January 5: Musée Carnavalet

I made it to two museums today, putting me back on track for the one-a-day goal. I actually went to the Musée Carnavalet first, but had to write about the Musée de la Chase et de la Nature posthaste, as it is much more exciting. The Carnavalet is your basic town historical society: school kids and sedate older folks looking at paintings of Paris, relics of Paris’ history, innumerable portraits of people of you’ve never heard of, etc. Of course, Paris is not your basic town, so there are some interesting relics, such as a reconstruction of Marcel Proust’s bedroom or souvenirs from all stages of the Revolution – the third floor is a must-see if you start to feel all tingly at the thought of seeing the makeup kit Marie Antoinette used in prison before her execution. There are also some entertainingly bizarre objects scattered about, such as a 19^th c. tableau of four tiny stuffed monkeys posed as glassblowers, or a Terror-era children’s toy model of the guillotine (seriously, WTF?). But unless you’re a big history buff, I would take advantage of the lack of admission charge to stroll through the ground floor only, which has the most aesthetically pleasing stuff, notably a big collection of the signs that used to hang in front of Parisian businesses, including giant pairs of scissors and eyeglasses and lots of just darn cute animals.