Paris Several new museums are due to open their doors to the public this year in the Alsace and Lorraine regions, according to the French tourist office Maison de La France. They include one museum dedicated to crystal glass manufacture in Saint-Louis-les-Bitche as well as a theme park focusing on the era of silver mining in the sixteenth century.
The glass museum will display examples from the royal crystal glass factory which was founded in 1781 in Saint-Louis. The exhibition will extend over 950 square metres of wall space on three floors in the former glass-blowing workshop.
The museum has 7,000 objects in its collection of which between 1,000 and 1,500 will be on display at any one time.
Each object will be accompanied by multi-lingual information explaining the techniques of glass-making behind each artefact.
Two museums are due to open in Alsace in October including the Wuerth Museum of Contemporary Art in Erstein. The managers plan to stage two large exhibitions every year (Internet: www.wurth.fr).
The Tomi Ungerer Museum of Illustration in the Villa Greiner in Strasbourg is dedicated to the works of the artist Tomi Ungerer who left the collection to his home city.
Summer will also see the opening of Strasbourg's City Museum in a house constructed in 1587. The house was closed for 20 years while reconstruction work went on (www.musees-strasbourg.org).
June will see the inauguration of Tellure theme park in Val d'Argent in Alsace.
The park will focus on the theme of Silver Fever in the sixteenth century and will show daily life in the mines and how miners lived.
The park also has a cinema and theatre and visitors can view some of the original 400-year-old mine shafts (www.tellure.fr).
Internet: www.franceguide.com.
