According to Parisinfo.com, the website of the Paris Tourism Office, there are 204 museums in Paris. I will be in Paris for 135 days, starting January 1, 2010. Can I see them all? Well, all of them within a few ground rules:
- Non-for-profit collections only. If you buy a bunch of crappy prints and lure tourists in as if they were original art, you can call it a museum, but I’m not going. I’m looking at you, Espace Dali.
- Inside of Paris city limits. A girl’s gotta go where a girl’s Metro pass functions. Thus, I will regretfully pass up the Musee des Tranways a Vapeur et des Chemins de Fer Secondaires Francais (Museum of French Steam Tramways and Secondary Railway Cars) in Valmondaois, the Musée Pierre Cardin in Saint Ouen (which I imagine with a lot of sweatbands all lined up in display cases), and the Musée Français de la Carte à jouer (French Museum of Playing Cards) in Issy les Moulineux (for the best, since I would probably not be able to resist accusing someone of cheating at whist and then would do badly on in the ensuing duel – my sword arm is a bit out of practice). But, this geographical rule means that I get to avoid the Musée national de Céramique (National Museum of Ceramics), in Sevres, which is fantastic. I sometimes wake up in a cold sweat after dreaming that I’ve been forced to look at crappy late Medieval ceramics – but then, don’t we all?
- Experience something new every day: I’m not gonna boast or anything… but, I do kinda have a way with the museums. I’m no Paris museum virgin. (If by “Paris museum virgin” you mean “someone who has never been to a museum in Paris.” If, instead, you mean “someone whose chances of getting laid are severely decreased by all the time she spends in museums”… well, that’s another thing entirely.) So I’ll try to go to ones I haven’t visited pre-blog. But I can’t promise you that my 30th trip to the Louvre won’t show up.
