The Jacques Chirac Museum in Corrèze houses numerous treasures from around the world, blending diplomacy, arts, and cultures.

A museum of gifts—is that even possible? In Sarran (Corrèze), a sleek and elongated architectural ensemble houses a vast collection of gifts received by President Jacques Chirac (1932–2019) during his two terms. In his presidential role, he received countless gifts from all corners of the globe. Of course, these are not simply bottles of champagne: imbued with profound symbolic significance, the objects received by the President of the Republic embody the values of the nation at the heart of diplomatic exchange. Whether they are works of art, archaeological artifacts, or folkloric symbols—like the pair of cowboy boots given by Bill Clinton, President of the United States, in 1997—official gifts and their meticulous presentation reflect a mutual understanding between two nations or peoples and sometimes reveal the very personality of the sender. The museum's permanent exhibition hall invites visitors to discover around one hundred of these objects, classified by geopolitical zone and heritage significance, representative of the international relationships forged during Jacques Chirac's presidency. The museum's reserve collection also displays over a thousand objects addressed to the President, from the rarest items to the most ordinary gifts from individuals. Through the great diversity of the objects on display, the museum aims to encourage reflection on our present, based on the tangible or visual memory of the encounters that have shaped foreign policy in recent decades.

Currently at the museum:

Cabu, a tribute.

Come and discover an exhibition dedicated to Cabu, the press cartoonist who tragically died in the attack on Charlie Hebdo in 2015, and who relentlessly drew satirical portraits of French presidents for over 60 years. The museum's ground floor houses the cartoonist's most iconic caricatures, which spared none of the presidents of the Fourth and Fifth Republics, from Charles de Gaulle to François Mitterrand, Nicolas Sarkozy, and François Hollande.

Cabu's Presidents - Until November 14, 2021

Marianne

Another temporary exhibition revisits the figure of Marianne, certainly one of the symbols to which the French are most attached. She embodies both the revolutionary spirit and the French State, carrying with her the ideals of liberty, secularism, and equality championed by the Republic. Depending on the political movements, this symbol has been mobilized in various ways, and was even embodied by certain stars of song and film in the 1970s. The museum thus offers a display of numerous busts of Marianne which, precisely because of their aesthetic and symbolic differences, embody the face of France, both past and future.

Marianne or the Faces of the Republic – until November 14, 2021

JACQUES CHIRAC PRESIDENT'S MUSEUM
4 Route du Musée
19800 Sarran