Musée Estrine - Association Présence Van Gogh — Attraction in Arles

Another excellent local museum in St. Rémy-de-Provence. When we visited at the beginning of October, the museum closed for two hours at noon for lunch. We arrived after lunch and had the place virtually to ourselves - it was a delight!

Very informative museum host, Chantal, took our ticket money and explained the museum, carefully explaining that there are no original works of van Gogh’s on exhibit here, but rather the exhibition about him is cultural and ethnographic and describes his life and experiences in St. Rémy. Great description of van Gogh’s life and particularly how his periods of painting changed based on his life events and time at the mental institution in St. Rémy. Lovely movie with images of surrounding countryside Van Gogh painted and reproductions of how he painted them. Audio guide available for free in English for VG exhibit.

Another exhibit was on when we visited - of Juliette Roche, a contemporary painter from the early 1900s. Madame Chantal explained about Roche’s work for us a bit, which made the visit so enjoyable.

Permanent paintings also include some Roche works, as well as some of her husband’s (who’s name I forget at this moment), and a few other contemporary artists who worked locally.

Great museum for small St. Rémy - very...

Not really worth the entry fee. There isn't enough quality art on display to justify the fee. The Van Gogh thing is like a school project, it's a joke. Even with the audio guide device none of it is interesting enough nor is it anything you can't get from a Wikipedia page (not an exhibition, none of his actual work is on display). There seems to be a French attitude with "museums" and galleries prevalent in France where travelers are only there to be taken advantage of. They'd charge unreasonable sums of money while they feel nothing much needs to be provided in return. It isn't money or time I cannot get back. You could spend your time and money elsewhere in better ways...

It is a small and charming art museum, with basically no collection of Van Gogh’s work. We visited on July 6. When we asked questions in English, the ticketing lady responded with a long string of French, then told us in a rather unfriendly manner, “That’s how it feels when I hear English,” which took us by surprise.

We understand the pride French people have in their language. However, for foreign visitors, speaking only English is not necessarily a choice, often the only option. This was the only negative encounter we had during our two-week stay in France. We sincerely hope this lady will come to better respect...