Robert Tatin wanted to build a shed. So he did. When he finished it, he decided it was too beautiful to just be a shed. So he built another and ran into the same problem. This conundrum continued until he up and decided that his home in rural Mayenne, France, would be best off if it was deemed a museum. He was right. Tatin's work doesn't just belong in a museum, it is one. The house, garden, interiors, paintings, sculptures, scaffolding, shingles, everything in this museum is the singular, beautiful creation of one very inspired and talented man (and his wife).
You enter through a hall of creative giants, represented here in symbolic abstraction, like this one of Seurat.
And Gaugin.
Leaving the hall, you appreciate all that have come before you.
From here, you enter Robert Tatin's house and gardens, reminiscent of something Mayan, something cosmic, and something entirely his own.
There lots more to see in person, as Tatin decorated every nook and cranny with symbols from his unique mythology. His paintings are similarly startling.
This is one of the coolest places I've ever been to. The price of admission is agreeable ($5 for a man's life's work!) and it's well worth the detour out to bucolic Cossé-le-Vivien/Laval area to see this astonishing hidden gem.
Unassuming home features bizarre theme room with no obvious purpose
