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Published: February 25th 2011
The Cluny Museum
Dating back to the 15th century, the Cluny is apparently one of the few intact mediaeval buildings in Paris.Wednesday 23 February
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Well this morning it was 1 degree C (comfort factor -2.8 degrees) until mid-morning (brrrr). This is our excuse for having caramel tarts for breakfast instead of John walking down to the Boulangerie to get something more breakfast-like!
Musée du Cluny, aka the Musée National du Moyen Age (museum of the middle ages) was our first stop. It's housed in a medieval mansion, itself built on to the ruins of the Gallo-Roman 'Thermal Baths of Lutetia' (late 1st century). You can go into the 'Frigidarium' (cold bath room) which is used as museum display space. It's quite an experience being in there. The other highlight was the 'Lady with the Unicorn Tapestries'. These were woven in the late 15th century in the southern Netherlands and are extraordinarily beautiful. There are lots of religious sculptures, carving, paintings and artefacts in the museum (as with many museums). It was interesting to see, however, the mediaeval depictions of Jesus & Mary compared to later works. For example, there were loads of images of the baby Jesus being circumcised! Also common were images of Mary breast-feeding Jesus. It was good too, to see Jesus actually looked Jewish rather than European.
The Lady and the Unicorn
One of six tapestries depicting the senses. This one is 'sight'. Next we wandered up the road a bit to The Pantheon. This was built in the 18th century as a church but has alternated between being a religious and civic building several times along the way. These days it is secular and is used to commemorate important figures and events in French history, and is also used as a mausoleum for "the good and the great" (as long as they support Revolutionary principles!). A replica of Faucault's Pendulum is also displayed in The Pantheon. The Geek in John found this very interesting! The pendulum is suspended from the high domed ceiling and signs and videos explain how Faucault used it to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth (remember that at the time the prevailing thought was that the stars revolved around a stationary Earth). The Crypt is enormous and is the resting place of such luminaries as Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, and Marie and Pierre Curie.
As if we hadn't had enough religion, we then went (next door) to the Église-St-Etienne-du-Mont. We went there to have a look at the famous 'rood screen' but were also really taken with the shrine to St Geneviève (who, we
The Pantheon
St-Etienne-du-Mont is in the background to the left. discovered is the patron saint of Paris).
Last time we were in Paris we decided we didn't like the Latin Quarter much. This time we explored a bit more, especially well away from the tacky river bank area, and found it much more to our liking.
It was freezing cold all day with near constant misty rain. By sunset, however, it was raining in earnest but the amazingly efficient Paris Metro had us back in the warmth of our very cosy apartment in no time!
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