Musée Rude

Housed in the disused transept of the 11th-century Église Saint-Étienne, the small Musée Rude displays plaster casts of the major works of François Rude (1784–1855), the Dijon sculptor whose best-known piece is the Départ des volontaires — the "Marseillaise" relief on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Casting from the originals at full scale gives a sense of the works that even a visit to Paris doesn't really provide.

The setting in the half-ruined Gothic transept is part of the appeal. Free admission. Allow 30 minutes. Closed Tuesdays.

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A story
Beneath the museum, glimpsed through a glass floor in the back room, are the foundations of a 13th-century church demolished in the 18th century. The stones — including a half-buried apse — lay forgotten until restoration work in the 2000s uncovered them. Visitors stand directly above the medieval church's nave.

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