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Origin and history

The Musée de la Vie Bourguignonne Perrin de Puycousin has its origins in the ethnographic collections of Maurice Perrin de Puycousin, which began in 1870 in regions such as Tournugeois, Bresse and Mâconnais. In 1935, he offered the city of Dijon a collection of 1,914 objects to found a regional museum, inaugurated in 1938 in the Hotel Aubriot. This first space, attached in 1949 to the Museum of Fine Arts, closed in 1970 due to the deterioration of the collections.

In 1984, the museum was transferred to the former monastery of Bernardines, a 17th-century building originally built for Cistercians in Tart Abbey. The church, completed in 1709, became after the Revolution a repository of art works, then a hospice in 1803. The cloister, assigned to the museum in 1980, reopened in 1992 with a modernized museography. In 1993, the sacred art museum of St. Anne's Church was attached to it, enriching the collections.

The museum presents a rural Burgundy heritage of the late 19th century (furniture, costumes, tools) and a reconstruction of former shops in Dijon (pharmacie, butcher shop, grocery store). A section is dedicated to the history of mustard, a local specialty, while a documentary collection of 4,500 books and 110 periodicals completes the resources. The works exhibited include paintings and sculptures evoking daily life, traditional festivals and Burgundy landscapes.

Among the notable pieces are paintings such as The mustard of Dijon by François-Louis Lanfant of Metz (18th century) or The Glory of Burgundy by Henri-Léopold Lévy (1895), as well as watercolours and oils representing historical scenes, such as the Bombardment of the Raoul trenches of Meixmoron (circa 1920). The museum also preserves sculptures, including a bronze self-portrait by Henri Bouchard and terracotta by Henri Vincenot.

The institution highlights various themes: ethnology (costumes, habitat, trades), local history (food industry, religious practices) and technical sciences. The collections illustrate both the traditional rural life and the urban evolution of Dijon, through everyday objects and visual archives. The monastery of Bernardines, classified as historical monuments, offers a remarkable architectural setting for these exhibitions.

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