Ampère – heir of the Age of Enlightenment
The largest room in the house opening onto the Poleymieux valley and an adjoining room contains a set of documents including copies of originals kept in the museum.
We discover the three generations of the Ampère family who lived at the Poleymieux estate between 1771 and 1819. We travel through a period that extends from the Enlightenment to the Romantic period through the French Revolution.
André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836), spent a large part of his childhood and youth in Poleymieux. He studied there as an autodidact.
One can admire the works which were at his disposal in the reconstituted family library. In particular the encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert (complete collection).
Ampère – the considerable work of a passionate man
Through the documents in display, we discover the considerable work of André-Marie Ampère in many fields (Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Philosophy…), a work particularly dependent on his sentimental and family life.
Ampère – the turmoil of the French revolution
Jean-Jacques Ampère (1733-1793), father of André-Marie, bourgeois of Lyon, silk fabric merchant and then Justice of the Peace, bought the estate of Poleymieux and settled his family there. Caught up in the turmoil of the French Revolution, he was one of the many victims of the repression that followed the siege of Lyon.
Two long letters written to Jeanne, his wife, from the prison where he stayed before going to the scaffold, bear witness to this tragic period in French history.
Ampère – the traveling son and writer, friend of Madame Récamier
Jean-Jacques-Antoine Ampère (1800-1864), son of André-Marie and Julie Carron, was raised in part in Poleymieux until the age of seven. A great traveller, historian and writer, he was a professor at the Collège de France and a member of the Académie Française.
His work is presented in a display case containing publications and several autograph letters, including one from Juliette Récamier.