Between Provence, Cévennes and Camargue, the site of the Moulin de Chalier, a 13th century building, houses one of the most diverse collections in France. This old oil mill with a captivating working mechanism and gearing opened its doors to the public in 1981 as a museum.
More than 3700 objects gathered in a single place are presented in settings reconstituting old streets.
It is thanks to the passion of Gaston Baron that this museum was born. For the past 40 years, he has been travelling all over France in search of rare pearls from the 1850s to the 1960s: Cars, carriages, motorcycles, trucks and firemen's equipment, bicycles, agricultural machines, working steam engines, tractors, photography, cinema, television, music, old-fashioned crafts, household items, toys, games, merry-go-rounds and many others ....
On 1500m² of exhibition space, more than 3700 pieces of collections from the beginning of the XXth century are displayed in 8 different areas: cars, motorcycles, bicycles, horse-drawn carriages, toys, music, cinema, radio, animated agricultural scenes, an 18th century oil mill in operation, tractors, firemen's vehicles, household arts, old-fashioned trades and all the objects from the daily life of our forefathers
Among the themes proposed, we can mention the means of locomotion, the agricultural Provence, the means of communication, the popular traditions and unusual objects.
In addition, more than a thousand toys, porcelain dolls, board games, toy soldiers, dinettes, pedal cars, construction games, miniatures are gathered and displayed to tell the story of toys from 1900 to 1960.
Children can ride inside cars, buses, planes, or on motorcycles, wooden horses, all subjects of carousels.
It is also possible to go up in several vehicles and in particular Fireman's truck, Delahaye of 1930, Motorcycle Ravat of 1948, Quadruplette of 1904, Truck Berliet of the war 14/18, Tractor Lanz 1950, Vespa 1955 and all the subjects of fixed carousel of the Fifties...
The Museum 1900 and Toys
Site of the Mill of Chalier
2, Chemin du Moulin
30700 Arpaillargues
Tel : 04 66 22 58 64
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(free version)
