Strawberry Museum (Musée de la Fraise et du Patrimoine), Plougastel-Daoulas
The Musée de la Fraise (Strawberry Museum) not only tells the history of the Plougastel peninsula and its tradition of strawberry farming, but also recounts the lives of the Breton inhabitants through interesting displays, models dressed in traditional costume, and reconstructions of Breton homes.
The Plougastel peninsula is situated just outside of Brest in Brittany. It is renowned for the cultivation of strawberries and has been since the early eighteenth century when the explorer/scientist, Amédée François Frézier, imported the white strawberry from Chile in 1714. Bizarely his surname derives from 'fraise' meaning strawberry in French!
The fertile soil and mild, humid climate of the Plougastel area was found to be ideal for growing strawberries and by 1937 about a third of the Peninsula was dedicated to strawberries. Today, local strawberry farmers still continue the tradition of producing strawberries using greenhouses as opposed to the more traditional methods of farming used by their ancestors and the industry remains important to the local economy.
A special temporary exhibition is taking place at the Musée de la Fraise until the end of December 2009. It includes old marriage photos of Breton weddings, and is a fascinating collection and insight into the traditional Breton way of life and traditional dress.
The museum shop sells some all sorts of strawberry-related souvenirs including strawberry liquor, strawberry sweets in quaint tins and strawberry jam. On our visit there was a chance to taste the strawberries and some of the produce on sale in the shop area.
The Plougastel Strawberry Museum is certainly worth a visit if you are in the area. It is located at 12 rue Louis Nicolle - BP 17, 29470 Plougastel - Daoulas (Tel: 02 98 40 21 18). Entry costs 4 euros for adults, 2 euros for children aged 12-18 and is free for under 12s. For further information see www.musee-fraise.net.
This entry was posted on Wednesday August 19th, 2009 at 6:40 PM and is filed under Places to Visit, Things to do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.
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