A Year in Paris: More Visitors, More Museums!

February 25th, 2018

This past week has been a busy one (hence the lack of posts). My sister Shannon and her family were visiting. It was great to have them here. Of course we used their visit as an excuse to go to some of our favorite restaurants (Tavline, Louisa Maria, Verjus), stop by our favorite tourist sites (Louvre, Musee de Moyen Age), and check out a new museum (Musee des Arts et Metiers, finally!). And drink a lot of good wine.

The Musee des Arts et Metiers was a really interesting place. I'm not sure if I've ever been in a museum quite like that, but it had elements similar to the Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian, Chicago's Science and Industry Museum, and Harvard's Peabody Museum on Oxford Street. It certainly had the old-school, wood-and-glass-cases vibe that the Peabody Museum has, but its focus was industrial and scientific instruments and machines. In particular, it was a celebration of French scientific and industrial innovation. (Glenn called it the "I Didn't Realize the French Invented Everything" Museum.) It had instruments dating back to the Renaissance and before, such as elaborate hand-blown thermometers, intricate brass astrolabes, and Pascal's calculating machine. It had a lot of machines from the Industrial Age, such as programmable looms and printing machines and steam engines. It had a recreation of Lavoisier's lab with many of the original instruments from it. (He had apparently been a wealthy man who hired the best craftsmen and instrument-builders from Europe to outfit his lab.) It had an extensive transportation section which included many early airplanes and automobiles. One interesting aspect of the museum is that it was partially housed in a church that had been commandeered by the Republicans during the Revolution and never returned. They wanted it to stand as a monument to scientific discovery, which it is still today. A Foucault's Pendulum hung from the ceiling of the nave.

I found the exhibits very interesting and informative, but I also loved the aesthetic of the place. Here is some of what I saw: