February 7: Musée National du Moyen Age (National Museum of the Middle Ages)

I’m having a bit of a crisis of identity here. When I first visited Paris, as a 19 year old, I was just thrilled to bits with the Museum of the Middle Ages. I sketched, I hung out in the courtyard, I told everyone that it was my favorite museum… and now I can’t figure out why. Sure, the setting is interesting – the Hôtel Cluny, a 16^th century castle (basically) with ancient Roman baths in the basement. Sure, the art is cool – a nice assortment of different types of medieval objects, from stained glass to armor, with the high point being the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries - if you’re only going to like one set of tapestries, this is it (says me, who usually gets the dry heaves at the idea of looking at tapestries). It’s just that I can’t quite figure out why I was doodling “Mrs. Hôtel Cluny” on my sketchpad and thinking about where we would go on our honeymoon (the English countryside – duh – so the unicorn could visit its family). Maybe it’s just that I’m no longer 19 – sigh.