Nicéphore Niépce’s House (Maison Nicéphore Niépce)
The country house near Chalon where Nicéphore Niépce made the oldest surviving camera photograph.
- Museum
- 41 min from Beaune
- Allow 1 to 1.5 hours
- Saint-Loup-de-Varennes
€140one way from Beaune with a private driver
At a glance
- Official website
- photo-museum.org
Getting there
Private driver from Beaune: 41 min by road (43 km), €140 one way for the whole car.
Or add it to our half-day wine tour plus one hour, €360.
Coming by train or plane? Transfers from stations and airports →
About the place
At Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, a few kilometres south of Chalon, stands Le Gras, the house where Nicéphore Niépce carried out his research. From a window here he made the oldest surviving photograph taken with a camera. Restored by a photography school, the house opens to visitors for a short season each summer.
What you will see
Visitors see the rooms where Niépce worked and follow how his process evolved, from engraved plates to the first image fixed from a camera. The house also preserves the photographic studio and laboratory of the Chalon photographer Petiot-Groffier, whose chemicals date from around 1840, presented as the oldest known to survive. Displays cover the Pyréolophore engine and other Niépce inventions, including an early velocipede.
History
Niépce, born in Chalon in 1765, spent his summers at Le Gras and carried out his experiments there. With his brother Claude he also invented the Pyréolophore, an early internal combustion engine patented in 1807. In 1827 he fixed the view from a window of the house onto a metal plate coated with bitumen of Judea. In 1829 he formed a partnership with Louis Daguerre, and he died in this house in 1833.
The house remained little studied until 1999, when the photographer Pierre-Yves Mahé, director of the Spéos photography school, began to research and restore it. It opened to visitors in 2007, and in 2013 the Ministry of Culture gave it the Maisons des Illustres label. Spéos still finances and manages the museum, which has also published Niépce's letters and papers online.
Planning your visit
Tips for your visit
The house opens only in summer, from 1 July to 24 August, and is closed on Tuesdays; check the official website for opening times before planning a visit. It is a short drive south of Chalon, so it pairs naturally with the Musée Nicéphore Niépce on the same day.
Around here
What to combine with Nicéphore Niépce’s House on the same day, nearest first.
Questions
Nicéphore Niépce’s House is about 41 min from Beaune by road (43 km). With a private driver, the trip from Beaune starts at €140 for the whole car, up to 4 guests.
Did you know? Niépce died in this house in 1833, six years before the photographic process developed with his partner was announced in Paris in 1839 under the name daguerreotype.
Sources
Nicéphore Niépce’s House with a private driver
€140 one way from Beaune · up to 4 guests