François Mitterrand Childhood's House

Through the living rooms of this house, the furniture and objects preserved here for four generations, the visit of the garden and the former cooperage, it is the story of the childhood of François Mitterrand and his family that we discover.
The permanent exhibition traces the family's life, and features speeches and writings by the former president.

"My political life took me to a different region, to which I've always been very attached. Yet I've never really left Jarnac. I return from time to time to the house where I was born, to the house where my parents and grandparents lived... I remember the Quai de l'Orangerie, just outside my home, with its well-designed houses and the lime trees that I used to breathe in so passionately. François Mitterrand.

Built on the site of the last Protestant temple authorized before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the current house at 22, rue Abel Guy dates from the first quarter of the 19th century, and is a fine example of Charentais architecture: a comfortable ashlar townhouse with a simple, severe appearance, opening onto the street with a long façade of tall, grey shuttered windows. Part of this ensemble dates back to the 1930s: the lower section, also opening onto the street.
Beyond the large gate, the intimacy and life of the President are revealed from the paved inner courtyard, with its first-floor windows opening onto a balcony, a square of lawn surrounded by flowerbeds, to the courtyard of the former vinegar factory (created by Jules Lorrain, the President's grandfather, at the end of the 19th century). It's a family home in which four generations have lived together, and as the tour progresses, you'll discover a collection of furniture, objects and documents that belonged to François Mitterrand and the members of this great family.
A wine storehouse and a cooperage complete the setting, to which François Mitterrand liked to return regularly in the company of his siblings and cousins, who also lived in the house.
This is the "little story", the one that gives an insight into the making of François Mitterrand, his attachment to his family, his roots, the little things that contributed in some way to making the adult, the man and the President he later became.