Some Museums: the less-known type

So I went to some museums I'd never heard of before:

The Musee des arts et metiers (arts and trades)

   This museum had a massive exhibition on mechanics and the development of technology.

Mechanical doll collection= very cool, slightly unnerving.

Thank goodness computers evolved. 

This was used in filming stuff...anyone up for a photo-shoot? (bahahah)

Oh, then I explored the moon. It was pretty exciting I guess. 

Bikes! I would love one of these old-fashioned bicycles even more than a beach-cruiser!

   So there's one of these in the Eyring Science Center (a building on my university campus) but here's the catch, this is the original from Mr. Leon Foucault himself...or so the sign said, the Wikipedia article said it was in the Pantheon?

  This bit was in a chapel. There was something very appealing about having old airplanes in a church, I loved the stained glass shining on the wings!

Next museum: Musee Cernuschi
   If you haven't heard of this museum, it's because it has nothing to do with French culture...traditionally, anyway. It is, in fact, a Chinese museum. There are lots of Chinese people in France, so if you're around for a long time I'd recommend seeing it. However, if you're trying to look at French art, this isn't French, although after going through I'm thinking Chinese art influenced European art a lot more than one would think.

And we thought garden gnomes were European!

Chagall anyone?

When in doubt whether it's a friendly dragon or not, put your finger into it's mouth.  

So I guess this is actually a pretty common museum, but I don't remember ever visiting it before: 

Victor Hugo's apartment by Place des Vosges!

     As far as museums go it's pretty tiny, so I would only recommend it for the sheer pleasure of standing in the office that Victor Hugo once wrote things in (and it's free). 

Up next: Musee Carnavalet! 

   I loved this museum a lot, it has a little bit of everything French, so if you're in a pinch and only want to see one French museum I would recommend this one (plus it's free). It gives a good briefing of French history, art, and architecture.

Here are some of my favorite paintings:

"Apres l'office a l'eglise de la Sainte-Trinite"
Jean Beraud

"La rue Auber sous la pluie"
Gustave Dennery

And of course there was a delicious art nouveau display!

    Then there was a huge portion of the museum devoted to telling about the many revolutions of France.

  To top it off there was also a display of old shop/tavern signs from the ancient days of yore.

  So those are a few delightful places I'd never heard of before. Paris is indeed a city of museums! I would venture to say that in the heart of Paris you have a museum 5 minutes away from you in every direction--even if it's just a little piddly one. That, my friends, is a lot of museums. I'm going to try to go to as many catch my interest, so I will probably be super museum-ed out by the end of this!

Yours truly, 

Museum Addict