My first stop was the Rodin museum. This is another destination that I'd been to in 2013, but that time I was super tired from jet lag and remember little about the visit other than falling asleep sitting up in the gardens. Jet lag free, I spent a quiet and mesmerizing hour wandering the gardens in the hazy morning sunlight. We've been very lucky with weather on this trip and this week in Paris has been beautiful. The sun has been out much of the time, the temps are in the 60s and 70s and there's been almost no rain. So today in the Rodin's garden, I was treated to gorgeous light creating deep shadows in the sculpture and warm sun on my skin. I sat on a bench for a while, looking at the leaves on the ground and the children playing by some of Rodin's best masterpieces and thought about how lucky I am, we are, to have had this trip. We've spent six weeks seeing wonder after wonder, getting a glimpse of how people live and work in other countries and finding time to contemplate our own lives. It's hard to say goodbye to this world, but Minneapolis is calling me home, especially a kid named George.
After Rodin, the awake version, I went across the street to see Invalides, which houses Napoleon's tomb, the Army Musuem, the Musuem of Resistance and Deportation, the Charles de Gaulle Museum and the Museum of Plains and Reliefs. Fascinating places all. I spent most of my time in the Museum of Resistance and Deportation, a small and moving collection of artifacts from France's time during the Second World War. It's astounding the number of these museums I've seen on this trip, each commemorating the struggle to retain statehood and the horror (and sometimes shame) of deportation camps. Paris' version was cleverly told through personal stories and accompanying artifacts of individuals who fought for the resistance or who were caught up in the mass deportations. The other museum that held my attention was the Plains and Reliefs. Picture room sized models of French cities and their surrounding landscape, built to plan strategies for wars. And then picture an enormous room full of these, darkened, with only the city plans lit to enhance their dimensions. It was so cool. I kept imagining army generals standing around these models with little toy soldiers, planning their defenses. I'm sure that's not how the models were used or was it?. The floor below this museum was dedicated to little lead-cast soldiers, way too large to be used in the city reliefs though. Overall Invalides was pretty interesting and I'm glad I spent some of my day there, what with not being into army stuff at all.
My next stop was the sewage museum, a strange little place on the banks of the Seine. I wondered why a museum dedicated to the history of Paris' sewage system existed so I had to stop by and find out. So before you go, you should know that the sewage museum stinks, literally. It's actually housed in the sewer system below Paris streets, proved by the street signs that show where you are as you navigate the museum. All of the written information was in French, so I didn't learn as much about sewage as I may have, but the exhibits were fascinating and stinky. And there were examples of many different types of antiquated systems of managing the city's water waste. Also, the museum gave the visitors a glimpse into what is thrown into the rivers or otherwise cast aside, winding up in the modern day sewers of the city. Super gross. The entire place was wet, with pipes above dripping and water pooling on the museum floors. People were employed to constantly mop around the exhibits. All this sounds a bit off-putting but really this museum might have been my favorite of the day. Probably.
My last stop of the day was at Paris' newest museum, completed in 2008, called Musee du Quai Branly - Jacque Chirac. It houses non-European anthropological specimens from around the world. Upon entering the museum, visitors are led up to the exhibits by a winding 'river' of words projected onto the long entrance ramp, that loops around a group of artifacts at its center. On the main museum level, there's one huge room, divided into segments dedicated to different parts of the world. The object are displayed in striking fashion, with the help of lighting and creative use of space. I enjoyed wandering through the pieces and especially liked the video segments available in several languages. As I experienced the museum, I kept thinking about the Musuem of Confluences in Lyon, another 21st century museum. Confluences did museuming better in two ways, at least for me. It gave visitors a path to help guide them through the thousands of items on display and each exhibit hall had its own distinct and unusual personality. At Jacques Chirac, I was lost much of the time, doubling back on items I'd already seen. Some aspects of the maze like set up were visually interesting but often it was kind of frustrating. And also, it would have been really nice to see more differentiation in display or style in the separate sections to help viewers organize the material in their brains. I enjoyed Jacque Chirac very much, but having experienced two types of new museums, I much preferred the Confluences' style.
Right before getting on the subway, I notice a group of people congregated around this flame sculpture. Turns out that there was a memorial to Princess Diana at that spot, which looked like it had been there for quite a while (or regenerated on that spot over time). Apparently I was standing above the tunnel where Diana died in 1997. It was a strange and sad little spot in Paris. And then, on my way back to our flat, I saw a shop called "Mister Chicken - Original Chicken Clothes" so I had to stop in and buy a shirt for George. You're welcome George.
I arrived home to Alex with an abundance of food so that we could spend a cozy Saturday evening in our flat. We dined on bread and cheese for the most part, adding a bit of jam and olive oil (which make a great combination by the why - who knew?). Alex was a bit stir crazy from being indoors all day, being all silly. He wanted to go out for dinner and I wanted to stay in (one in a row) but I prevailed this time. I was super tired from the day of museuming and wound up falling asleep around 9 PM, very early for our pattern here in Europe.
So cool to be able to hit numerous museums in a day.
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