Musée Carnavalet

The sky is on fire this morning/but I'm heedless of such warning -- and by not heeding means trouble of course. Anyway, notwithstanding the bright sun to the east the temps are quite chilly here, about 3 celsius and 0 wind chill so it's pretty cold to be sure.

Yesterday was typically Parisian in the weather: the day started off clear, then rained at some point, and then turned warm and sunny by afternoon.

One place in Paris that had been recommended to us by a couple of locals is the Musée Carnavalet, the Museum of the History of Paris. After finishing a couple of online projects I left the apartment late morning and walked over to the St Marcel metro, hopped on the no. 5 to the Bastille, switched to the no.1 heading to La Defense and got off at the next stop, St. Paul. After crossing the street I walked up St Antoine to rue de Sévigné where I turned left and walked up a couple of blocks to the museum entrance. (If you must know de Sévigné was the family that once owned the mansion where the museum is presently located.) (photo above: entrance to the Musée Carnavalet.)

The museum is located in the "Marais" district of the 3rd arrondissement. The streets are small, narrow and sway back and forth indicating the ancient alleyways and meandering paths of old Paris. The shops and bistros reflect the gradual "gentrification" of the area and make it a pleasure just to stroll in. Place des Vosges is very close and so are some of the most admired art museums in Paris: The Picasso, the Cognacq-Jay, the Serrurerie. And it's an easy stroll to the Museum of the History of France, the Museum of Jewish Art and History and the Pompidou Centre. You could easily spend several days just exploring this small corner of Paris alone!

The Carnavalet is located in two grand mansions, the Hôtel Carnavalet and the Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau, and tells the history of the city largely through the evolution of art and historical objects arranged in period settings. The rooms are all very well laid out, and generally arranged chronologically, beginning with the entrance through a room filled with old Parisian business signs:


You then move through the prehistoric and Gallo-Roman periods (superb models of the ancient Roman city of Lutetia) to the medieval period (closed for refurbishment) and on toward the Eigtheenth century reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI (the first fourteen Louies got short shrift if you ask my opinion), and to the Nineteenth and Twentieth century eras. All the exhibits are very well presented, quite informative (although nterpretive signage is generally in French only but pick up a very handy map in other languages at the entrance). No photographs please note but only paintings and objects are used to tell the story of Paris and it works.

My favorites were found primarily in the Hôtel le Pelletier: the Bastille exhibit,the reprduction of Marie Antoinette's prison room, the Revolutionary period on the top floor of the Hotel Le Peletier, the Nineteenth century (if you don't fall in love with Françoise Pascal's Juliette Récamier I see no hope for you).


It is really is quite fantastic to see such wonderful paintings of so many parts of the city we have come to know rather well over the months we've been here.

Well I could go on but you should go look for yourself.

I should also mention that the museum has one of the best collections of books on and about Paris for sale in it's bookstore. Plus you can also buy a postcard with a closeup detail of Juliette Récamier for only €1! (Not that I did or anything, no, huh-huh, not me, no sir.)

Oh, and did I mention that this is all free? That's right kids. The permanent exhibitions are always free to the public.

After you leave the main entrance on rue de Sévigné, turn right onto rue des Francs Bourgeois, walk a block and turn right again onto rue Payenne and up ahead not far on your right will be a small square which actually sits artride the two mansions of the museum and where you will find the by-now familiar nude woman standing in bushes:


(Paris has a definite fixation on naked women standing around outside. Check out the "women of stone" hanging around the buses in the Tuileries. It's not provocative just interesting. Like the huge fallen tree in the Tuileries, which isn't a tree at all but in fact a sculpture, or like the sidewalk eternally exploding on Boulevard St. Germain directly across the street from the church St. German des Pres, one suspects it's all about letting imagination work it's magic. Isn't that why one comes to Paris in the first place?)

The museum is located at 23 rue de Sévigné, 75003. Nearest metro stations are St. Paul (no. 1) and Chemin Vert (no. 8). The museum is open 10-6 every day except Monday. You can also find out more online. Just click here.