The Monnaie de Paris, not far from our hotels, has a new exhibition on offer with a theme linked with the Olympic and Paralympic Games (something you’ll be seeing quite a lot of this year), with a focus on a very specific but interesting aspect – Gold, Silver, Bronze. A History of the Olympic Medal.

The exhibition explains the evolution of the medals through a number of chronological themed sections:

— The origins of the Ancient Games, the history of the games that we have been able to learn about partly through archeological remains and some works,

— When a French man revived the Games, all about Pierre de Coubertin, a Frenchman who revitalised the Games in 1894 and founded the International Olympic Committee,

— France 1924: Summer and Winter Games. No, this is not the first time that Paris is hosting the Olympic Games! After a near-failure in 1900, the Games returned to France with something new – the Winter Games,

— 60 years of Winter Games and styles (1928-1988). With no fixed style for the Winter Games medals, designing them became a veritable creative event in itself,

— Redesigning the medal for the Summer Games (1972-2000). With one side of the medals left to the discretion of the organisers, the variations for each of the Games are interesting…

— Daring and commitment in Winter medals (1992-2002). With bold designs and interesting uses of materials, the Winter Games medals became bolder and bolder,

— Medals for their time (2004-2024). Looking at the most Olympic medals can tell us a lot about how the world had evolved…

Linked with the exhibition, there are:

— several different guided visits in French,

— visits followed by workshops for kids: Make your own mascot for ages 5 years +, Make your Olympic medal and Chocolate Olympics for 7+…

— a kids booklet prepared by Paris-Mômes with a special, fun walkthrough of the exhibition,

— special events for Museum Night on the 18th May from 7pm-midnight (free, details not yet available)…

All the info about these events can be found (in French) here.

And for more info about the exhibition, the official press release can be read at the bottom of this article!

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The exhibition Gold, Silver, Bronze. A History of the Olympic Medal is at the Monnaie de Paris (here) until 22nd September 2024

Open every day except Mondays from 11am-6pm (9pm Wednesdays)

Admission: 12€ / 8€

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To check out the English press release for the exhibition, simply click the ‘fullscreen’ button at the bottom right of the image below.

Exhibition Gold, Silver, Br… by Jason Whittaker