Inventory attempt at the Dufresne Museum in Azay-le-Rideau.
Imagine...
Here is a 1940 Hotchkiss crawler tractor from 1940 that comes out of a cellar in Verdun, a Blériot aircraft identical to the one that made the first crossing of the English Channel, a 1938 Sovel electric truck in the colours of Poulain chocolate, a metal guillotine from 1792, a trepigneuse, a road from 1907, a huge machine which, as its name suggests, was used to build roads, spotted by Maurice Dufresne in a pond near Marseille, a Panhard and Levassor room, and, and, and...
The inventory of the Dufresne Museum in Azay-le-Rideau is impossible to do!
Antique vehicles, cars, cycles, planes, trucks, motorcycles, tractors, agricultural or military machines, forgotten tools, unusual objects of the time... There are about 3000 pieces to discover and admire, very carefully restored...
It is a true journey back in time between 1850 and 1950.
It is necessary to plan several hours of visit!
But you can always take a break at the museum's small restaurant, "Chez Jeannot", simple but nice and "local" ! If your heart is well attached, you will ask for a "guillotine" ice cream! Gloups!
The Dufresne Museum, a man of courage's dream...
Maurice Dufresne was born in 1930 into a modest family of farmers from Bourgueil. When he reaches school age, his 8 km in hooves that he travels every day to go to school. And if spelling is not his strong suit, he still stands out because he calculates well, and thinks fast!
At that time, at a relatively young age, it was possible to join the "Compagnons du Devoir" and complete a "Tour de France", which could last for years, in order to learn a trade, in this case, to learn the trade of blacksmith.
His "Tour de France" lasts eight years, during which time he works for 22 different bosses. What a formation! It was at the home of one of his bosses that he met the woman who would become his wife...
It was at the age of 22 that the "Mother of the Companions" offered her the management of a farriery in Villeperdue, in Indre-et-Loire. And so he worked as a blacksmith for four years.
But he has an open eye and an alert mind, and he understands that the horse's time is coming to an end. It's time to apply his know-how to something else... So he has the idea of making tractor trailers. And it works! In 1958, he created his company... and it worked so well that, quite quickly, he noticed that the essential raw material was starting to be lacking and, very logically, four years later, he also started to recover metals!
And there is something to recover, since, with progress, you change your old machines faster and faster for new ones!
And, by the way, the prettiest pieces are put aside... And, one thing led to another... here it is!
Maurice Dufresne Museum
Moulin de Marnay
17, route de Marnay
37190 Azay-le-Rideau
Tél: 02 47 47 45 36 18 18
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
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