Museums in France

Station 70 is the official museum of National 13 highway recalling mobility in France during the 1950s and 1960s.  It comprises an exhibition area with over 70 vehicles (cars, motorcycles, motorised cycles, bicycles), 10,000 miniatures and 150 enamelled advertising panels dating from 1920 to the 1980s. Reproduction of a 1950s garage. With its small old-fashioned bistro, a timeless and convivial site where you can enjoy a drink or even a meal (bookings required for groups).
 

Raymond Lemoine's La Grange à Bécanes is a motorcycle museum, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2023.

"On the initiative of Paul Leon, who was the director of Fine Arts, the museum was created at the Compiegne Castle. And it was through the efforts of Leo Auscher, who was the vice president of the Touring Club of France, that the National Museum of the car and Tourism was inaugurated in 1927 by Edouard Herriot, the Minister of Public Education and Fine Arts.

In this 150 m² space, the passion of a lifetime is displayed. That of Gérard Veignal, a former coachbuilder from La Ferté-Saint-Aubin who was infected by the virus of old vehicles when he was very young. By no means stingy with anecdotes, he leads the visit with undisguised pleasure. Every car, every bicycle, every motorcycle,
awakens in him memories that he is quick to share with his audience.

There are two collections displayed at the old Chateau (Castle):

- The personal collection fo JP Nylin - around 50 interesting cars.

- And there's the Frederico Sbarro collection with plenty of prototypes.

A private collection of about 50 Vespa scooters.

In the vintage motorcycle museum of Celles-sur-Belle, you will discover exceptional motorcycles brought together by a passionate rally enthusiast Pierre Certain and a collector from Niort. The oldest motorcycles are over a century old. Pierre Certain bequeathed his collection of old motorcycles of around 200 two-wheelers to the town of Celles-sur-Belle but 45 motorcycles are currently visible in the Museum of Old Motorcycles. This collection brings together motorcycles dating from 1903 to the 1960s, from French, English, German, American, Belgian, Italian manufacturers...

Joseph Besset was a wheelwright, who turned to coachbuilding in the 1920s. His workshop bodied Talbot, Voisin, Bugatti etc. cars. From the late 1930s he turned his attention to buses and bought the licence to the streamlined, Garwood bus in 1937. In two halls his work is commemorated. Hall one features an old wheelwright shop, while hall two showcases some of Bennet's cars and buses.