Treasure in Paris
I recently attended the conference for Hands On! Europe – the children’s museum association of Europe. This was the second of their conferences I have attended and it was wonderful and challenging. I am always humbled by meeting with a group of folks who have managed to learn multiple languages in their lives (among the many things that humble me!).
Leaving aside the conference for the moment – maybe more on that in a later post – I want to write a few words about the spectacular museum moment of my trip. For some years I’ve wanted to visit the Museum National D’Histoire Naturelle and I took the opportunity of being in Paris to do just that.
My wife had to pry me away after three hours of my open-mouthed gawking. What a wonderful museum! It is among the most beautiful museums I have ever visited. Bar none.
After almost 20 years since the central installation was complete, it is beginning to show its age. If they are smart, they will simply assemble as much of the original team as can be found to minimally spruce it up. Every decision was elegant, economical, and beautiful. The designers applied a deeply respectful sense of play in assembling the menagerie. Very little is behind glass, most of the collection occupies the same space as the visitors with only the slimmest of barriers between them. One has the feeling walking among God’s wonders, how much a part of this group we are.
The masterfully mounted taxidermy specimens vie for attention with the fossil or skeletal specimens. Because the visitor can look them all in the eye, so to speak, it is more a relationship across time and species than I am used to. Rather than make me uncomfortable, it was profoundly reassuring.
Visit this museum! It’s worth the transatlantic voyage!
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Comments
I had the pleasure of visiting this recently and was totally charmed and enchanted. My mouth was fixed in a permanent grin as I gleefully examined the expressions on the animals’ faces and the postures in which they were posed. The exhibits on the periphery of the central “procession” are equally interesting in how they float in space with minimal materials between the specimens and the viewers. Don’t miss the book about how they put the gallery together — it’s available in English in the museum’s bookstore. In my fractured French I chatted with the woman behind the register and said I had made a special trip to Paris for one day for the sole purpose of seeing this exhibit (which was true). She glowed with pleasure, especially after she asked if it was as nice as the exhibits at AMNH in NYC and I said it was better (apologies to colleagues there!).
Thanks for the memories…. Barbara
When I read all your blogs together, it struck me that you valued the French museum for its willingness to take a chance on a more intimate encounter with visitors than most established museums allow. “A gamble on gambol” is what I thought this morning after reading the blog last night.
Thanks. And I especially appreciate the 3 stories in the previous blog–read them aloud to friends here.
Eli
At Hands On! it is one of our favorite museums ever. When I went to Paris with my husband, I insisted we go, as I had heard so many wonderful things from my colleagues. My husband is an artist and had some concerns about spending time in a non-art museum. But, just as you were, we were mesmerized and had to force ourselves to leave. Didn’t matter that all the labels were all in French that we couldn’t read. The beauty of both the specimens and how they were displayed was breath-taking. We left, just as we had so many art museums, in awe of human creativity. Thank you for sharing your wonderful memory and sparking mine.
Look forward to hearing about the conference, too! Kathy GH