Discover the treasures of the Estonian National Museum in French!

On January 17, the French translation of the permanent collection of the Estonian National Museum (Eesti Rahva Muuseum), located in Tartu, was inaugurated. The director of the museum, Mr Tõnis Lukas, the French ambassador to Estonia Ms Claudia Delmas-Scherer and the director of the French Institute of Estonia Ms Anne Chounet-Cambas, took part in this inauguration.

The permanent exhibition of the museum, on a 4000 m² surface, highlights all aspects of the history and culture of the Estonian people since prehistoric times. One of the major interests of this ethnographic museum is to make this exhibition accessible to as many people as possible: not only is the museum suitable for all ages, with facilities for young audiences, but interactive labels can be used to read in several languages, including French as from 2018, explanatory notes of objects and works on display.

At the opening of the museum in 2016, the exhibition was translated into English and Russian; Finnish, Latvian and French, and German, have since been added. The museum also plans to have its multimedia content translated in 2018. The next step will be to create an application to download content on a tablet or a personal smartphone, simply by passing close to the facilities and exhibited works.

The French Institute of Estonia thanks the Estonian National Museum for this wonderful initiative, thanks to which Estonian history and culture are made more accessible to all!

The texts of the exhibition have been translated by Jean-Pascal Ollivry, great promoter of Estonian culture in France, thanks to his translations of Estonian authors Anton H. Tammsaare and Indrek Hargla, among others.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia has helped fund the translation project for the exhibition in French.

Notice to French students: The French version of the exhibition enriches French vocabulary by learning terms that are rarely taught in class.