Locations
Alencon Museum des Beaux Arts et Dentelles
Location: 12 Rue Charles Aveline, Alencon 61000Website: http://www.afranceattraction.com/france-attractions-ad/fine-art-museum-alencon.htm
Openings: Museum is open year round but closed on Mondays. It is also closed on New Year's Day, May Day, and Christmas.
The lace exhibit here is almost exclusively Point d'Alencon and is on the second floor of the museum. The lighting could definitely be improved upon for the permanent exhibit. A handful of dresses by Paco Raban are on display, and there is a twenty minute film in French showing the lace making process. The pictures are good enough that you can understand it without translation, though I believe there are English subtitles.
Besides lace, the museum has a collection of 19th century Cambodian items (mostly wood) and a fairly extensive collection of huge paintings by local artists. They claim to have 20th century ones, but I mainly saw sixteenth through the first half of the nineteenth century paintings.
Maison des Dentelles - Argentan
Location: 4 Rue de la Noe, ArgentanWebsite: http://www.argentan.fr/presentation_mdd.php
Openings: The museum is open April 1st through October 15th Tuesdays through Saturdays from 9 to 11:30 am and 2:00 to 5:00 pm. On Thursdays it does not open until 3:00 pm. Not open in the winter.
This museum has a very nicely displayed collection of lace from the 14th century onwards and, if you want to see the progression of lace styles, this is the place to do it. All three kinds of handmade lace are covered - needle, bobbin, and hooked - with an emphasis on Point d'Argentan, of course.
A word of warning - the place is somewhat hard to find from the city center and Google does not give great directions to it.
Dentelles au fil de l'Aure
Location: Moulin St Sever, a small village near BayeuxWebsite: http://www.dentelleflorence.fr/
Openings: Check Website
This is a private workshop with classes in bobbin lace year round. I did not get to visit, though.
Normandy Museum - Caen
Location: Normandy Museum - Château - 14000 CaenWebsite: http://www.musee-de-normandie.caen.fr/
Openings: Museum hours are daily from 9:30-6. They're closed Tuesdays except for the summer and are closed on New Year's Day, May Day, Christmas, easter Sunday, and All Saints' Day
The Normandy Museum is more an anthropological and historical museum than one that concentrates on the arts. It details the history of the Basse Normandy region and has a room devoted to eighteenth and nineteenth century textiles. While they only have a couple of pieces of lace as lace, they have a collection of marvelous hats of fine cotton batiste with lace inserts.
Museum Baron Gerard
Website: http://www.afranceattraction.com/france-attractions-ad/hotel-du-doyen.htm
Openings: Unknown, currently remodeling.
This museum specializes in two things - porcelain and lace. It is currently in the process of remodeling and closed to the public.
Conservatoire de la Dentelle de Bayeux
Location: The main entrance side of the Notre Dame Cathedral in BayeuxWebsite: http://dentelledebayeux.free.fr/index.htm
Openings: 10:00 - noon in the morning and 2:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon every day except Sunday
This small workshop is located on the main entrance side of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Bayeux. It's open from 10:00 - noon in the morning and 2:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon every day except Sunday. They offer classes for beginners through advanced and cover several kinds of bobbin lace. During their open hours, there is always someone making bobbin lace.
Maison du Lin - Rotout
Location: RotoutWebsite: http://www.lin.asso.fr/htm/pro/Cooperatives.htm
Openings: Check Website
This museum isn't devoted to lace. It's the story of flax and the many uses of flax. The town it's in is surrounded by flax fields and every year they have a flax festival the second weekend of June.
Le Logis de la Dentelle, Courseulles-sur-Mer
Website: n/a
Openings: Thursday afternoons 2:30 - 5:00 pm.
I didn't get to visit this museum, but it is the one with the most polychrome lace, as that is the kind made in Courseulles s/mer.
Organizations
Dentelles et Blondes - Caen et Courseulles sur Mer
Website: http://blondecaen.chez-alice.fr/presenta.htm#ASSOCIATION.htmThis organization sponsors a lace weekend every other year. Until now, they have been run at the Chateau Creully. Starting in 2009, they will take place at the Convention Center in Cabourg.