Musée de l'Absinthe in Auvers-sur-Oise Explores the Myths and Truths of the 'Green Fairy'

The Musée de l'Absinthe in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, is dedicated to the 'Green Fairy,' the anise-flavored spirit that captivated 19th-century artists and writers. Housed in a 19th-century stone house with green shutters, the museum opened in 1994 to display the collection of Marie-Claude Delahaye, a cell biology lecturer who became passionate about absinthe after finding a slotted spoon at a flea market in 1981. The museum's five rooms across two floors feature posters, paintings, caricatures, glasses, fountains, a collection of slotted spoons, and advertising objects, evoking the Belle Époque café atmosphere. The exhibition traces absinthe's history from its invention in the 19th century to its prohibition in France in 1915 and its later rehabilitation, debunking myths about its supposed hallucinogenic effects. The museum also includes an aromatic garden where visitors can touch an absinthe leaf to release its aniseed scent, and a bar called 'À l'heure verte' offering traditional tasting rituals. Notably, the museum clarifies that the slotted spoon is used to dissolve a sugar cube placed over the glass with water, not for the flaming ritual popularized in Prague in the 1990s, which purists decry. The collection includes lithographed posters by major Belle Époque illustrators and is part of a summer series by Beaux Arts highlighting unconventional French museums.