Description of the attraction
The Turgenev House Museum is located near Paris, in Bougival, on the street that is called Ivan Turgenev Street. In a picturesque place on the banks of the Seine, the great Russian writer bought an estate in 1874 - a house and a park of eight hectares. His beloved Pauline Viardot and her family lived in a small two-story villa, and for himself Turgenev built an elegant three-story chalet, the architecture of which successfully combined the Swiss and Russian styles. He named it "Le Fresne" - "Ash trees" because there were many ash trees growing around.
Here, in "Ash", Turgenev lived all recent years, here he wrote his greatest novel "Nov" (about the populists) and "Poems in Prose" (with the famous "you alone are my support and support, oh great, mighty, truthful and free Russian! "), translated Flaubert's" The Temptation of St. Anthony ", here he suffered from cancer and died in 1883. From here began his last journey - to the St. Petersburg Volkovskoe cemetery.
"Ash trees" at that time were a real center of creative thought - Zola, Flaubert, Maupassant, Daudet, Sologub, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Saint-Saens, Fauré came to Turgenev and Viardot. We talked, read and discussed literary novelties. “We are enthusiastically reading your book“Education of the Senses”, - wrote Turgenev to the sick Flaubert. - It's warm here. We have a good fireplace."
The fireplace in the meticulously restored office on the second floor is still the same. Everything here is genuine - the writer's desk, busts of Beethoven and Pushkin, a bookcase. The cupboard of the era of Emperor Napoleon III is an exhibit of the World Exhibition of 1867, Turgenev treasured it very much. The writer's bedroom was restored based on a drawing by Viardot's daughter, Claudie Chamreau.
Permanent exhibitions in the rooms on the first floor tell about Turgenev's life in Russia and Europe, about Pauline Viardot and her sister Maria Malibran (a talented singer who died tragically). Exhibited are Ivan Sergeevich's letters to French writers, lifetime editions of his works, paintings, engravings, sculptures of that time, as well as a square piano from Baden-Baden - a rare instrument that belonged to Turgenev.
The museum is private, created by the organization of enthusiasts "Association of friends of Ivan Turgenev, Pauline Viardot and Maria Malibran". Open from April to October, visitors come here by appointment.
