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MUSéE ET JARDIN CHRISTIAN DIOR
Rue Estouteville - Villa Les Rhumbs 50400 GRANVILLE
Tel. : +33 2 33 61 48 21
Fax : +33 2 33 61 99 15
Email : museechristiandior@wanadoo.fr
Site : http://www.musee-dior-granville.com/
In the Normandy seaside resort of Granville, not far from Mont St Michel, the house where Christian Dior spent his childhood still stands on the clifftop, looking out towards the Channel Islands.
Built by a shipowner by the name of Beust at the end of the XIXth century, the Villa Les Rhumbs owes its name to the seafaring term for the thirty-two points of the compass rose, a symbol featured in a mosaic decorating the floor in one of the entrances.
Christian Dior’s parents purchased the house, comfortably set in large grounds and boasting a fine conservatory, in 1905.
Christian Dior was particularly fond of this place, writing in his autobiography Dior by Dior that “I cherish the tenderest and most marvellous memory of my childhood home. Indeed, my life and my style owe almost everything to its location and its architecture”.
In 1932, shortly after the death of his mother Madeleine Dior, the house was put up for sale, his industrialist father having lost all his money in the Depression. It was purchased by Granville Council and its gardens opened to the public in 1938.
The villa was turned into the “Christian Dior Museum” in 1997, the only museum to be entirely dedicated to a fashion designer in France.
From May 1st to September 20th 2009
New exhibition: "Dior, the Bohan years. Three decades of styles and stars (1961-1989)".
Unguided tour (1 hour)
Garden: free unlimited entry, open all year round
Opening times: 9 am-8 pm (from September to June), 9 am-9 pm (July and August)
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