The Maison Léon Blum is the last home of the illustrious statesman, man of letters and architect of many social advances. All the rooms can be visited, from the kitchen to the modest bedrooms and the vast office-library.Léon Blum lived there from 1945, on his return from the Buchenwald camp, until his death in 1950. The day after his death, his wife Jeanne had plans to convert the house into a museum. When she died in 1982, Jeanne Blum bequeathed the house to the commune of Jouy-en-Josas with the mission of maintaining the memory of Léon Blum and developing cultural and artistic activities there. Listed as a Historic Monument, the House became a museum in 1986 and was awarded the label "Maison des Illustres" by the Ministry of Culture in 2012. Since 2017, it has benefited from a new permanent exhibition space that can be used by groups and schools. This space is composed of multiple documentary resources that allow the life and work of Léon Blum to be retraced in all its diversity. As Jeanne wished, the Maison Léon Blum is today a living place of memory and culture.
The Toile de Jouy Museum traces the history of the Toile de Jouy factory, created in 1760 in Jouy-en-Josas by Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf (1738-1815).Also called "Indian", Toile de Jouy is a painted or printed cotton fabric. The Toile de Jouy Museum was created in 1977 in Jouy-en-Josas, the town where the Toile de Jouy originated, to ensure the continuity of the work of its creator Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf and to promote the qualities of entrepreneurship, humanism and openness to the world. Installed in 1991 at the Château de l'Eglantine, the museum bears witness to the quality and know-how of the productions of the Oberkampf factory, which was active from 1760 to 1848. Its collections bring together nearly 10,000 items from the 18th century to the present day, including: painted and printed canvases, sample albums, drawings, gouache prints, paintings, costumes, furniture, bed linens, as well as various tools and mechanisms related to the printing technique. The production of Jouy-en-Josas as well as other French (Normandy, Alsace, Provence) and foreign (Great Britain, Italy) productions are illustrated. From the beginning of the school year 2022, the Musée de la Toile de Jouy will inaugurate its new historical exhibition spaces for the 18th and 19th centuries. An immersive dive into the heart of the production of the Oberkampf factory (1760-1843) and its 30,000 printed motifs. This walk through the inspired interiors of the Oberkampf family, a bedroom, an office and a music room, invites visitors to discover the use of printed fabrics in furnishings. To punctuate the visit, an interactive digital device allows visitors to become familiar with this important textile heritage. The inauguration, scheduled for 13 September 2022 at 6:30 pm, will be attended by Valérie Pécresse, President of the Île-de-France Region, Pierre Bédier, President of the Yvelines Departmental Council, and Marie-Hélène Aubert, Mayor of Jouy-en-Josas and Vice-President of the Yvelines Departmental Council. The visit of the permanent collections takes you on a discovery of the history, the printing techniques and the use of Toile de Jouy in clothing and furnishings. With the help of the Association of Friends of the Toile de Jouy Museum, the Museum regularly makes new acquisitions: canvases, objects, costumes, etc., from the time of the founder of the factory as well as from today's designers. Numerous artists, publishers and designers are inspired by the Toile de Jouy fabrics to design their collections and contribute to the influence of this heritage. The permanent exhibition reveals the incredible creativity of the designers of the time through the canvases exhibited with floral, geometric and character motifs. It also presents the different printing techniques used: the wooden plate, then the copper plate and the copper roll. Reconstructions with pieces from the French National Furniture, among others, evoke the intimacy of Oberkampf as a visionary. DISCOUNT WITH THE PASS MALIN Take advantage of our exclusive promotional offer! A 15%* discount valid on all Musée de la Toile de Jouy tickets. *Simply present the discount voucher you can download from the passmalin.fr website!