Naive paintings, ex-votos, tin toys and Hokusai albums on three floors of an old school in the village of Noyers.
€330one way from Beaune with a private driver
Private driver from Beaune: 1 h 30 by road (128 km), €330 one way for the whole car.
Or add it to our long-day wine tour, €880.
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In the heart of Noyers, an old school now holds a museum of unusual variety. Over three floors and 1,500 square metres, it shows naive painting from France and beyond, popular art from around the world, a collector's cabinet of the 19th century and finds from the medieval castle. It is closed for works until April 2027.
Start with the naive paintings of the Yankel donation, then the canvases of Kikoïne. The popular art rooms show wooden, papier-mâché and tin toys, religious images, whistles and ex-votos in wax and silver from southern Europe, Asia and Latin America, presented as works of art. One room is given to lithographed tin boxes from Serge Moreau's collection. Elsewhere you find the founder's cabinet of curiosities, archaeology from the castle and the village, and Hokusai's albums of drawings.
When he died on 18 July 1876, the scholar Jean-Étienne Miltiade Simonnet de Bresse de Préfontaine left all his property to Noyers to found a museum and a library, and the museum opened in 1881 in the former collège. It still shows his collections of paintings, furniture, engravings, casts and medals. In 1920 a navy doctor and traveller, Dr Soupey, gave it a set of albums of the Manga by the Japanese artist Hokusai, published between 1814 and 1848.
The museum was reborn in 1987, when the painter Jacques Yankel, son of the School of Paris painter Michel Kikoïne, gave about a hundred naive paintings, where anonymous artists hang beside masters such as Bombois, Bauchant, Nikifor and Vivin. Deposits followed, among them anti-fascist works by Déchelette in 2001 and sixty naive canvases from Jean-Marc Luce's collection in 2005. Around 120 ex-votos and a large gift of popular art collected by Jacqueline Selz and Yvon Taillandier complete the collections. The museum holds the Musée de France label, and 2026 marks 150 years since the founder's bequest.
Checked on on destinationgrandvezelay.com.
Allow an hour to an hour and a half. The museum is at 25 rue de l'Église in the centre of Noyers, about 25 minutes from Chablis and about 1 hour 30 minutes from Beaune. It is closed for works from 1 October 2026 to early April 2027. In a normal year it opens at weekends in spring, every day except Tuesday from June to September, with longer hours in July and August. Temporary exhibitions run in summer.
What to combine with Musée des Arts Naïfs et Populaires de Noyers on the same day, nearest first.
Musée des Arts Naïfs et Populaires de Noyers is about 1 h 30 from Beaune by road (128 km). With a private driver, the trip from Beaune starts at €330 for the whole car, up to 4 guests.
Did you know? The museum's Hokusai albums were given in 1920 by Dr Soupey, a navy doctor who brought back objects from Africa and South-East Asia.
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€330 one way from Beaune · up to 4 guests
