Tag: Paris Itinerary

Recent Trip to Paris: 3 Museums

I have recently returned from my trip to Paris, and thought I would talk about the three museums I managed to fit into my itinerary.

Grande Galerie de l’Évolution

Situated inside the Jardin des Plantes, Paris’s botanical garden, the Gallery of Evolution has its roots in the seventeenth century France and was reopened in its present state in 1994. It is an exhibition across four expansive floors displaying 7.000 specimens categorised by the steps in evolution. The focus is on biodiversity, evolution of life, marine life, human inventions and humanity’s impact on the environment. Not to be missed is also the cabinet of extinct and disappearing species, where there are on display such extinct species as the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger, once native to Australia (land), Tasmania and New Guinea (see the picture below), and the quagga, an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra. I thought it was a lovely place with a modern feel, impressive immersive elements, such as natural sound effects (storm, insects sounds), and a well-curated collection.

Address: 36 Rue Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 75005 Paris.

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My Recent Trip to Paris: Cultural Highlights

I have recently returned from my trip to Paris, France and am sharing my highlights. Though the big attraction of my trip was the MusΓ©e de Cluny, there are some smaller, “off-the-beaten track” museums in Paris that I have also always wanted to visit, and I present two of them at the end of my post.

MusΓ©e national du Moyen Γ‚ge, Paris @ Thoughts on Papyrus.
  • MusΓ©e de Cluny

Address: 28 Rue du Sommerard, Latin Quarter, Paris; Metro: Cluny – La Sorbonne. Admission: Ticketed.

The Museum of the Middle Ages is one of the largest collections of medieval art and artefacts in Europe, and is located in the former town-house of the Abbots of Cluny, which also has elements of Gallo-Roman ruins. It has medieval sculptures, tapestries, metal-work, carvings, religious, household and war items, and stained-glass examples on displays. My highlight was, of course, The Lady and the Unicorn series of tapestries, which I have wanted to see for a long time. The beautiful tapestries, with elegant depictions of animals and plants, were woven in the late fifteenth century, and each represents one of the five human senses: touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste. The sixth tapestry, titled A mon seul dΓ©sir, is said to represent the sixth sense of the heart or intuition.

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