Carnavalet Museum

August 7, 2010 – Saturday

Here is an attempt to record some of our activities in the last couple of days. We still have not posted about our trip to London, but maybe I can convince someone else in the family to do that!

On Thursday, the 5^th of August, we slept in a bit because we arrived “home” late the night before after our return from London. I got up first and went to the boulangerie for croissants and baguettes for breakfast. Steve decided to stay home to rest his back and the girls and I went to the Carnavalet Museum. This is now my second favorite museum in Paris (the first being the Organerie with the Monet paintings). The museum is free and much less crowded than most museums we have visited. I think that is because there is very little in English, but I was able to translate enough and ask enough questions that the visit was very informative. The museum is dedicated to French history both before and after the Revolution of 1789. There are two houses or hotels that have been joined to form the museum and the first is all about France pre-Revolution. There were lots of beautiful signs that hung outside of Paris businesses throughout the last 500 years. As many customers were illiterate up until 200 years ago, many of the signs are very graphic so that you know exactly what the shop is – great big scissors for the barber shop, a pig for the butcher, grape arbors for the vintner, etc. Some of the most interesting things to me were the personal artifacts from Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and their family. There were toys that the young prince (dauphin) played with, a chess set of Louis’s, swatches of hair from all members of the royal family, the knife and spoon of Louis while in Temple prison before his execution, and many more artifacts from their personal life after leaving Versailles and before their deaths. There were several rooms in the museum that were full rooms transported from famous hotels in Paris. There was a yellow music room where the beautiful walls, drapery and carpets repeated the theme of yellow and music. For example, the chairs displayed musical instruments in their woodwork or upholstery, the carving and molding on the walls also had instruments, as well as real instruments. There followed a blue room, a lilac room, a flower room, a green room and a gray room where the whole room was done in the given color and the furnishings reflected the purpose of the room. It was all beautifully done and took you back to the time when the rooms had been in use. Most rooms in the museum were small enough that you felt you could take everything in and understand it at some level.

The second house of the museum was dedicated to the Revolutions (1789, 1830 and other smaller ones in between). The 1789 Revoltuion was the most interesting to me – there were banners with “Egalite, Fratenite et Liberte” that were flown to show your allegiance to the Revolution; artifacts and portraits of the succession of revolutionary leaders that had their moment in the sun and there were eventually killed by the next set of leaders because the previous set was not “revolutionary enough.” It was dangerous business to be a leader during that time. There was a painting of Dr. Guillotine who invented the more humane killing machine and a small model of his invention. It was very interesting. There were a couple of French young men going through the museum just ahead of us who seemed to know a lot about the history and when I found a word I couldn’t understand in the display labels I asked them. Between their English and my French it was very helpful. I truly loved this museum. I think Morgan, Kara and Heather also enjoyed it, but they are also polite to their mother and show interest at appropriate times when I am just about jumping up and down telling them to “come see this!” They are patient children and GREAT travelers.

After the museum we walked through the Jewish quarter of Paris, ate some yummy bread from Kosher bakery and saw many families with fathers in traditional dress (I think it might be Hassidic – long curly hair on each side, formal black hat and overcoat) with their families. We also saw one young man putting on a phylactery that had a very LONG leather band wrapping all the way around his arm. There was also a lot of food from the middle east – shwarmas, gyros, falafel, hummus, etc. We want to go back there to eat one day. It was all very interesting and done under a sunny (but not hot) Paris sky.

We ate dinner at home that night and then went to the “free” movie at Notre Dame that gives a history of the cathedral. Notre Dame is my favorite place in all of Paris and I have dragged my family back there on many occasions. As we were waiting at the back of the nave of the church for the beginning of the movie I asked the man standing there about the display of the Crown of Thorns the next day and the procession with the Virgin Mary that happens on Ascension Day – August 15. He was very happy to tell me all about it. As much as we’d like to see the Crown of Thorns, we decided it would not be appropriate for us to come to the Veneration because you proceed down the aisle where you approach the crown and then do something to venerate it. In the movie they showed people kissing the reliquary of the crown. I am not sure they let you kiss it anymore, but it would probably be appropriate to kneel or make the sign of the cross before it and as we are not Catholic, we decided we didn’t want to make an important religious act a tourist act on our part. We were also told how we could take part in the procession of the Virgin on the 15^th and reserve our spot on the boat that goes around the Ile de la Cite, but decided we should just come watch that. After the discussion we gave the less than voluntary donation of 3 euros per adult to watch the “free” movie. It was worth the 6 euros though as the film had beautiful footage of the cathedral complete with English subtitles.

You probably won’t believe me next time I say that something is my “favorite” will you? I am wracking up favorites at a great rate!