François Rabelais in Seuilly (37), Indre-et-Loire (37)

François Rabelais (c. 1483–1553) was born in La Devinière, Seuilly, now the only museum dedicated to him. Antoine Rabelais was his lawyer father who had inherited several properties in Seuilly from his mother. This smallholding, or farm, dates from the fifteenth century and Rabelais was the third child. This, the Château de Grandgousier, the seat of giants, is is where Gargantua was born: the centre of the 'guerre picrocholine'. This is Rabelais country. L'Indre-et-Loire turned the property into a museum in 1951.

The property from a general viewpoint.

La Maison du Métayer, or tenant farmer, now showing the biography of Rabelais.

An anonymous oil painting on wood called Rabelais au verre de vin.

The pigeonnier-grange, or dovecote-cum-barn, dates from the 17th century, now holding an exhibition dedicated to Rabelais and Nostradamus.

The room contains a number of old editions of Rabelais's, this one including an illustration by Lucien Bouche from a 1930 Hazan edition.

At the back of the pigeonnier, Le Logis Rabelais, 15th century and of white calcareous stone.

La Grande Salle  in the logis.

Bust of Rabelais holding his pen, by Louis-Valentin Robert, who executed the Rabelais statue in the Turgot wing of the Louvre.

The charcoal sketch of Rabelais by Matisse presented to the musée in 1951.

The bedroom on the upper level.

The door to the petite chambre.

François Villon, Georges Brassens and Rabelais by Louis Mitelberg (1992).

The cellars were hewn out of the rock used to construct houses in La Devinière, and became an underground farm, also including an oven, chimney, and wine press.

And the wine press.

Finally, La Maison du Vigneron.

With its bread oven. And all of this for six euros (five if you've visited another museum in the département): it makes the National Trust look like a total rip-off.

My François Rabelais posts:
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François Rabelais in Seuilly
Rabelais in Meudon-sur-Seine
Rabelais at Saint-Maur-des-Fossés