Ecomuseum of Alsace (Écomusée d' Alsace)

     The Ecomuseum of Alsace, located in Ungersheim, France, is a living museum.  Many French rural homes, some dating from the 15th century, were deconstructed, moved to a plot of donated land, and reconstructed in the early 1980s.  The museum opened in 1984.  Over the years, the homes have been furnished with donations from Alsatian families.  Today the village features homes, farm buildings, shops, a school, a fortified tower, and gardens and fields.  It's a fun way to learn history, and you can touch everything.

This home was originally owned by the Gougenheim family of Kochersberg.  In 1890, it was occupied by the Vogler family.  It was dismantled in 1989 and moved to the Ecomuseum where it was outfitted as the village barber shop.

Hair Washing Stations

This complex came from Illkirch-Graffenstaden.  There are three parts - the house, a piggery, and a barn.  The house was built in 1804.  The barn that houses the blacksmith's shop was built in 1844.

The blacksmith is hard at work.

These ceramic stoves produced a moderate heat and stayed hot for a long time.  People who had this type of stove did not have to wake up in the middle of the night to stoke the fire.  The stove temperature was low enough to allow the family to sit on it.

The basement store room contained wine, oil, root vegetables, and crocks of preserved foods.

Most communities had a public oven for baking bread.  The housewife made her loaves and took them to the oven for baking.  In Alsace, however, each home had a bread oven.  The oven is in the wall, over the green shelves.

The bread oven protrudes out the back of the house.

Each stove had a reservoir which held hot water.  This was a mini-water heater.    

This barn came from Hirtzbach.  The part in the front that juts out and has lots of small doors with dots (looks like dominoes) is a pigeon loft.  This section of the building came from Oberhergheim.  Pigeons are good eating.  My grandmother made squab soup (soup made from baby pigeons), and it was delicious.

The inside of the red barn holds a collection of farm equipment.

This is an apiary.

These straw hives are called skeps.  They were invented somewhere between 800 and 1200 A.D.  Today we use the Langstroth box hive.  You have to destroy a skep to get the honey out of it.  A box hive can easily be opened for health inspections, and the box and some of the internal parts of the hive are used over and over and over.

My cousin told me the taller the haystack, the wealthier the farmer.  I think this farmer might not have had such a good year. 

This is how a one room school would have been set up.

Alsatians used walnut, rape (AKA canola), sunflower, and olive oil.  We learned about the milling process.

This gentleman presented a wealth of information about the four types of oil.

"Back in the day" the bath tub was in the kitchen.  The towel hung over this tub is embroidered with the advice, "Wash often in cold water to remain healthy and grow old."  I'll take my bath in hot water, thank you.

You can rent a place to stay over night at the Ecomuseum.  Since they have a restaurant with good food and plenty of wine and beer, I would be game for that.