Musée Carnavalet

After arriving on the 7th, the JSF were a little jet-lagged but eager to begin learning about Paris.  Our first stop was the Musée Carnavalet which covers the history of the city of Paris.

Statue outside Musee Carnavalet
A statue of Louis XIV outside the Musée Carnavalet.

There; we met our intrepid guide and history-buff extraordinaire, Vincent, who would help us uncover the secrets of "le patrimoine" over the next two weeks. We looked at maps, models ("moquettes") and paintings that dated back to around three centuries B.C.E. This gave us an idea of what Paris was like long ago. 

I'm not sure if I would want to live in ancient Paris.  Until the 11th century the entire city was confined to the area now known as "l'île de la cité".  The streets were narrow - the biggest were only 6 meters across! The population was densely packed and constantly at risk from fire and disease.  It wasn't until the 17th century, under the influence of Henry the 4th, that urban projects were started to clean up the city.  Sidewalks and large squares were built and new bridges like the Pont Neuf (ironically still called the "new bridge" even though it is the oldest in Paris), allowed the city to spread to beyond the small island it had formerly occupied.

One of the most interesting parts of the visit was learning the significance of the names of many of the sights we would see.  For example, I always wondered why the famous church, "Saint Germain" is called "Saint Germain des Prés" (prés = prairie) or why the avenue "Champs Elysées"  can be translated as "Elysian Fields".  Well, back then, these places were out in the country. It's hard to imagine places like Saint Germain, which is today a busy intersection with numerous cafés, shops and boutiques, being out in the middle of a field. 

We continued our historical investigation, learning about the influence of the French Revolution of 1789 during which many statutes related to the monarchy were destroyed.  We went on to learn about Baron Haussman, who worked during the reign of Napoleon III, and who is responsible for much of the architecture that we see in Paris today (large avenues, parks and buildings with balconies on the 2nd and 5th floors).  We finished our trip with a look at the interior of a jewelry shop which had been preserved in the museum to show the influence of "art nouveau" one of the more recent architectural styles which dates to the 1890s. (-Tess)