photos : JasonW

In a corner of place des Vosges you’ll find what is known as the  Hôtel de Rohan Guéménée, the apartment where Victor Hugo lived from 1832 – 1848, transformed into a museum in 1903, 101 years after his birth.
The first floor (one floor up) houses temporary exhibitions, and the visit of the apartments themselves starts on the 2nd floor. The staircase leading up to them is quite impressive, with stained glass windows, lots of wood and portraits of the man himself, best known perhaps for writing Les Misérables…
The first room isn’t very big or very impressive, but you can see the splendour waiting for you not far off.
What surprises the most is that these rooms were originally in Hugo’s houses elsewhere in Paris or even further afield (such as Guernesey). The chinese room is pretty impressive.
Hugo designed each room himself, including the furniture. A multi-talented genius…
The display case in this room is filled with objects inspired by the man himself. Victor Hugo was a real start of his age, and there were figurines, Victor Hugo inks and even calendars! Very surprising…
In his bedroom, red velours is everywhere. Very refined…
We recommend that you take the audioguide available at the entrance, as you’ll learn a lot more about the man and his home. The visit doesn’t take very long, but it’s a well preserved piece of Parisian history that’s well worth seeing.
And of course, Victor Hugo’s remains are now at the Panthéon, just opposite the Hôtel du Panthéon and Hôtel des Grands Hommes.

La Maison de Victor Hugo (here) is open from 10am – 6pm, Tuesdays – Saunday. Closed Mondays and public holidays. Admission is free (except for the temporary exhibition).

More information (in French) here: www.paris.fr

To check out all our photos, click the play button, followed by the button with four little arrows in order to go into fullscreen mode.

Thus, he extended and converted the house that had belonged to his parents, creating giant workshops and display rooms. Even with the immense size of the rooms, there is not enough space to show all the accumulated works; Moreau left 4,800 drawings and 450 watercolours. As our guide said, many are rolled up an in storage…

On the first floor of the Museum we discover the artist’s apartment and office, full of his personal effects, giving you the impression of sneaking a peak of what his daily life was like.



However, it is when you go upstairs again that this incredible place reveals itself.

You arrive in a huge room, filled to the brim with Moreau’s work…

However the most impressive thing in the room is surely the monumental staircase leading up to yet another floor above. Its majestic curves are a wonder for the eyes, and the sheer surprise of seeing it there gives the place a stately, slightly surreal charm…


Of course we couldn’t resist going up…

The top floor is just as large and is packed solid with even more paintings. A lot of drawings are behind curtains and have to slid out in order to be viewed. The old heating is still present, and you can imagine Moreau sitting there painting…



All in all, we had the impression of visiting a miniature stately home. The size of the display rooms, intimacy of the private apartments and cluttered display of paintings give the place a wonderful charm. The Museum is also situated in a part of Paris called Nouvelle Athènes, an area that was developed in the early 19th Century and became popular with artists and actors. Walk around and you will see many beautiful buildings. Great for a cheap architectural visit!

Check out our lovely Flick gallery to see all the other photos of this extraordinary place!

Here’s all the essential information for the Musée Gustave Moreau

Where: Musée Gustave Moreau, 14 rue de La Rochefoucauld, Paris 9th arrondissement. Métro Saint-Georges (line 12). Bus n°s 67, 68, 74, 32, 43 & 49
Opening hours: Every day except Tuesdays, 10am-12.45pm and 2-5.15pm
Entrance fee: adults 5 euros, concession 3 euros. Free for under 18s and free for everyone on the first Sunday of each month
Official site: here

Bigger map here

And with two new exhibitions there’s no excuse not to! North Sumatra: The Batak allows us to discover some remarkable artefacts created by this people long cut off from contact with the West, whose ancestral customs are steeped in the mythology of natural forces. The exhibits show highly finished works, created with an evident care for ornamentation.

The second temporary exhibition is called Ivory of Africa, and brings together twenty exceptional pieces from the the mouth of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, some dating back as far as the 16th Century.

Don’t forget that the building’s architecture is in itself an attraction! And the location just next to the Eiffel Tower is pretty spectacular…

photo : AlainB

Here’s all the essential information for the Les Batak and Ivoires d’Afriques temporary exhibitions at the Musée du Quai Branly

When: 19th February – 11th May 2008
Where: Musée du Quai Branly, 37 quai Branly, Paris 7th arrondissement. Métro Alma-Marceau (line 9), RER line C – Pont de l’Alma
Opening hours: A little complicated… Closed Mondays (except in April). Other days, opens at 11am and closes at 7pm (Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday) or 9pm (Thursday, Friday, Saturday). Closed 1st May
Admission: 10 euros adults, 7.5 euros students. Free for under 18s. Free for 18-25 year-olds on Saturdays starting 6pm
Official site: here
Wikipedia page: here

Bigger map here

- The entrance for groups of visitors (76,000 every year) will be modified to make access easier for the rest of us.
- A new department of Islamic art will be ready in 2010. 300m2 for 10,000 exhibits. The previous space will be used for showing Byzantine art.
- Rooms currently used for restoration work will revert back to exhibition spaces, gaining 2,000m2 to be used to explain how the Louvre is organised, what makes a work of art a work of art, how exhibits are classified, etc.
- The 18th Century furniture exhibits ill be reorganised and clarified. These 2,500m2 will be ready in 2011 and will include many more reconstructed period rooms.
- Between 2009 and 2012 a new selection of rooms showing Roman and Etruscan antiquities will open in the Cour du Sphinx, and part of the building overlooking the main courtyard, currently occupied by offices, will be converted into nine rooms to show large French and English paintings.
- 2,000m2 will be used to show the chronological progression of the Louvre building itself.
- 23 information desks will be created within the museum, as once inside the visitors are often « left to their own devices »…
- The Tuileries gardens next to the Louvre will be renovated (again?)
- New contemporary works from Cy Twombly and François Morellet will be exposed.

pphoto by sherseydc used under CC licence

The finance for all this will come partly form the state, partly from private businesses, and partly from an amazing deal that the Louvre has done by licensing its name for use with a museum in Abu Dhabi. For the privilege of calling their museum The Louvre Abu Dhabu, the Louvre in Paris will receive 400 million euros, and altogether French museums will receive a million euros. Madness…

By the way, if you’ve never been to the Louvre, what can I say? It’s the most amazing place, and we advise taking at least a day there so as not to suffer from culture overload. At least you ticket allows you to go in and out during the day, so you can go have lunch, get your strength up and go back later! No visit to Paris is complete without seeing the Louvre…

The Louvre is shut on Tuesdays and public holidays, but open all other days from 9am to 6pm. Late night opening is Wednesday and Friday (10pm, but only an alternating selection is rooms are open for each).
Entrance for adults is 9 euros, or 6 euros for the evening opening. Children under 18 go free. And it’s free for everyone the first Sunday of each month (a real rugby match to get in, so arrive early).
Métro: Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre (lines 1 & 7).

Official site: here

Bigger map here

We’ve been to a few wild museums in Paris (Baccarat was mad, the Museum of Decorative Arts was madder), but the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine (that we’ve quickly mentioned before) has to be seen to be believed. To start with, it’s in the left wing of the extraordinary (and huge) Palais de Chaillot building that’s on top of the hill overlooking the Eiffel Tower, dating from 1937. This means that the museum is on many different levels; not only can you go up pretty high, you can also go down… and down… and down again. It’s seemingly endless. Here’s the incredible view from the café in the entrance, and a shot of the bookshop…


The museum does not allow you to take photos… so we did anyway. I was quite a cat and mouse game, and I did get told off a couple of times, but hey! I really don’t understand what the problem is. This is what the entrance and ground floor of the museum has in store for you…

During the early 20th Century, moulds of many historical buildings were taken just in case they did not survive. It was also a way of showing architecture to people who could not travel around the country to experience it themselves. There are rooms and rooms filled with the most incredibly detailed sculptures, huge doorways that look real… For someone who does not have the time to explore the whole of France and see its architectural wonders (and frankly, it would take a lifetime) this is a wonderful way of seeing some incredible stuff.

After seeing the history of French architecture you move up a floor and see what had been done more recently (i.e. 20th Century). Again, it was difficult to take photos, but here’s one that gives an idea of what it looks like.

Bright white, in contrast to the vivid red on the ground floor, there are flatscreens explaining various housing projects, building concepts, and even a reconstructed fifties house that you can walk round. The end of the floor shows projects that are still in construction, such as some student quarters in Bordeaux that have been designed to be covered in scented, climbing roses. Ecological architecture seems to be very popular at the moment.

Up a couple of floors again, and you reach a whole labyrinth of rooms whose ceilings reproduce those of churches and other buildings. These have quite a spooky atmosphere, with some of the rooms being very large and darkish. I really got the feeling that this would be a great place for anyone wanting to see some of France’s wonders without even leaving Paris…

By some strange chance, we then took a lift up to a floor that was not marked private, but did not have anything else marked for it either. We arrived in a part of the museum that you are probably not supposed to be in; actually, it’s the entrance to the Elle Decoration Suite. This a private room that can be visited by appointment, as it has been filled with retro furniture and decorations by Christian Lacroix. However, when we stepped out of the lift there was nobody there, and we were free to walk around the entrance (not the suite itself), and look out over all of Paris. It was a very strange feeling, and the view over Paris – almost straight down the Seine – was very unusual. Also, couldn’t help noticing that someone there has a terrace to die for, with trees and everything!

Just in case you want to try it, use the lift in the corner of the entrance hall, just next to the bookshop, and go right to the top floor.

After having seen everything upstairs, we started exploring the lower floors. The temporary exhibition about Vauban who built a lot of France’s forts, is in a series of huge vaulted rooms on one of the basement levels. Again, between the low lighting and the guards, taking photos wasn’t easy…

We were then surprised to be able to go down again, not just one level but two, via a huge red staircase…

This led us to another temporary exhibition where 9 French female architects have each designed a room for Barbie! It was pretty kitsch…

We went round the museum fairly quickly, but it still took us nearly five hours! We never got bored, in fact quite the opposite; between the exhibits and the exhibition space itself we were continually amazed. I’m looking forward to going back there and looking at certain parts of the modern collection in more detail.

Don’t forget to check out the full photo gallery here!

Here’s all the essential information for the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris

Where: Palais de Chaillot, place du Trocadéro, Paris 16th arrondissement. Métro Trocadéro (lines 6 & 9). Bus n°s 63, 32, 82, 22, 30
Opening hours: Every day except Tuesdays, 11am – 7pm (9pm Thursdays)
Admission: permanent exhibition 8 euros for adults, 5 euros for concessions (make that 10 or 7 euros if you want to check out the Vauban exhibition too). You can have a look at the Elle Decoration Suite for just 3 euros (not sure if this is on top of normal admission prices or not)
Official site: here (all in French, darn it!)

Bigger map here

- three years of restoration
- 357 mirrors
- 1,000 m2 of paintings
- total cost: 12M€ ($16.4M)

The hall of mirrors is a designated Unesco world heritage site, and now that’s it’s all shiny there’s no excuse for not going to see it. You’ll probably need a day to go round the building and see the extensive gardens…

Also, from 20th November 2007 – 9th March 2008, the hall of mirrors will be transformed by famous interior decorator Jacques Garcia. He’ll be recreating the grand feasts held by Louis XIV. Should be opulent stuff. More on that soon…

More details on the restoration of the hall of mirrors here, including some amazing 360° panoramic shots. Official Versailles site here.

Photo credit: (c) Hamza Hydri

Julius Mordecai Pincas, (March 31, 1885 – June 5, 1930) known as Pascin, Jules Pascin, or « The Prince of Montparnasse », was a Bulgarian painter. Julius Pincas was born in Bulgaria. He adopted his pseudonym after arriving in Paris in December of 1905, part of the great migration of artistic creativity to Paris at the start of the 20th century.
Pascin created thousands of watercolors and sketches, plus drawings and caricatures that he sold to various newspapers and magazines.
During the 1920s, Pascin mostly painted fragile petites filles, prostitutes waiting for clients, or models waiting for the sitting to end.

Practical information

Musée Maillol Fondation Dina Vierny
59-61 rue de Grenelle
75007 Paris
Tel : 01.42.22.59.58

Metro station : Rue du bac

Rates : from 6 to 8 euros

Opening hours : from 11ham to 6hpm, every day except on Tuesday

For further information, you can visit the following website: Musée Maillol

From its débuts in the 1910s, with films by pioneers of the genre – Emile Cohl, Robert Lortac, Alexander Alexeieff – until the most recent, including the films of the Poiraud brothers for Hollywood and Orangina, Soand Sau’s films for Evian and the little monsters of Kiss Kool by Ich&Kar. Three rooms in the museum will be converted into projection rooms, while the others will show photographs, documents and archive images of the filmmakers and their work and the evolution of the various animated techniques from paper cut-outs to computer-generated imagery.

Practical information:

Musée de la Mode et du Textile
107, rue de Rivoli
75001 Paris
France

Phone: +33 (0)1 44 55 57 50

Metro train stations: Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre, Tuileries, Pyramides.
Bus: 21, 27, 39, 48, 68, 72, 81, 95.
Parkings: Carrousel du Louvre,
rue des Pyramides

Fees:
Full rates: 8 euros
Discount rates: 6,5 euros

Opening hours:
Tuesday and Friday from 11ham to 6hpm
Saturday and Sunday: from 10ham to 6hpm
Thursday till 9hpm
Closed on Monday.

For further information, you can visit the following website: Musée de la publicité in Paris

Jean-Paul Gaultier designed the costumes of some 18 ballets choreographed by Régine Chopinot from 1983 to 1994. To celebrate the couturier’s thirty years of creation in 2007 and the costumes’ transfer from the Centre Choréographique de La Rochelle to the Musée de la Mode et du Textile, this exhibition will retrace the history of this assiduous collaboration between couturier and choreographer for the first time. Examples of Jean-Paul Gaultier’s haute couture will also be shown.

Practical information:

Musée de la Mode et du Textile
107, rue de Rivoli
75001 Paris
France

Phone: +33 (0)1 44 55 57 50

Metro train stations:
Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre,
Tuileries, Pyramides.
Bus: 21, 27, 39, 48, 68, 72, 81, 95.
Parkings: Carrousel du Louvre,
rue des Pyramides

Fees:
Full rates: 8 euros
Concession: 6,5 euros

Opening hours:
Tuesday and Friday from 11ham to 6hpm
Saturday and Sunday: from 10ham to 6hpm
Thursday till 9hpm
Closed on Monday.

For further information, you can visit the following website: Decorative Art Museum forthcoming events

From the late 18th century, artists had been going to the Forest of Fontainebleau to make their first studies « from life ». As open-air painting developed, the Barbizon school of artists, followed by the Impressionists, invaded the forest to « work directly from Nature » and turned it into the most popular site in the art world throughout the 19th century. This success gave rise to hundreds of works of art which, whilst portraying the forest, also demonstrate the changes in landscape art.

It provokes thoughts about the close links, throughout the 19th century, between this very special site and the artists, who found inspiration in « the spirit of the place » and changed its image. For after « absorbing » the romantic forest created by the men of letters, the painters contributed to its reinvention. This was a prelude to its official recognition as an « Artistic Reserve » when, in 1874, the Forest of Fontainebleau became the first natural site in the world to be classified.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION:

Access
entrance to the museum and exhibitions by the square 1, rue de la Légion d’Honneur:
* for individual visitors without ticket on the side of the river Seine, entrance A
* for members (Carte Blanche and MuséO holders), visitors with tickets or passes or with priority on the side of the rue de Lille, entrance C
* for adults in groups
on the side of the river Seine, entrance B
* for school groups
on the side of the rue de Lille, entrance D

Transportation
Buses: 24, 63, 68, 69, 73, 83, 84, and 94
Métro: line 12, Solférino station
RER: line C, Musée d’Orsay station
Boat: Batobus
Taxis: Rue de Solférino and Quai Anatole-France
Car parks: Deligny, Louvre and Montalembert

Opening Hours
The museum is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9.30am to 6pm and on Thursdays from 9.30am to 9.45pm
Tickets sold until 5pm, 9pm on Thursdays
Galleries start closing at 5.30pm, 9.15pm on Thursdays
The museum is open on Easter Sunday, on May 25, on July 14, on November 1 and on November 11
The museum is shut on Mondays and on January 1, May 1 and December 25

Ticket for the museum and exhibitions except Maurice Denis
Full price : 7.5 Euros
Reduced rate : 5.5 Euros
On Sundays and from 4.15 pm (8 pm on Thursdays): 5.5 Euros

For further information, you can visit the following website:
Musée d’Orsay – Exhibitions