The villages of Bois-d’Amant in the Haut Jura lies between the Lac des Rousse and Lake Joux and, more pertinently, between the forests of Risoux and Noirmont which provided the spruce trees which were the raw material of the area’s principal industry. The production of wooden artefacts for distant markets had its origins in the sixteenth century, but was particularly prosperous in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1929 some 500 of the 1,170 inhabitants of Bois-d’Amant were engaged in woodworking. One of the specialities of the region was the production of wooden boxes (known as Rovens) for Camenbert and other soft cheeses, introduced about 1890 by Jules Germain Lacroix who had the idea after seeing Camenbert displayed on straw at a fair in Lyons. The introduction of cardboard cartons for soft cheeses in the 1960s began a period of steady decline.
The museum is located in a restored sawmill alongside the River Orbe which over the centuries provided power for cutting and shaping wood. A steam-powered saw is demonstrated from time to time. The museum displays tools used for sawing, boring and cleaving wood, but its chief attraction is the astonishingly varied collection of products, chests, trunks, clock cabinets, mallets, skis and the boxes used for soft cheeses, as well as those designed for pharmaceutical products.
Museum of woodworking
Musée de la Boissellerie
12 Rue du Petit Pont
39220 Bois-d’Amant
France
+33 (0) 384 - 609879
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