Musee de Cluny

Three days ago, I took a trip to the Musee de Cluny. My goal was to find a cross stitch tapestry that I could do, and it was a trip that had been put off for several days. The day before I'd been sent to the Musee d'Orsay with the grandmother of my host family. It was a lovely museum, but the Impressionists exhibit was closed and therefore, I didn't get to see what I really wanted to. There will be a post coming about that later.

So to the middle ages museum I went. I'm a big fan of all things to do with the middle ages in case you didn't know, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and all that jazz. Also, I promised my youngest brother that I would get him a sword and it seemed like the most likely place to get one.

Musee de Cluny is in an old medieval castle that's been somewhat rehabilitated for use. It's probably the coolest old building I've seen in a while except for Mont St. Michel. As a museum, it doesn't have the grandeur and gilt of the Musee d'Orsay or the Louvre, but the stonework in the courtyard alone is probably more intricate than anything on either of those buildings. What really shocked me the most about all of the art and sculpture in this museum was the sheer amount of detail that everything had. Even the tiniest image on a medallion had a complete face and detailed outfit.

I'm not entirely sure what that is, but it blew me away with the sheer amount of detail. To give you a sense of scale, the entire thing from base to highest turret is only about the size of an average wine glass. Every roof tile, every window is drawn in exquisite detail. It's like a church sculpted on top of a cup. It reminded me a bit of Mont St. Michel, although I'm sure many other churches have such a level of intricacy and pointed spires.

Another thing I noticed about the middle ages based on the things displayed in the museum was this: unicorns are everywhere.

In every tapestry, every large sculpture or group painting, I guarantee if you look hard enough, there's a unicorn. The Musee de Cluny is of course the home of the famous tapestry Lady with a Unicorn which I discovered is actually part of a series of tapestries that depict women with unicorns. There was even an actual "unicorn horn" on display, with a description below explaining that it was actually just the tusk of a narwhal that had been given to some king sometime long ago and called a unicorn horn. Still, it was very impressive.

There were also chambers that housed stained glass windows taken from various churches and castles around Paris. Dark rooms with the windows lined up and backlit, spilling their multi-colored pictures onto the floor. Saints, kings, hunts, animals, more unicorns, all are the various subjects depicted in the vibrant windows. The detail in these windows too is absolutely incredible.

The whole museum in itself only took about an hour and a half to get through, and the gift shop didn't have my tapestry. It did have a sword for my brother, but as much as I love him I'm not willing to spend the 111 euros it would take, plus awkward questions in custums, to bring it home. Sorry bud, maybe next time.