St-Lô's art museum, the Musée des Beaux-Arts, is the perfect French provincial museum. Its halls are airy, seldom busy, not too big, yet full of varied exhibits—including an unexpected masterpiece: Gombault et Macée, a set of nine silk-and-wool tapestries woven in Bruges around 1600 relating a tale about a shepherd couple, exquisitely showcased in a special circular room. Other highlights include brash modern tapestries by Jean Lurçat; paintings by Corot, Boudin, and Géricault; court miniatures by Daniel Saint (1778-1847); and the Art Deco pictures of Slovenian-born Jaro Hilbert (1897-1995), inspired by ancient Egypt. Photographs, models, and documents evoke St-Lô's wartime devastation.
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