After our Michelin lunch we have to leave Maubec and drive to the neighboring larger village, Bourgoin-Jallieu. Exiting we notice that the village sign is inverted and are quite curious why. Later we find out, supposedly it is a sign of farmer discontent with the reduction of some government subsidies. We had no idea but are proud that we even noticed it when driving past.
Bourgoin-Jallieu, like many other villages here, is quite ancient and you can see this when driving through the downtown area. And we drive quite a bit trying to find the museums and some parking nearby.
There are many interesting details that we notice as we drive around. There are many small saint statues in corner niches protecting the buildings and also of course different and interesting shutters on the windows.
We find the museum however there is no parking nearby so we disembark our relatives and then look for parking which is quite far away unfortunately.
We then return back to the museum and are a bit confused as there is a church which seems to be merged with it. But there is no entrance into the church you have to enter via the modern museum so that is what we do and then we will check on whether there is a way to reach the church from the inside.
The region is famous for its silk and the free museum is focused on silk production and textiles that were produced here.
It is not only textiles of course, even though that is the main focus, it has exhibits also about pottery and some cutlery.
And then we pass into the church and lo and behold it is actually part of the museum. It houses the many huge looms and other instruments used for textile production.
Some of the historical items are quite interesting, like the automated pattern marker, it seems quite complicated for something built in the 19th century. Using the programming sheet you could input any pattern and that makes it in a way an early automaton.
There are also a few interesting smaller exhibits with textiles and other objects from the area that we enjoy. Of course we also enjoy the cooler temperatures, outside it is still really hot.
Returning to the main section, on the second floor, we find a hall with a large selection of patterns and patterned items showing the large and varied output of this area.
There is a model shop showing how the patterns were imprinted on the textiles which is quite interesting and we explore it for a while.
There are also other workstations showing the different stages of producing and imprinting textiles, there are multiple ways to do it of course and the exhibits touch on all the different ways.
Even more interesting you can do it yourself and we do just that creating a few samples for ourselves which are actually quite nice. And then it is time to exit the museum and return to the car.
Our relatives decide to walk back to the car so we explore the town a bit on our return including the central square which is quite empty in the heat of the day but has some nice shops and restaurants.
And it has an actual church which we are looking forward to during this hot period. Inside it is much cooler and there is no one else making it easy to enjoy this huge church.
As usual it looks much larger than it could be needed for this smallish village but we enjoy exploring all the nooks and crannies before continuing on our way to the parking area.
Near the parking is a Carrefour so we decide to buy some provisions first before picking up the car and returning back to the AirBnB to eat dinner and explore the area further after it cools down.
