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Le petit monde de Marcel Pagnol

Marcel Pagnol's Little World

Come and rediscover Aubagne santon-makers
as well as the unforgettable characters from Marcel Pagnol.

A fun and living museum

200 santons

This universe made of 200 santons and signed by the greatest clay artists of the Pays d’Aubagne et de l’Étoile, in homage to Marcel Pagnol’s literary and cinematographic creation, becomes a fun and living museum thanks to new technologies.

Entirely recreated and staged inside the Atelier Thérèse Neveu, as the “grand finale” of a clay and history tour leading to the top of Aubagne’s old city center.

Sounds, images, lights, reconstructions,… modernity serving tradition to rediscover this remarkable heritage.

The new “Petit monde de Marcel Pagnol” also welcomes santons created by Daniel Scaturro, Meilleur Ouvrier de France, in a diorama staging Marcel Pagnol’s universe- as a final picture.

The new “Petit monde de Marcel Pagnol” has reopened at the “Atelier Thérèse Neveu”
15 Septembre 2018

A little bit of history

In 1974, Aubagne’s santon-maker and crib scene maker decided to pay homage to Marcel Pagnol by renovating a former bandstand.
A reconstruction of the landscape of Aubagne’s hills was created inside the building and 200 santons staging characters taken from Marcel Pagnol’s movies or novels were added in this landscape.

In 2018, after being located during 44 years on the Esplanade de Gaulle, the santons are moved to the Atelier Thérèse Neveu.

With its 60.000 visitors a year, the Petit monde de Marcel Pagnol is very dear to the heart of Aubagne’s inhabitants and is also the emblem of the cultural identity of the territory, gathering in the same place the art of our santon-makers and Marcel Pagnol’s Provence.

It is here that lived and worked
the “Belle santonnière”, Louis Sicard’s sister :
Thérèse Neve

An historical area at the entrance of the museum is dedicated to Thérèse Neveu (1866-1946), in homage to this great lady of the santon-maker art.
She created a hundred models of santons inspired by the people of Aubagne, literature and Provencal folklore.

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