Miscellaneous museums

My mother was recently here for about a week and a half, and she was determined to visit a bunch of museums and museum-type places.  I mentioned the Delacroix museum in my post on the 6th arrondissement, but I'll do summaries of some of the other places we went in this post.

The Pantheon:

I've talked about this monument several times but I've never really shown/described the inside.

The ground level is mostly full of neo-classical frescos and sculptures of things representing Paris' history and important events.  There is a series of frescoes for the life of St Genevieve, and many newer sculptures representing democratic ideas and ideals.

Here is one called "The National Convention," the legislative body that was essentially the first representative Congress of France in 1789.

This part also has the original Foucalt's pendulum hanging from the top of the dome.

Then you go downstairs into the crypt, where the "grands hommes" are buried.  The first ones you come to are those of Rousseau and Voltaire, shown here respectively.

"He fought against atheists and fanatics, he inspired tolerance, he reclaimed the rights of man from the servitude of feudalism."

Those two have the place of pride in the central area of the crypt, but then you go through some hallways to find the rest of those who have been honored.  Most of the hallways look like this:

The rest of the tombs are set inside smaller wings off the hallways, either four or six to a room, usually placed with respect to their occupations, ideals, or time period.  For example, Emile Zola, Victor Hugo, and Dumas, son, are in the same room for being writers of similar time periods, and all the leaders of the Resistance are also together.

Some of these rooms you can enter, some you cannot.  Often ones that are open have flowers and memorials on the tombs; here are Marie and Pierre Curie:

It's rather cool and damp down there, but it's not at all creepy.  There are signs for most of the interred, explaining their lives and why they're there.


The Conciergerie:

This is an old prison, fortress, and army site just down the street from Notre Dame cathedral.  See my post on the 1st arrondissement for more info about the rise of the monarchy around this area.  It was built in medieval times, and much of the ground level shows this.

But the most important period in this building's history was definitely the early days of the Revolution, when hundreds of prisoners were kept here, especially during the Reign of Terror.  Nearly all those who got executed during the Revolution - who were primarily the aristocracy and reactionaries, but at the end original revolutionaries like Robespierre and Danton went as well - were held here before going to the guillotine.  Unlike in earlier times, however, during the Revolution the social status of prisoners did not matter and all were treated more or less the same. 

The museum here has many objects of interest from this time period, including this arrest warrant signed by Robespierre - within a year of writing this he would be facing the guillotine himself.

The only ones who were treated differently here were members of the royal family, who were more closely guarded because of fear of escape.  Marie Antoinette and her children were also allowed to pray in the chapel:

Here is the outside of the cell where Marie Antoinette was held, facing the courtyard.

She was taken right from here in a cart to the guillotine across the river.

They a recreation of her cell:

I'm not sure how much this place would interest your average tourist here, but I found it great as it corresponds with my historical interests.


Rodin Museum:

Rodin left many of his greatest works to be housed in a museum for the people of Paris, and he was very specific about their setting.  They were to be in a large "hotel" - not a hotel but either a former home of nobility or building set aside for public/government purposes - and the sculpture spread through the grounds where he specified.  The gardens are really beautiful, and you can walk through them looking at both the flowers and the art.

This is the work "The Gates of Hell," where several of his larger sculptures came from: below the top figures is the miniature version of "The Thinker."

The Resistance/Jean Moulin and General Leclerc Memorial Museum:

This was a small but quite interesting museum that is really dedicated to the lives and careers of two men, but by going through that it is also a museum of the Resistance to the German occupation during WWII.

Jean Moulin was a writer and the unofficial head of the Resistance.  He organized many of the attacks on the occupiers, their army, and supplies, recruited others to the movement, and was its rallying point.  He was killed after his arrest in July 1943, so unfortunately he did not live long enough to see the Liberation.  His section of the museum had a lot of interesting documents and propaganda both from the Resistance movement and the Germans trying to fight against it. I would strongly recommend that anyone interested in this time period, or modern French history, to read up on Moulin as he was an extraordinary man who had a huge impact on the country.  He's now in the Pantheon.

General Leclerc was a military man who was already almost a legend when WWII started.  After the fall of France he escaped the occupied zone by crossing the country on a bicycle and then secretly joining General de Gaulle in England.  He fought in North Africa until D Day, when he crossed the channel before de Gaulle, proceeded to join the Liberation forces in Paris then in Strasbourg, and finally through Germany and was in the party that liberated Dachau.  Other than de Gaulle, Leclerc was the main force behind the Liberation of France and he worked closely with the Resistance, which is why this museum is partially dedicated to him.

Anyway, the upper level of this place had a great video of clips from the liberation of Paris.  It was not only very moving, but absolutely fascinating in that it showed images of armies, cannons, guns, fighting, bodies, in places I go every day here in Paris.  I was able to see exactly how the Germans and Allies went through Paris during the battle, where the fighting happened (it turns out some of the heaviest fighting was in the Luxembourg gardens, right next to me).  Of course I know that Paris has a long and often bloody history, but it is strange to think that it was so recent.  I saw videos of the Germans retreating down the road two blocks from my apartment, and tanks in one of the squares I walked through twice a day to and from my mom's hotel.  And they looked just the same.

We didn't take many pictures in this museum, but I thought this was a sad but sweet message to the incoming Allies from the people of Paris.