Musée de la Compagnie des Indes

This museum is the only one of its kind in France. The great trading companies of the 17th and 18th centuries plied their course from Lorient to the East Indies, bringing back exotic and precious cargoes from the other side of the world. With a vast collection of Chinese porcelain, Indian cotton fabrics, Indo-European furniture, models of ships, old maps, oils, gouaches, woodcuts, and miniatures, the museum retraces the voyages of the intrepid sailors of the East India Companies who landed on the coasts of Africa and Asia, setting up such famous trading-posts as: Mocha, Pondicherry, Chandernagar and Canton. The exhibition also describes the artistic links that were forged with those nations, helping to consolidate the companies’ activities, and also the development of Lorient as town and port. It makes for a marvellous trip.

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