containers
• The art glassworks
• The Works of Art Gallery

Find out more about the museum
Turcan Castle

Pressoir
17-tonne huge scale press (à grand point) that Yves-Dominique and his son Pierre-Henry brought back from Burgundy, listed in the historic monuments additional inventory. As an aside, the transversal powder weighs 4 tonnes alone.
Foudre
The oldest barrel in the world, dated 1467, the successive owners of which have been traced, which enabled the date it was made to be confirmed. It is made in oak and juniper and could hold no less than 1300 litres of wine.
Décanteur
Settling tank known as a “Fountain of circulation”, where the wine travelled through the thin continuous glass tube before arriving in the sphere, from where it was poured into glasses
Bouteille de marinier
The mariner’s bottle is a unique object, a unique amazing feat carried out in August 1841 by Jérome Andrieux in Sète. The barrel is composed of several staves and is encircled by four rings fixed by copper threads. It rests on a square oak support, said to be the “crib”. A second amazing feat was carried out in closing the carafe (it remains unexplained). Indeed, the wooden stopper is blocked from the inside by two wooden keys placed in a cross.