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.

A Wonderful Day

Today, I had a wonderful day.

That's right, I spent my day at the Louvre.

It started with taking the metro from my host family's apartment. There are two metro stations within close walking distance, one required only one transfer but was much harder to get to with the twisty turny streets of Pairs, so I chose the much more straightforward way from the house, but difficult metro routes. Two transfers later, I was at the Louvre.

I traipsed blindly through the Rochefort wing, looking for the few works I knew would be hidden away somewhere in the immensity that is the old palace. For three hours, I was surrounded by statues, the works of French painters and medieval carvings and illuminations. It was all very beautiful, but the smell of coffee and the lunch hour drew me away from the beauty.

Let me just say that to an American girl who spent the summer becoming addicted to coffee, Starbucks is almost as good as any work of art. That melusine/mermaid logo starts to look like an angel if a system used to a caffeine fix hasn't had any since the plane ride over to Europe more than a week ago. So one white mocha and a sandwich later, I was rejuvenated and ready to hit the galleries again.

Winged Victory is one of my favorite sculptures, perhaps my favorite though its not like I have extensive knowledge on art of any kind. Maybe it's the way they have it positioned, it's the largest piece of art in a sparsely decorated grand room located just at the top of a staircase and directly between two others. It is absolutely magnificent and I was lucky enough to get a clear picture of it as seen above.

A helpful security guard later, I was standing in front of my second favorite statue, the Venus de Milo. For something so famous, it was in a room shockingly crowded with other pieces and not so many tourists. Either that or I just got really lucky that hardly anyone was there because I was able to get another really clear and uncrowded picture.

Leonardo DaVinci might be the most famous Italian artist, but my heart belongs to another. Oh I made the walk by of the Mona Lisa, but I didn't wait in the line to see her up close, I snapped a photo from afar. No, in my opinion the best Italian artist of the Renaissance was Alessandro Boticelli. His settings, his colors, his models and poses, and just everything about his art makes me happy. I absolutely adore La Primavera, though sadly it and most of his works are in Italy. Still, the Louvre does have another of his paintings that I spent time getting acquainted with.

Venus and the Three Graces

After the Mona Lisa, I was tired and ready to see some sunshine. Stopping once more at the Starbucks, I got an iced version of my earlier mocha and headed to the Tuileries. Just a small side note: those grates in the ground? Yeah, they blow air out of them. I wasn't aware of that until I walked over one and my skirt did a Marilyn Monroe much to the appreciation of the construction workers nearby. Thank goodness for leggings.

The Tuileries were absolutely amazing, and though I've only ever been to Paris before in the spring, I've decided that fall is the best time to come out of those two seasons. The changing colors of the leaves, the late blooming roses and other flowers, birds chirping their last songs before winter, incomparable.

So that was my fantastic day. I'm nursing sore feet and a new, though significantly smaller blister than the last one, but it was all worth it.