Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires (Museum of Folk Arts and Traditions)

Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires (Museum of Folk Arts and Traditions) Review

Just up the street from the Palais Ducal, this quirky, appealing museum is housed in the Couvent des Cordeliers (Convent of the Franciscans, who were known as Cordeliers until the Revolution). Displays re-create how local people lived in preindustrial times, using a series of evocative rural interiors. Craftsmen's tools, colorful crockery, somber stone fireplaces, and dark waxed-oak furniture accent the tableaulike settings. The dukes of Lorraine are buried in the crypt of the adjoining Église des Cordeliers, a Flamboyant Gothic church; the gisant (reclining statue) of Philippa de Gueldra, second wife of René II, is executed in limestone in flowing detail and is a moving example of Renaissance portraiture. The octagonal Ducal Chapel was begun in 1607 in the Renaissance style, modeled on the Medici Chapel in Florence.