Maisons Satie, Birth house museum in Honfleur, France.

Maisons Satie is the birthplace of composer Erik Satie, made up of three 15th-century Norman half-timbered houses with red-brown vertical beams and pale infill panels, their upper floors overhanging the ground floor. Dark rectangular windows sit between the beams, and a red banner across the facade reads "Maisons Satie" and "ouverture 21 juin 1998". The houses now form a museum.

Erik Satie was born on 17 May 1866 in this house near Honfleur's old harbour. The ensemble of three 15th-century red half-timbered houses was inscribed as a monument historique on 26 October 1992, and its facades and roofs are protected. It opened as the Maisons Satie museum on 21 June 1998, the Fête de la Musique, funded by patrons' donations.

The museum's entrance states "Ceci n'est pas un musée, ceci dit amusez-vous…". Inside, a mechanical pear spreads its wings to fly and descends to one of the Trois morceaux en forme de poire, while a metronome sings "Satie est mort, vive Satie". Satie's collections of umbrellas and false collars are displayed alongside a mechanical grand piano that plays the Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes on its own.

The three half-timbered houses stand near Honfleur's historic centre and old harbour, so the museum can be reached on foot from the town's other sights. The entrance is on the ground floor, where dark wooden doors open beneath the overhanging upper storeys. Look for the white stone plaque on the facade and the red banner above it.

The museum's entrance declares "Ceci n'est pas un musée, ceci dit amusez-vous…". Inside, a mechanical pear spreads its wings and rises to music from Satie's "Trois morceaux en forme de poire", while a metronome sings "Satie est mort, vive Satie". A mechanical grand piano plays the Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes by itself.