70 More Museums to Go (At Least..)

Just for kicks, and since it's a rainy day, I've made a list of the remaining museums that I know about in Paris. Send me a comment if you know of any more, or if you want to come along! Because, who can resist a museum devoted entirely to fans, or one that combines an aquarium with exhibits on the history of immigration, or one devoted entirely to tennis?

• Musée Jean-Jacques Henner (Jean-Jacques Henner Museum)
• Tenniseum: Musée Roland Garros (Tennis-Museum: Roland Garros Museum)
• Musée Clemenceau (Clemenceau Museum)
• Musée du Stylo et de l’Ecriture (Museum of Pens and Writing)
• Musée en Herbe (Open-Air Museum)
• Musée de l’érotisme (Erotic Museum)
• Musée de La Vie Romantique (Museum of the Romantic Life)
• Musée Grévin (Grévin Museum)
• Musée du Parfum - Fragonard (Fragonard Museum of Perfume)
• Pinacothèque de Paris
• Petit Hôtel Bourrienne
• Musée de l’Opera (Museum of the Opera)
• Musée de l’Orangerie (Museum of the Orange House)
• Maison de Marcel Proust (Marcel Proust’s House)
• Musée Baccarat (Baccarat Museum)
• Musée Bouilhet-Christofle - Musée d’Orfèvrerie (Museum Bouilhet-Christofle/ Museum of Precious Metalwork)
• Musée Puiforcat – Orfèvrerie (Museum Puiforcat/ Museum of Precious Metalwork)
• Musée Maxim’s (Maxim’s Museum)
• Musée de la Serrure (Museum of Locksmithing)
• Musée de la Magie (Museum of Magic)
• Atelier Brancusi, Centre Georges Pompidou (Brancusi Workshop at the Pompidou Center)
• Jeu de Paume: Site Sully (Tennis Court Museum – Sully Extension)
• Musée Adam Mickiewicz (Adam Mickiewicz Museum)
• Musée Boleslas Biegas (Boleslas Biegas Museum)
• Salon Chopin (Chopin Salon)
• Musée des Arts et Métiers (Arts and Professions Museum)
• Musée National Picasso (National Museum of Picasso)
• Musée de la Poupée (Doll Museum)
• Cabinet des Medailles (Collection of Medallions)
• La Maison Rouge - Fondation Antoine de Galbert (The Red House - Antoine de Galbert Foundation)
• Musée de Traditions de la Garde Republicaine (Museum of the Traditions of the Republican Guard)
• Pavillon de l’Arsenal (Pavillion of the Arsenal)
• Musée du Fumeur (Museum of Smoking)
• La Maison des Metallos (House of Metalworkers)
• Musée des moulages de l’Hôpital St. Louis (Museum of Models of the St. Louis Hospital)
• Musée de l’Eventail (Museum of the Fan)
• Cité de la Musique (City of Music)
• Musée Orfila Rouvière (Orfila Rouvière Museum)
• Fondation Jean Dubuffet (Jean Dubuffet Foundation)
• Musée National de la Légion d’Honneur et des Ordres de Chevalerie (National Museum of the Legion of Honor and of the Orders of Knighthood)
• Mémorial du Maréchal Leclerc de Hauteclocque - Musée Jean Moulin (Memorial of Marshal Leclerc de Hauteclocque/ Jean Moulin Museum)
• Musée Adzak (Adzak Museum)
• Musée Auguste Comte (Auguste Comte Museum)
• Musée de la Bible et Terre Sainte (Museum of the Bible and Holy Lands)
• Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits (Museum of Letters and Manuscripts)
• Musée d’Histoire Contemporaine (Museum of Contemporary History)
• Musée du Compagnonnage (Museum of Companionship)
• Musée du Montparnasse (Montparnasse Museum)
• Musée Edouard Branly (Edouard Branly Museum)
• Musée Moissan (Moissan Museum)
• Musée Pasteur (Pasteur Museum)
• Musée Rodin (Robin Museum)
• Musée Valentin Hauy (Valentin Hauy Museum)
• Musée Zadkine (Zadkine Museum)
• Musée du Val de Grace: le Musée du Service de Santé des Armées (Val de Grace Museum: Museum of the Army Health Service)
• Centre de la Mer – Institut Oceanographique (Sea Center – Oceanographic Center)
• Musée Curie - Institut du Radium (Curie Museum – Radium Institute)
• Musée des Eclairages Anciens (Museum of Antique Lamps)
• Musée de la Sculpture en Plein Air (Outdoor Sculpture Museum)
• Musée de Notre-Dame de Paris (Museum of Notre-Dame of Paris)
• Cité de la Mode et du Design (City of Fashion and Design)
• Bibliothèque Nationale de France (French National Library)
• Musée national du Sport (National Museum of Sports)
• Alfort Veterinary/ Fragonard Museum
• Musée des Arts Forains - Collection Jean-Paul Favand (Museum of Fairground Arts - Jean-Paul Favand Collection)
• Mobilier National et Manufactures Nationales des Gobelins, de Beauvais et de la Savonnerie (National Furniture and Manufactures of Gobelins, Beauvais, and Savonnerie)
• Collection de Mineraux (Mineral Collection)
• Musée de Minéralogie - Ecole des Mines, Paris (Museum of Mineralogy – School of Mines, Paris)
• Palais de la Porte Dorée: Cité Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration et Aquarium Tropical (Golden Gate Palace: National City of the History of Immigration and the Tropical Aquarium)
• Cinémathèque Française (French Film Museum)

March 30: Institut du Monde Arabe (Institute of the Arab World) Take Two

When I wrote about the Institute of the Arab World last time, I said that I would give it another chance if I went to see a special exhibition. So I went, and… I’m still not sure. The exhibition, “Orient-Hermès,” combines lush showcases full of Hermes products and the traditional crafts from Morocco and India which inspired them with stations where craftsmen display their methods of glass-painting, saddle-making, mosaic, stone-carving, etc. On the one hand, it’s kinda like paying admission to see the equivalent of a really fancy Hermès combined with a tourist market in Marakesh (complete with icky locals who call you “pretty girl” and ask you if you would like to take a couscous with them) (not kidding); on the other hand, when are you going to have another chance to chat with the dude who makes Hermès saddles featuring embroidered gold lace?

March 25: Palais de la Découverte (Discovery Palace)

No sooner do I finish making fun of Paris for being so over-museumed that it has two separate Asian art museums than I discover that it also has two kid-oriented science museums: the City of Sciences and Industry and this one, the Discovery Palace. And yet, while the City of Sciences and Industry is far newer and shinier, I seem to remember dissing its “pervasive lukewarm hotdog smell” and uninspired, uninteresting displays. The Discovery Palace, by contrast, is pretty awesome. The displays are engaging – you learn about sensory perception from tanks of electric fish or physics by sending pendulums crashing into one another. Most importantly, the museum avoids the blind leading the blind phenomena by having lots of talks and demonstrations in every subject area throughout the day. It’s all in French, but worth checking out if you’re a science-museum fan.

March 24: Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain (Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art)

You know those ridiculous and hilarious Japanese game shows, where contestants run around dressed up as, I don’t know, Lego blocks while trying to swim through ponds of pudding and sing karaoke at the same time? Imagine if the twisted genius responsible for that kind of thing also made paintings and sculptures on the side. Now slowly open your eyes… and your dream has come true at the Cartier Foundation! Beat Takeshi Kitano, who manages to be both a silly physical game-show comedian and an award-winning serious filmmaker, has filled the Cartier Foundation with hilarious… well, I’m not sure if they deserve to be called “artworks,” so let’s say “fun stuff which occasionally attempts to parody the contemporary art world.” Paint a giant dinosaur with a machine-gun-style spray gun! Learn about Kitano’s theories on why the T Rex went extinct (e.g., because it couldn’t brush its teeth)! Watch French toddlers frolic amidst his paintings of cartoonish and yet sexually suggestive tomcats! In short: both fun and extremely, extremely random.

March 24: Fondation Henri Cartier Bresson (Henri Cartier Bresson Foundation)

Aside from a couple of photographs, drawings, and cameras of Henri Cartier Bresson’s on the top floor, the rest of this small building is devoted to special exhibitions of other photographers. It’s like a gallery – neutral walls, a teeny bit of wall text as you enter the room. There seems to be a commitment to period prints made by the photographer instead of modern reproductions, which is nice, but… the whole thing is a bit blah. Maybe that’s because I’m not such a fan of the work of Robert Doisneau, currently on display. Soooooo many photographs of bleak factory landscapes. A must-do if you’re toting a vintage Leica around Paris; otherwise, meh.

March 22: Musée des Collections Historiques de la Prefecture de Police (Museum of the Historical Collections of the Police Prefecture)

So promising in conception and yet so disappointing in execution. This museum, displaying the history of Paris’ “guardians of the peace,” has crime scene photography! burglary tools! murder weapons! In my mind, my visit was going to be like making out with Sherlock Holmes while McGruff the Crime Dog brought us brandy from a cask around his neck.

The first blow to my fantasy came when I had to work my way though about four rooms detailing the history of the museum. Sure, it’s mildly interesting that it began as a display in a late 19^th century Universal Exhibition. But do I need to know about its moves to new display spaces during the 1970’s? Not so much.

When I finally hit the crime-fighting rooms, I found that the crimes were pretty old news (mostly 19^th century) and also not chosen to illuminate the methods of the police. In fact, one of the cases which gets the biggest display space was “solved” only because the killer sent a confession to the police in remorseful old age. Yawn. At least I understood what went on in that case – others lack any labeling whatsoever, with just some coils of rope and dark lanterns jumbled together under glass.

But never fear – the Orsay Museum has come (temporarily) to the rescue. A special exhibition, “Crime and Punishment,” just opened there, and it features a healthy chunk of objects borrowed from the Police Museum. They are displayed with signage which puts them in historical and artistic context, so that you actually know what you’re looking at.

So, if you need me, I’ll be in the Orsay Museum, telling Sherlock how hot I think he is when he smokes that pipe. Oh yeah.

March 21: Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent (Pierre Berge and Yves Saint Laurent Foundation)

Dear Fashionistas;

I know you’re sick of people like me thinking that high fashion is an airheaded, substance-free heap of shiny ridiculousness. So, good for you, setting up an exhibition space to show the works of designers and clothing collections (although charging 7 euro to see two rooms of stuff is just going to solidify your reputation as the type of people who expect us to pay $300 for a pair of underwear).

But… you’re going to have to do a little better. For example, in your current exhibition, which shows off traditional Indian clothing, it sure would help me to take ou more seriously if you included any information about, oh, say, the dates of the clothes, what regions they came from, who owned/ wore them, who made them, etc.

Good job with the spooky rotating manikins, though! Very shiny.

xx, A Paris Museum a Day