JANE AUSTEN'S HOUSE MUSEUM

As often as we can, which ends up being about every other week, I load the kids up with a picnic and we head to the Jane Austen’s House Museum in Alton and the Chawton House Library in Chawton (they’re really just down the road from each other). It’s a little bit of a drive to get there so we really make a day of it. I’ve had some requests to share our photos from these wonderful places, and I thought I’d start with the Jane Austen’s House Museum and save the Chawton House Library photos for another post since I’ve taken so many! These are, without a doubt, our two favorite places in England.

We first visited the Jane Austen’s House Museum in early spring and fell completely in love with it. The house, where Jane spent the last eight years of her life, is lovingly curated. It’s small, beautiful, welcoming, and charming. They have small scavenger hunts for the kids which they love, and them having an activity allows me a chance to really read and enjoy things in the museum. Once you go and pay for your ticket (only £8 for adults) your ticket is good for an entire year. Often we find that we spend all of our time in the well-tended garden, eating a picnic, popping into the media center to watch the mini-documentary on Jane’s life, playing lawn games or “board” games that they have set up, doing a bird hunt, or reading a chapter from the provided Jane Austen novels.

On our last visit a couple weeks ago we stumbled upon copies of Jane’s novels left about by a Book Fairy, and we were so delighted that we have since signed up to be book fairies too. Book Fairies or not, this museum has (at least for me) an air of magic and simple pleasure that I can’t get enough of… in fact I think it’s time for another trip…

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