Écomusée de la Bintinais, Ecomuseum in Rennes, France.

The Écomusée de la Bintinais occupies the main building of a 62-hectare farm, a long two-storey structure of rough tan and grey stone with a dark slate roof, five dormer windows and two tall chimneys. Its symmetrical facade has seven upper windows with pale blue shutters and four ground-floor windows and four doors, three glazed. Inside, 1,200 m² of displays trace the pays de Rennes from the 12th century, with reconstructed rooms, two kitchens of 1866 and 1901, a cider cellar and two-wheeled carts.

The farm of la Bintinais has borne its name for nearly seven centuries and ranks among the oldest and most prosperous holdings in the Rennes area. In the 1980s a team of researchers prepared its conversion into a museum, which opened on 23 May 1987 as an offshoot of the Musée de Bretagne, sharing its collections. It was renamed Écomusée de la Bintinais in December 2020.

The farm's name has lasted nearly seven centuries, and the museum keeps two kitchens dated 1866 and 1901, a large cider cellar and old two-wheeled carts used to carry goods. Each year it stages one temporary exhibition, shown for about nine months, alongside events such as apple-tree day, ox-team ploughing contests, sheep shearing and cider pressing.

The museum occupies the main farm building, with the permanent display on 1,200 m² and a further 19 hectares of fields, orchards and a discovery trail outside. The farm lies south of the Rennes ring road, so allow time to walk between the building and the animal and plant collections.

Since 1994 the ecomuseum has kept 19 local domestic breeds from western France, among them the Pie Noir cow, the Froment du Léon, the Postier breton horse, the Âne du Cotentin donkey and the black Janzé hen. Three conservation orchards hold around 120 cider-apple varieties collected in the Rennes area, plus pear trees.