French Legation State Historic Site

It's a lovely site with a scenic, though now crowded, view of downtown Austin and the Capitol. The grounds are free to explore, while the buildings require an admission fee. Within, there are some well-preserved historical pieces and a good bit of reading posted nearby to give context to the time and nature of the exhibit. It's not large, though, so a viewing could last anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes, dependent on how much trading and detailed viewing you partake in. I would also say, though, that if you are with smaller children, or adults that don't care for that kind of experience, plan on cutting out quickly or having them spend the majority of the time outside which, as mentioned, is at least nice.

Please note the exhibit doesn't open until 11AM. There is a Starbucks Cafe on site that opens at 7AM. Parking available. Wheelchair accessible as the upstairs is not part of the exhibit (houses HVAC). So I'm giving this House and Kitchen Museum 4 stars for a few reasons. My friend and I were both a bit underwhelmed. And very surprised there was no material culture exhibit of the original land inhabitants. The focus if the exhibit is during the Era when this building was The French Legation to the Republic of Texas. Very informative docent tour. I was actually a bit more impressed with the kitchen. But I would recommend this if you enjoy house museums.

Fascinating piece of Texas history and the grounds are stunning. The THC guide, Kyle, was extremely accommodating and knowledgeable of the history of the French Legation and surrounding areas around Austin. We loved the cafe/visitor center. Super friendly staff, and the sandwiches, chips, drinks, and fruit/cheese trays were delicious. Bathroom was impeccably clean. If you enjoy Texas history, I highly recommend the French Legation home.

Nice venue to learn about Texas history and France's relationship with Texas. Be sure to check out their Web site for upcoming events. We were able to find street parking not too far away. Definitely worth checking out.

It was interesting to see how Austin city has developed throughout the history. It is nice to look at. I was here for the Museum day so I am not sure what the cost is usually. I took one star off just because it only took me 30 minutes to look at everything. Staffs were very friendly.

Very interesting and well preserved treasure. Very worth visiting. Nice cafe and gift shop. Very nice staff and helpful staff. Restrooms are handy and beautiful grounds to walk around. A must see in Austin TX.

New discovery. I had always wanted to check out gis house and historic site in Austin.

Very unique Texas Historical Commission historic site. Great view of the Texas Capitol from the Legation.

This is one of the earliest historic sites in Austin and was essentially the French embassy when Texas was it's own country before joining the US. It's consists of a main house and a few smaller buildings on a lovely landscaped property that is fenced off and almost park-like. To be frank (not a pun) there is not much to see here. You can go inside the house and appreciate the 1800s furnishings and way of life, and stroll the shady grounds, but all that might take less than an hour. But if you go during events like Bastille Day when there are activities like playing petanque on the lawn, you'll find the place more lively. Regardless of when you visit there's a small dedicated parking lot attached which is welcome, and inexpensive metered street parking if the lot is full. The museum and grounds are an immaculately preserved oasis of green in East Austin very close to downtown.

What a pretty space! It is being swallowed up by development and becoming even more of a hidden gem. Grounds are gorgeous and there's even a cafe now! And there's a small parking lot but street parking is pretty easy too. History is very interesting! Periodically there are events open to the public. Those are pretty fun too. Come check it out!

This is a beautiful venue that can be your next spot for your family or business event. I visited here for the yelp SXSW event that provided me with drinks, a panel, and local vendors.

Beautiful grounds and nice little shop with tables, coffee and free wifi. And a nice spot to watch the eclipse.

Years ago, while living in Austin, I ventured to this historic site. Not only were the French a crucial player in America's independence but also in the recognition of Texas as a newly formed republic. Learning about the daily operations of the day would seem out of sorts or bizarre by today's standards but were simply routine during that time. As a history buff, I still learned quite a few things about this consulate on Texas' soil. I must confess, it's been quite a while since visiting. Next time I'm the area again, I'll swing by for another visit. I do recall the immaculately kept grounds and the very knowledgeable tour guide who escorted us. Please check out this historic site.

Fun little gem. It's not a large house, but full of character. It's always nice to have a tour guide. The original furniture under the French ambassador was taken by Houston to the governor's mansion; reservations are a minimum ten days. We couldn't stay that long, and they have limited hours during the holidays. The embassy was between exhibitions. What we missed sounded wonderful. Too bad we don't live there. If we did we'd definitely be back. Imagine living in that house with a large family! The four poster bed from the family that bought the place looks like it was built for that room. The staff offer a session on how to cook in those old kitchens working with the fire place. So cool! Again, wish we lived there.

We were looking for some neat historical places in Austin and we stumbled across this one and decided to check it out. We did not have a reservation so we did a self-guided tour. The kitchen was not open so it was only the house itself that you could go into. It was ok but the design and furnishings were particularly plain and not something you would associate with French design. There wasn't much there to see and we left pretty quickly. There's a small parking lot that is partially obscured by the construction that now surrounds this historical site. All in all, you can come for about half an hour and see it all.

My 300th review! As I started thinking about what special place I was going to choose for my 300th review the decision honestly came to me pretty quickly ... The French Legation Museum has become a special place to me. I recently got married here last month and it truly was the wedding of my dreams and everything I could have hoped for! When Steve H and I started talking about wedding venues the French Legation was out 1st choice hands down. When we started dating we had a friend that lived in the old houses right by it on San Marcos and we spent a lot of time on that street. We also attended some events at the French Legation and we just new that was where we wanted to get married if we could make it happen. Since the French Legation is a museum they do not provide all the stuff you would need to have a wedding - we had to go through an outside vendor for that. As we started looking at what it would take to make it happen I knew I needed to look at some other venues before I was sure about the FL. We ended up coming back and booking our venue site here. The event coordinator for the museum is Anoush and she was informative, accommodating and super easy to work with. FYI - As most venues in Austin they do book quickly. I booked the venue about a year in advance. On the day of the wedding I used the carriage house to get ready and dressed in along with my bridesmaids. We had the ceremony on the front porch of the house and the reception was on the northwest lawn. Everything was even more perfect than I could have ever imagined! We also had a food truck on site that pulled into the loading driveway, which is between the back of the house and the northwest lawn. It was the perfect spot for people to have a true Austin food truck experience! I am still waiting on all my pics from my photographer and when I get them I will upload more here so you can picture a wedding here. There are many places on the property to take some great shots of any size group! Towards the end of the wedding there was a huge storm that came in quickly. The staff that was working that night was super helpful in helping to get everything inside that needed to get out of the rain. They also were accommodating to the situation and what to do with everything since it was down pouring. I truly could not have picked a more perfect spot to have my wedding - even though it ended in a hurricane (exaggeration...). The French Legation will always be a place I hold dear to my heart because of this! I would absolutely recommend it if you are considering an outdoor wedding venue, surrounded by beauty.

The grounds are pretty, but not as pretty as Mayfield Park. The tour is really interesting - you get little bits of trivia, like where expressions "throw out the baby with the bathwater" came from, the origin of crown molding, etc. It also makes you appreciate how much things have changed in just a couple of hundred years, and how lucky we are to live in these times.

The French Legation Museum was built in 1841 to represent the French government in Texas. Currently, it is the oldest standing wood frame structure in Austin. The house can be toured at certain times during the week for $5, but the grounds are free to explore and play on, even dog friendly. They also have some great fun events throughout the year, especially the summer movie nights. Be sure to check out the unobstructed view of the capital building from stone fence behind the house. If you are a history buff you must take the tour of the house. They have done a superb job of maintaining this special historic Austin gem, and even have some of the original furniture of the Dubois and Robertson family. We were lucky to get a tour from one of the directors right before they closed up. It is rare to find an actual stone basement in Austin, which they used for a wine cellar. The grounds are beautiful, and I enjoyed walking around checking out the whimsical art pieces on the grounds. The museum is conveniently located just outside downtown, in a beautiful historic neighborhood, in East Austin.

Another hot spot for weddings, often forgotten on the near East side, this 2.5 acres of two charming buildings from the 1840s and manicured landscaping is an oasis off of San Marcos just a few blocks from the hard core revitalization district of 11th and Waller area. Inside is a small but beautiful restoration of the French Legation from the mid 1800s which housed French representatives in Texas when considering our epic land as a country. (We still do). Lots of little-known history in a peaceful spot off the beaten track. They also host bi-monthly games of Petanque and musical series by candlelight, as well as host meetings for the Alliance Francaise - a cultural find for Francophilies in Texas, whether you can speak the language or not.

A friend and I were here for a tour, our guide is a very friendly young lady. She did a great job explaining the history behind the house. Nothing to add since Casey H did a great job. $5 per person and I would suggest tip the guide as well. My only knock on the place is I wish they had some of the maps for sale, I love old maps. FYI - there is a great map of the US and Canada in the bathroom.

Was looking forward to visit but it is closed for renovation. No information on Yelp and Website under construction. Found out by Uber to the gate to see the Closed sign.

I fell in love with the French Legation Museum during a SXSW show many years ago, and when it came time to get married the FLM provided the perfect Austin evening for our family and guests! The grounds are lovely, and the view of downtown is beautiful. Many of our guests (and longtime Austinites!) commented that they had never been to the FLM, and they really enjoyed exploring the space during the event. Now, be warned this isn't a one-stop wedding venue shop. It's a historical site, so you'll have to be creative a bit, but that's the point, right? Otherwise, you'd be getting married in a barn in Dripping Springs. ;) You'll need to bring in most everything, so rental costs will be on the higher side. If you have a large-ish wedding (mine was around ~220 people), you'll need a restroom trailer, but that wasn't a deal-breaker for us. Neither was the lack of kitchen space since we brought East Side King on site to cater! Add a little festoon lighting, and the FLM is absolutely magical at night. I was worried about parking because the official museum lot is tiny, but it turns out that street parking worked just fine for everyone. Anoush Crane, FLM's event manager, was a pleasure to work with and very accommodating. She even let us set up washers and Bocce on the south lawn! All and all, the FLM is a wonderful wedding venue and a very important part of Austin's history.

This is a hidden gem worth the trip. It was fascinating to glimpse into Austin's past when pigs still roamed wild. Who knew? The building's restoration has been meticulous and sensitive to the original details. Thank goodness someone decided to save the oldest wooden structure in Austin. And it has a basement! Reminds me of the root cellar in the house where I grew up in Maine. The art work on the grounds is for sale which is a little odd. But at least it's in support of local artists. And probably the best view of the capital in the city. Touring the grounds is free and admission for the tour is a bargain at five bucks. A pleasant surprise especially since we just moved from NYC where museums can cost as much as thirty dollars admission. Don't let the name "French Legation" throw you. It's an interesting museum even though I still don't know what "legation" means.

If I were driving instead of walking and using the Austin bikeshare I doubt I would have stumbled upon this beautiful museum. Although I only spent a superficial amount of time here it was a great way to understand Southern architecture built before the invention of the car and Air Conditioning. The porch had great rocking chairs and we learned that southerners used to sleep on their porches and verandas in the summer. We also learned how important it was to choose the right building material for Southern heat and how much Care people in Texas took in planting trees on their property to provide shade. Nowadays subdivisions randomly tear apart trees and lawns look random and unaesthetic but old school trees were beautiful as well as functional. they are building a history museum sponsored by a cool women's group on this area hope to learn more, and I hope we can better mix modern mass market construction*with traditional southern architecture that matches the history, environment and provides beauty and meaning because great architecture does that *not modern architecture which kicks ass in Texas in the larger projects

High on a hill east of the center of the city sits what was once the grandest house in Austin. It's the oldest frame structure in town, and it's reputed to be the only building ever constructed by a foreign government on Texas soil. For $5 a person, French Legation Museum representative Jim Schmidt showed us the grounds and told us the story of the place. Jim knows his stuff and answered all our questions. We happened to be there during The Alliance Française d'Austin's twice-monthly pétanque games (pétanque is similar to bocce), which looked like a lot of fun. The house was built by France's liaison to the Republic of Texas, the colorful and eccentric Jean Pierre Isidore Dubois. More at home in the culture and luxury of Parisian high society than in the Wild West, Dubois hated Texas and spent as much time in New Orleans as he could. The animosity seems to have been mutual, and the rugged residents of Austin were happy when Dubois left the city for good in 1841. In addition to debts and ruffled feathers, Dubois left behind his newly-completed "mansion" (or so the house must have seemed when compared to the shacks and temporary log structures that made up the city at the time). By the time Texas became a U.S. state, the house belonged to Dr. Joseph Robertson, who raised 11 children there. The Robertson family sold the house and property to the state in 1949. The French Legation was placed under the guardianship of the Daughters of The Republic of Texas, who restored the structure in the 1950s. The house, constructed of loblolly pine carted from Bastrop, is an example of French Creole/Greek revival architecture. As if built on a Louisiana bayou, it is raised two feet off the ground. Another unusual feature (for Texas, anyway) is the basement, intended to serve as Dubois's wine cellar. In one of the bedrooms hangs an 1858 painting (by 12-year-old Julia Robertson) which depicts the home and grounds as they appeared at the time. The most interesting thing about it, to me, is the background. One can see acres and acres of rolling, open country where the buildings and streets of East Austin now lie. The reconstructed freestanding kitchen (separate kitchen structures were common, as they minimized the risk of fire to the main house) showcases an impressive collection of mid-19th Century French cookware and kitchen furnishings. The reconstructed carriage house contains the office, gift shop and an upstairs banquet room. The French Legation Museum is a step back into the early days of Austin's history, and a visit there is an afternoon well spent. (For more on Dubois and his dubious reputation in Austin, visit http://www.texfiles.com/eckhardt/laffairedhog.htm)

This is a little spot of heaven in Austin. Go to tour or go for one of the many events that go on there. You check out Shows or events like Bastille Day here. The grounds are peaceful and well kept. Have your wedding here. Please. I worry it will soon be surrounded by condos but it has an amazing view of downtown...still. Also find about about the history of the Pig War.

I have been here for the house tour and on Bastille Day. I think it is more fun to come here on Bastille Day because this house is so much alive with people singing, dancing, playing Bucca Ball, etc. There is a little history with this house so it might take you 15 minutes instead of 5 minutes for the tour if you listen to the story from the tourguide. The staffs are very friendly and the tour is free. Why not spend a carefree sunday to walk around in this beautiful home?

Gorgeous location for a wedding. And that's why I was here. A coupe small, old buildings with some great landscaping and a sweet view of the city all from just off the highway. Despite it's accessibility, it doesn't feel like it's right in the middle of the city. It's fairly secluded and just far enough away from the bustle. From what I hear, it's affordable. The staff was helpful and everything was pretty much awesome. Even the pouring rain didn't kill the mood (as evidenced by a spirited rendition of the Family Matters theme in the middle of the monsoon). Really, the only downside was the singe, unisex bathroom. How could I not come back for the actual museum?

This venue is beautiful!!! I didn't know anything about it before I started planning my wedding, my Mom actually recommended looking there. The grounds are downtown which is a plus for out of town guests that want to stay downtown and explore Austin. It is so green with big beautiful trees, green shrubs and the grass is beautiful. It is also a historic site, it was the French Embassy when Texas was a republic. If you want an original venue I would absolutely recommend the French Legation. We had over 100 people and it was a perfect size. We used one part for a cocktail reception and another part had the tent with tables and a catering tent. The only drawback is that you have to have your music off by 10:30, because they are in a neighborhood, other than that they were wonderful to work with and were very cool about when we set up and cleaned up.

Austin's best kept secret for wedding venues. Lovely location, excellent view, and the most reasonable price we found. The staff is helpful and supportive. Our wedding was conducted outdoors from the museum steps but the venue offers a number of lovely locations depending on wedding size. Check them out.

The French Legation Museum is really a misnomer for this historic home that teaches visitors nothing about France. The house was commissioned by Alphonse Dubois, the French ambassador to the Republic of Texas, but he had little else to do with the house. He moved away from Austin before construction was completed. The house was later bought by the Robertson family who continuously lived there for about a century before the house was eventually sold to the State of Texas and became a museum. Built in 1841, this is the oldest standing house in Austin and therefore a must-see for Texas history enthusiasts. The house sits on a two-and-a-half acre park that we were able to roam around for free, but to enter the historic home, we had to purchase a guided tour in the gift shop building. The tour costs $5 per person and lasts about a half-hour. The tour started on the front porch of the house, with a nice view of downtown Austin and the state capitol building. Inside, the house consists of four square rooms surrounding a wide center hallway with a staircase that leads to a storage attic. Except for the staircase, there were no roped off areas that limited our access within the rooms. The tour guide led us through each room and explained the purpose and contents of each. The house contains some furniture pieces that belonged to Dubois and to the Robertson family. Other period items have been added to show how the house may have been kept in the past. The tour guide was really necessary for us to understand the history since no explanations were displayed. The house appears well maintained and mostly in original condition, but the tour guide noted some modifications that the owners had made over time. The guide was very knowledgeable and able to answer all our questions about the house and its former residents. After covering each room in the house, the tour exited through the back door and then entered the reconstructed kitchen building. The one-room kitchen contains many period items, but only a few have any connection to the historic home because the original kitchen burned down years ago. After we finished viewing the kitchen, the tour ended and the guide returned to the gift shop. The park surrounding the home was uncrowded and pleasant. Several modern art pieces are displayed around the property with plaques noting the artist of each. These art forms contrast with the historic nature of the home, but they fit with the weirdness of Austin. A rock wall borders most of the property with a few metal gates we could peek through to see the surrounding views. Some neighboring lots are not well kept, but that is beyond the museum's control. From one gate, we had a clear view into downtown Austin and could observe that the historic home really sits on a hilltop. The park and house tour were simple enough for us to get the full experience in one visit. Everything was great but not so much that we need a return visit anytime soon. We may visit again with guests in the future to show off Austin's oldest historic home.

While I have only toured the museum one time, I have enjoyed the grounds of the Legation many times for outdoor concerts and picnicking. It's one of my favorite picnic spots in town, especially on Sunday afternoons when the pétanque players come out.

Well worth the visit. Nice slice of American and French history. Intimate and impactful.

You must make the Bastille day celebration at the French legation an annual event!! It's so beautiful!

This place was awesome! It's so pretty I can see why people have weddings there. The staff was friendly and informative!

Beautiful grounds. Really nice place to sit out.

We were here for an event, it would be lovely for a wedding! Large outdoor space, scenic, just a beautiful place to be. I would highly recommend this for any event that is outdoor appropriate.

I'll agree with the first review, this is definitely the place for weddings. In fact, I had my own wedding here this past December. Because it was a small, intimate ceremony, we only rented the cozy Carriage House but it was more than enough for us. The carriage house itself is an adorable place with plenty of character. The best part about getting married at the Legation was the cost! We definitely didn't have to go into debt to rent out the carriage house on a Sunday evening. Plus, the grounds were empty when we had our ceremony, so we were able to take pictures with great backgrounds but without any added costs! Because my husband and I didn't have a large wedding, we were able to reserve the carriage house just two weeks before the date and it was available. All in all, the French Legation is a beautiful historic spot near downtown Austin that's hidden away just enough to still be considered a peaceful place to visit and even hold a memorable wedding ceremony or reception.

I had my 50th birthday party here on the front lawn. It was great fun and the staff was so helpful. We set up tables for dinner, a bar and food near the French Kitchen, and the band on the western side of the lawn. Everyone commented on how memorable it was and it was pleasantly cool with the shade of the huge oak trees. It was a party to remember! THANKS!