Paris is known for many “have to do’s” such as la Tour Eiffel, les Champs-Elysées, Notre-Dame de Paris, Sacré-Cœur Basilica, musée d'Orsay, Château de Versailles, and le Louvre, and yes you must see these absolutely mind boggling sights – but, truly … once you’ve seen le Louvre you never need to go back …. The Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) painted by da Vinci (1503 – 1506) is disappointing – it is small, dark and nothing really stands out about it … yet the statue known as ‘Venus de Milo’ (real name is: Aphrodite of Milos) is breath taking, especially knowing that it was created between 130 – 100 BC.
I’m finding the gems not on the tourist “beaten
path” the most enjoyable, so I thought I’d share some of them with you.
Le Musée de l'Orangerie
This museum isn’t an ‘unknown’ museum, but
I’ve yet to have anyone say they wish to visit it – and it has become one of my
favorite museums!Housed in which was once l’orangerie in the jardin du palais des Tuileries (the ‘Tuileries Palace’ – now known as le Louvre, near Place de la Concord where King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were beheaded during the French Revolution, ending the rule of France by royals) is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings.
It is most famous for being the permanent
home for eight Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet, the museum also contains
works by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Rousseau, Alfred Sisley, Chaim Soutine, and
Maurice Utrillo, among others.
Water Lilies - Claude Monet
This museum is located in the 5th arrondissement on the 3rd floor of the Police Department (Hôtel de police) and it is free.
The history of law enforcement (in its many
forms) is found in this museum – starting in 1254 with the creation of “the
night Watch and the night Watch knights” whose motto “Vigilat ut quiescant”
(He’s watching so they rest) is still the current motto of the police Préfecture.
In 1667 King Louis XIV created the
Lieutenancy General of Police (lieutenance
générale de police) for special issues of security and public order within
Paris. It was disbanded at the start of the French Revolution in 1789, and was
replaced by the current Préfecture de Police created by Napoléon I on February 17, 1800.
The museum has the various uniforms from
throughout the centuries, maps of Paris from the different times, many
documents – including arrest warrants, a guillotine, the instruments of
Alphonse Bertillion – who founded in 1883 the ‘Bertillion system’ to identify
individuals (suspects) adopted throughout Europe and the United States and
still used up to 1970, various crime weapons, histories of notorious French
criminals, as well as the influence on the police department during the various
wars including the French Revolution and the occupation by the Nazi’s.
Police Museum
When you visit, and enter the Police
Department – on the ground floor – see if “Toff” is working the front desk. If
so, identify yourself as a police officer (or retired police officer) if you
are, or if not, tell him you know me. He is the nicest person I’ve met so far
in France! And, as a bonus – he speaks English.
Le Musée national de Céramique-Sèvres
The real name of this museum is Sèvres
– Cité de la céramique (Sèvres City of Ceramics) created from the merger of
the Musée national de Céramique-Sèvres
and the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres.
The museum, opened in 1824 was the first
museum dedicated to fine ceramic arts in the world. The goal was to collect and
study fine ceramics from all over the world and this is evident by the display
of ceramics from every corner and time period of the world: antiquities (a
piece from Cyprus: 1300 BC), Islam countries (Iran: 1311), Asian countries
(China: 10th century), the Americas (Mexico: 1600’s), Renaissance (Italy:
1575) … as well as those ceramics made in France and other European countries.
On display is dinnerware used by Kings and
Queens, vases, and statuary … both old and contemporary designs are on display.
Below is a picture I took of a candelabra that is about 7 feet tall – the
absolute beauty in the detail of the statuary was stunning to me.
Ceramic Candelabra - so delicate, so beautiful
Le Musée des arts et métiers
The Museum of Arts and Crafts is an
industrial design museum in Paris that houses the collection of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers
(National Conservatory of Arts and Industry), which was founded in 1794 as a
repository for the preservation of scientific instruments and inventions.
Among its collection is an original version
of the Foucault pendulum, the original model of the Statue of Liberty by
Auguste Bartholdi, some of the first planes (Clément Ader's Avion III, Louis Blériot's Blériot XI, Blaise Pascal's Pascaline (the first mechanical
calculator).The museum presents seven different collections: Scientific
Instruments, Materials, Energy, Mechanics, Construction, Communication, and Transportation.
It was fascinating seeing the scientific
instruments, some from before 1750 … along with the communications area where a
printing press (1750) was located, to a ‘modern’ color television (one of the
first) to a CRAY supercomputer to satellites sent into space. An interesting museum.
Le Musée Carnavalet
OMG!!!! This museum is the gem of all gems
to visit. It is dedicated to the history of Paris and it houses collections
tracing the development of the city from prehistoric times to the present day.
A huge selection of works of art, mementos and scale models on display show how
the city looked in different eras.
There is a “sign gallery” showing the signs
spanning from the 16th to the 20th centuries.
Shopkeepers, whose customers were often illiterate, attracted the attention of
customers by using picture signs. The chat
noir cabaret sign hung at the foot of the Butte de Montmartre hill in 1881.
Le Chat Noir Cabaret
Paris in the 16th, 17th
and 18th centuries have rooms recreated from former Kings – in
particular King Louis XVI. There is also a cabinet of items belonging to Queen
Marie Antoinette. I’m currently reading a book by Madame Campan “Memoirs of
the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France: Being the Historic Memoirs of
Madame Campan, First Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen”, which made seeing the
items related to Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI all the more meaningful to
me.
There are rooms dedicated to the French
Revolution, the Second Empire and the Third Republic. Leading into the 20th
century where there is a room that recreates the bedroom of Marcel Proust.
Queen Marie Antoinette Personal Items
Le Train Bleu
Le
Train Bleu
("The Blue Train") is a restaurant located in the hall of the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris,
France. The restaurant has served drinks and meals to travelers and other
guests since 1901 in an ornately decorated setting. Initially called "Buffet de la Gare de Lyon", it was
renamed "Le Train Bleu" in
1963, after the famous train of the same name.
There are 41 paintings, each of which
portrays a different scene from the beautiful sites along the old railway
network or famous events of the 1900’s.
Le Train Bleu Restaurant - Gare de Lyon, Paris
rue Crémieux
In the 12th arrondissement, a beautiful pedestrian street with colorful houses
(so un-Parisian).
Colorful Houses - reminds me of the "Painted Ladies" in San Francisco
It is named after Adolphe Crémieux (1796-1880), lawyer and politician, member of the Gouvernement de la défense nationale. He is also the author of a famous decree of
1870 which gave French nationality to Jews in Algeria.
beautifully painted tree on the front of the house
the cat jumping towards the geese
Two Oldest Houses
The two oldest houses in Paris are in Le Marias district, the historical heart
of the capital (the 3rd arrondissement).
The oldest house in Paris is located at 51 rue de Montmorency.
The rue
de Montmorency was named in 1768 after the Montmorency family, prominent residents of Le Marais during the Renaissance period. The Montmorency family is one of the oldest and most distinguished
families in France, derived from the city of Montmorency, now in the
Val-d'Oise département, about 9 miles (15 km) northwest of Paris. As the Montmorency was a noble family, the
street lost its name at the French Revolution. Therefore, it was known between
the end of the French Revolution and 1806 as the rue de la Réunion.
The house of Nicolas Flamel was built in 1407 by Nicolas Flamel himself and still stands, the oldest stone house in
Paris, at 51 rue de Montmorency. The
ground floor, always a tavern, currently houses the Auberge Nicolas Flamel (a restaurant). Nicolas Flamel, a scrivener and manuscript-seller who developed a
reputation as an alchemist, claimed that he made the Philosopher's Stone which
turns lead into gold, and that he and his wife Pernelle achieved immortality.
On the facade of the building you can still
read this inscription: "Nous homes
et femes laboureurs demourans ou porche de ceste maison qui fut faite en l'an
de grâce mil quatre cens et sept somes tenus chascun en droit soy dire tous les
jours une paternostre et un ave maria en priant Dieu que sa grâce face pardon
aus povres pescheurs trespasses Amen" ("We, ploughmen and women
living at the porch of this house, built in 1407, are requested to say every
day an 'Our Father' and an 'Ave Maria' praying God that His grace forgive poor
and dead sinners").
Oldest house in Paris - Le Marias
While the house dates to 1644, the street
was named well after that time (I don’t know the name of the street when the
house was built). Currently, the ground floor is a Chinese restaurant.
Rue
Volta
was named after the Italian-born Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio
Volta (1745-1827). He was a physicist, and while professor at the University of
Pavia in Italy, his experiments with gases led to his discovery of methane and
that its ignition produces an electric spark. The world volt for a unit of
electricity derives from his name – Volta. He also invented the battery in
1800. In 1810 Napolèon brought him to Paris and made him a count, but in 1819, at
74 years old, he returned to Italy where he would die. This Paris street was
named after him in 1851. 
Second oldest house in Paris - Le Marias District
Note: There are older buildings in Paris,
such as Notre-Dame de Paris which was started in
1163 (there is still a wall and door from that time period), and La Sorbonne (opened in 1150, it is the
second oldest University in the world) was completed in 1257.
Dancing on the Quai Saint-Bernard
Every evening, from June until the end of
August, hundreds of dancers gather spontaneously at the Jardin Tino Rossi, on the Quai
Saint-Bernard. The night I walked by I saw a number of different areas
dedicated to dance, with the music genres of Swing, Samba, Tango and Celtic
playing. Good thing there wasn’t any Country/Western playing – or I might have
embarrassed the friend I was with and started dancing myself!
The Jardin
Tino Rossi combines a promenade along the Seine and an open-air museum of
late 20th century sculpture. In the 19th century, the site of the Jardin Tino-Rossi, on the quai Saint-Bernard in the 5th arrondissement, had been the place where
wine barrels were unloaded from barges for sale at the nearby Halle aux vins. In 1975 it was decided
to make the quai into a promenade, featuring rows of trees
planted along the quai in the 19th
century, and a series of small garden amphitheaters by the edge of the water.
In 1980, a more ambitious element was added; an outdoor sculpture garden
featuring over fifty works by late 20th-century sculptors, including Alexander
Calder, Constantin Brancusi, and Jean Arp.
Dancing at the Jardin Tino Rossi
Lorsque vous visitez Paris - chercher les
joyaux inconnus ....
