Maison du Pays Welche

In Fréland, a mountain house furnished the way it was a century ago, shown by people from the valley who still speak Welche.

Fréland (11 km from the gîte)

Era

Old homes and trades

Tour length

2-hour guided tour

Location

Fréland (11 km from the gîte)

From

€7.50 adults · €3.50 ages 8 to 16

The site

What to know

People talk a lot about the Pays Welche without ever saying where you can actually go and see it. This is the place. The Maison du Pays Welche occupies an old building in Fréland, the village's former presbytery, and can only be seen on a guided tour of about two hours. You go through every room: the kitchen, the "pal" (the living room), the cheese room, the bedrooms, then the cobbler's and clog-maker's workshops. Objects sit where they were used, not behind glass. The guides are volunteers who live in the valley, adjust to whoever turns up, and are happy to tell you about their own grandparents.

History

The story of the place

Fréland, Lapoutroie, Labaroche, Le Bonhomme and Orbey: five villages inside Alsace that speak a Romance dialect rather than Alsatian. That is what earned this valley the name Pays Welche, and what the museum exists to keep. The building, Fréland's former presbytery, was fitted out as a witness house to the life that went before. A fire destroyed part of the roof in January 2013, and the association and the village council put the place back together. The guides speak Welche fluently and will teach you a few words if you ask: lè kejinn, the kitchen; lo pal, the living room; lo bokilyo, the woodcutter.

The must-sees

What you really shouldn't miss during your visit.

Every room in the house

The kitchen, the "pal", the cheese room, the bedrooms. Nothing behind glass, everything in place.

The cheese room

The draining table, the three-legged tub, the moulds. Cheese was made at home, in a room built for it.

The workshops

The cobbler's and the clog-maker's, with the tools of the trades that kept the valley going.

The Welche dialect

The guides speak it fluently. Ask them: you will not hear it anywhere else.

Guides from the valley

Local volunteers who answer questions and talk about their own grandparents.

The religious art museum

In Fréland's former Saint-Thiébaut chapel, run by the same association: archives, vestments and 18th and 19th-century liturgical objects.

Opening hours

Open: Mid-April to mid-October: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 3pm to 6pm. Last guided tour at 5pm.
Closed: Monday to Wednesday, and from mid-October to mid-April

Tickets

Adult
Online booking required
€7.50
Child aged 8 to 16
€3.50
Groups of 10 to 50
Mid-June to mid-October, by email booking, time arranged with the museum
€6.00
Group free places
Coach driver goes free
1 per 25

In pictures

The place from several angles, to prepare your visit.

Our tips before you go

1Online booking is required, at musee-pays-welche.alsace. You cannot just walk in.
2Open four days a week only, Thursday to Sunday. Turn up on a Tuesday and the door is locked.
3Last guided tour at 5pm. Arriving at 5:30pm gets you nowhere.
4There is no self-guided option: everything is a guided tour, and it runs two hours.
5Too long for very young children, as the museum says itself. The child rate starts at 8, and so does the interest.
6Outside opening days, a visit is still possible on request, by text message to +33 6 82 13 78 87.
7Tours in German or English are available for groups, if you ask in advance.
8There is an escape game inside the house: find the plan a brigand hid in the building.
911 km from the gîte via Hachimette, around twenty minutes.