Maison de la Mariée: Preserving the Lost Art of Wax Orange Blossoms

On Île de Fédrun in the Brière marsh, the Maison de la Mariée museum preserves the forgotten craft of wax wedding flowers. Founded by librarian Lucie Godin in the 1970s, the collection includes over 200 wedding globes—the largest in France—and crowns made of wax orange blossoms. Godin acquired two thatched cottages on the island in 1973, one of which became the museum. The collection was bought by the Parc naturel régional de Brière in 1998, and after meticulous restoration in 2004, the museum earned the prestigious "musée de France" label. The tradition of wax flowers dates to the second half of the 19th century, when brides began replacing natural orange blossoms with wax ones. By the 1890s, workshops in Saint-Joachim were handcrafting these flowers for wedding bouquets and crowns. The museum displays historical tools, raw materials, period photographs, video archives, and documents such as invoices. A highlight is the grand counter of wedding globes—glass domes originally used to protect clocks and religious statuettes, which from the 1850s became showcases for wedding crowns. The globes were treasured keepsakes, often holding personal mementos like family photos or the groom's medals. The museum also offers traveling conferences, children's activities (memory games, puzzles, tangrams), and guided tours of a traditional Brière thatched cottage.