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Origin and history

The Wine Museum is housed in ancient medieval quarries in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, rue des Eaux. These underground galleries, dug in Passy Hill, were transformed into cellars by the Minimes monks in the 15th century. The religious produced a well-known wine, cultivated on the hillsides of the Seine, and appreciated until the court of Louis XIII. The quarries, which became cellars, later housed the reserves of the restaurant of the Eiffel Tower before their rehabilitation as a museum.

The hill of Passy, once covered by the forest of Rouvray, saw the settlement of the village of Nigeon in the 6th century, marked by wine-growing. In the 15th century, the Minima monks of the Abbey of Passy – founded by Saint Francis de Paule in 1493 – exploit the local vines and develop the cellars in existing quarries. The rue des Eaux, opened in the 17th century, takes its name from the mineral springs then in vogue. The French Revolution, in 1790, ended the abbey, whose buildings were gradually destroyed.

The museum opened in 1984 under the aegis of the Conseil des échansons de France, which organized cultural events around wine. A collection of 2,000 pieces (tools, winemaking objects) is exhibited, staged with wax characters. In 2023, the restaurant Le M s The galleries, rehabilitated after 1950, now bear witness to this lost wine and religious heritage.

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