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Off the beaten path Walks and hikes, sites and activities to enjoy; strolls off the beaten path allow you to discover an unimagined heritage.
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The Grignan Typography Museum: full of character(s) |
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 The place where the letter writer, the Marquise de Sévigné stayed, a magical castle and affluent residences: Grignan is really a city of character(s). An impression which only grows stronger when we cross the doorstep of the den named « Colophon », a Greek word that means « accomplished or perfected printing ».
At once a workshop, museum, publishing house and place for literary meetings, the complex was created just fifteen years ago by Chantal Bonnemaison and Philippe Devoghel. They went for the Maison du Bailli, a magnificently renovated 15th century building. The prisons have been transformed into exhibition halls which also include a typographical printing workshop. That's where the main literary production of the house takes place: no large print runs, only a few lovely little gems that cannot be found anywhere but here.
Climbing the stone stairs, we discover on the first floor old printing machines, some documents that tell the history of some printers and an impressive typographical composition workshop. One floor up, and we are in an exhibition hall unlike others, a vaulted room for comtemporary artists and thematic meetings. Always with this idea, dear to the owners of the place, of making art and literature come alive. A moving place not without humour that we can't help but warmly recommend to lovers of the arts.
Contact and information, click here
Photo: Musée de la typographie
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The treasures of House of Pottery of Saint-Uze |
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 Do you know Saint-Uze? This little agicultural village, which became a center for pottery over the course of the 19th century, with as many as six pottery workshops, is still producing porcelain. It also has a museum which tells the story of this social and industrial adventure. You'll learn all the secrets of making porcelain, stoneware and glazed earthenware and their sometimes surprising utilisation in state-of-the-art technology. This discovery can be crowned by a visit to Revol-Jars, which specialised in culinary porcelain and then learned how to create treasures of skilfulness, making this age-old craft evolve.
Contact and information: http://www.territoire-ceramique.com
Photo: La Drôme Tourisme
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The egg museum at Soyans: from hummingbirds to dinosaurs |
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 Eggs of every kind and shape and size -- it's in the little town of Soyans en Drôme that you'll find them. From the largest, ostrich eggs, to the smallest, hummingbird eggs, and in between a dinosaur egg - answering to the sweet name of hysolosaurus - laid barely 70 million years ago. All kinds of species are represented here: crocodiles, silkworms, ladybirds, spiders and turtles. There is even an egg from Nessie, you know, the Loch Ness monster, which proves unequivocally that it was a she. And then there are eggs which are more finely worked, like the sculptured egg of a goose or the indented, carved egg of an emu or the embellished, embroidered egg of an ostrich that represents the Musée de l'Œuf.
To shelter so many precious tokens of life, Françoise Vignal-Caillet, to whom the collection belongs, needed to find a nest. It was decided on the spot when the mayor of Soyans proposed a little unused chapel at the foot of a medieval site. The museum was inaugurated in 1994, at the same time as the third edition of the egg festival, considered ever since as a veritable institution in the south of France. Today, the collection numbers 3000 eggs, patiently gathered together. A passionate and fascinating collection which brings together some rare pieces which are also a mischievous wink at life. In the area around the museum you can also see the « jardin de la sorcière » (the witch's garden) where only species that have been planted are those with vernacular names, that is, the names of the regions. We can admire some « casse-lunettes » ( breakers of glasses), des « arbres aux quarante écus » (forty-crowned trees), des « herbes aux sorciers » (wizard's herbs) and the hilarious « pet d'âne » (donkey's fart).
Contact and information: www.lemuseedeloeuf.eu
Photo: Musée de l'œuf
To know more about Drôme, click here
To see the Drôme in pictures, click here
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Palais des bonbons Montélimar: in the land of giant nougat |
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 Don't mention it to your dentist, but you can realise your wildest childhood dream: diving into a giant candy box! There are exactly 800m2 of sweet delights inside an Eiffel-like structure that is more than 1600m2.
Piles of candy, lines of lollipops, a whole wall of Carambar. Sweets that are not devoured only by your eyes, since you'll have received a big handful of candy at the entrance. After these delicious mouthfuls, it's time for the learning - ah, yes, we are in a museum, after all! - with rooms that tell the story of sugar and a film set in a virtual sugar refinery. Having thus obtained the raw material, what comes next is imagination freely expressing itself.
In joyfully unbridled excessiveness, we can see the biggest nougat in the world, a barrel of fragrance that gives off perfumes to identify, and specialities from all over the world, such as creamy caramel fudge from Argentina and a scorpion lollipop from Asia. There's a taste of art also, with a Joconde made of liquorice and the « Tournesols » (Sunflowers) by Van Gogh in Carambar. And then you'll be invited to see a few extracts from the film « Les Tontons flingueurs » to recall that even movies need sugar, for example, to simulate broken glass and bottles. A deliciously mischievous place created by the imagination of two friends, one a company manager and the other the former Mayor of Montélimar. It's not for nothing that we're in the capital of nougat!
Contact and information: www.palais-des-bonbons.com
Photo: Palais des Bonbons
To know more about Drôme, click here
To see the Drôme in pictures, click here
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Labyrinthes de Hauterives: an enigma in vegetation |
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 To get happily lost: this is what the four «Labyrinthes de Hauterives» offer, with an overall length of 7km. Created with perennial plants, these routes represent an opportunity, as playful as it is unique, to discover a small corner of paradise. Preceding in ascending order of difficulty, that is to say, first of all the wisteria labyrinth on bamboo arches. A short but very winding journey without a dead end, «an image of life and there is only one way to get to the end», as its designer likes to point out. A meditation which, when flowers are blooming, will be accompanied by delights for the eyes and senses. Then, things get complicated with the lavender labyrinth, a 1.5 km route with only one exit. When flowers are blooming, pay attention to the bees that will make sure you do not cheat by spanning the hedges (no stings to complain of yet!). And finally, the last two labyrinths of 3.5 km for the «cypress» and 2.9 km for the «arbour», with several exits for those threatened by claustrophobia. In addition, discover sandstone mosaics created by archaeologist and mosaic worker Alain Orcel, displayed in an ancient hayloft with splendid original wood beams.
Informations: Les labyrinthes de Hauterives (locate)
Saint Germain
F – 26390 Hauterives
Open from May 1st to August 31st and during september week-ends (11h-19h)
Tel + 33 (0) 475 68 96 27
Photo: Labyrinthes de Hauterives |
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