Paris1972-Versailles2003

I am coming back at your with my Paris city of lights and beauty beyond description. This is the museum on the history of Paris and well worth your detour. Paris has a lot of museums and many work of arts that do not find the public space for lack of money space or else but the treasures are huge kept in many buildings and basements all over France. I found me older pictures in my cd rom vault and rather than a newer post decided to put the pictures on this one, for you and me! Therefore, here is my take on the Musée Carnavalet of Paris,Part I !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I

One great museum of Paris, the Carnavalet museum is in a nice area, and full of the history of Paris, the city museum. The Carnavalet museum consists of the Carnavalet hotel itself, and the Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau hotel, connected by a gallery on the first floor. 3,800 works and objects are exhibited in the permanent journey. Among the hundred rooms that make up this route, 34 are decorations rooms, mainly 17-18C. These rooms, sometimes called “Period Rooms”, constitute one of the peculiarities of the museum. The museum retains more than 625,000 works, objects and documents, varied in their nature: furniture and decorative art objects, paintings, sculptures, archaeological collections, but also photographs, manuscripts and autographs, posters, prints, drawings, coins and medals , Small objects of history and memory … The museum preserves and also exhibits collections related to the history of art and the history of France. In 1989, after its restoration and its development, the Le Peletier hotel, was connected to the Carnavalet hotel by a gallery crossing the Lycée Victor-Hugo and was open to the public. The archaeological crypt of the Notre -Dame forecourt was attached to the museum in August 1999. In July 2002, the catacombs of Paris were attached to the Carnavalet Museum. The main entrance of the museum is located at 23 rue de Sévigné, 3éme , metro St Paul line 1. 

In effect the two buildings are those of  the hôtel Carnavalet ,and the hôtel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau ,both linked by a gallery with in between the lycée Victor Hugo (high school) .

The Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau is more sober style and was built in the 1690s. It includes an exceptional architectural element with its large staircase including the sumptuous cast iron support ramp, molded and crushed ,and not in wrought iron is a technical prowess never renewed before the 19C attached to the Carnavalet museum – History of Paris since the 1960s, its renovation was implemented from 1982 to 1989. Its vast fireplace, its tiles and Its exposed beams have been preserved, for a staging of Parisian interiors throughout history.The Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau Hotel welcomes revolutionary collections, and those of the 19-20C. The new course still retains these collections there, as well as those of the 21C. Conservation services are also present. On the ground floor are the educational rooms and the Center for Studies and Resources. The Orangery is now devoted to the reception of cultural, scientific and collaborative events. It is also in the Le Peletier de Saint Fargeau Hotel that certain famous pieces of the museum are located: the ballroom of the Wendel hotel, decorated in 1924-1925 by the Spanish artist José-Maria Sert, the small coffee lounge from Paris decorated by Henri Sauvage (1899), and La Bijouterie Fouquet, work of the famous Czecho-Slovak artist Alfons Mucha (1901). This is also where the room of Marcel Proust is located, as well as the portrait of Juliette Récamier by François Gérard (1805), who has passed since the 19C, rightly or wrongly, for the most beautiful of the museum.

The story of the building is that the one of the Peletier de Saint Fargeau had voted for the execution of king Louis XVI during the French revolution ,and later assassinated by a bodyguard of the king in 1793. This later building is richly decorated with amongst other  the cabinet of the hotel de Villacerf in painted wooden polychrome motifs; the grand cabinet and one room of the hotel de la Rivière, with its ceilings and tapestries done by Charles Le Brun; two objects of Louis XV style decorated and designed by architect Claude Nicolas Ledoux, both examples of neo Classical period, the café militaire, ,the stairs of Luynes and its composition in trompe-l’oeil ; 8 objects of styles Louis XV and Louis XVI like the cabinet doré, room/chambre polychrome, petit salon, salon bleu, salon gris, and salon turquoise;  twelves rooms dedicated to the French revolution;  the room of the Second Empire , and the room of Marcel Proust where he wrote ” À la recherche du temps perdu ” or in search of lost time.

The Hôtel Carnavalet or Carnavalet hotel was built between 1548 and 1560, its quadrilateral plan between courtyard and garden constituted an architectural novelty, and was going to be an example for many other hotels. The statues that adorn it are masterpieces due to Jean Goujon and his workshop. In 1578, it became the property of Françoise de La Baume, widow of a Breton gentleman named François de Kernevenoy dit de Carnavalet. It is to her that the museum owes its name , From 1664 to 1694, it was inhabited by the Marquise de Sévigné ,and after the French revolution, it was occupied by the School of Ponts et Chaussées then by the Liévyns and Verdot institutions, before its acquisition by the city of Paris in 1866 on the advice of Baron Haussmann.

If you want to know the history of the city of Paris, this is the Carnavalet museum to come to. And as such is managed by the city of Paris cultural dept.  There is ,also, a library. Another nice spot and worth the detour while in Paris. 

The official Carnavalet museum :  https://www.carnavalet.paris.fr/en

The Paris tourist office on the museum : https://parisjetaime.com/eng/culture/musee-carnavalet-histoire-de-paris-p3492

The City of Paris on the musée Carnavalet : https://www.paris.fr/lieux/musee-carnavalet-histoire-de-paris-1518

There you go folks, Paris and its Carnavalet museum ! I was briefy there on a business meeting which allow us to walked the museum , and finally found the pictures of the visit.  It is highly recommended for a visit and to get to know Paris. Again, hope you enjoy this post on the Musée Carnavalet of Paris, part I !!! as I.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!