The history of the banks of the Seine - Paris sur Seine

The seine was once again an occasion for an outing, but this time not actually visiting the river itself but an exhibition about the history of the use of the seine, more notably its use for leisure activities. Having previously expressed my enjoyment of the Paris Plage phenomenon, I’m still going to stand my ground even though many of my friends have repeatedly argued to the counterpoint. 

To be honest the recent poor weather has not helped my enthusiasm either.

What ever about peoples reservations about being attired in swimwear in central Paris, the exhibition about the history of the seine, highlighted it’s rich history full of diverse uses. From fireworks to boat jousting, down to its origins as the central port of Paris before the canals came into operation and even interesting images from the era when Paris's bridges were actually housing.

Q: where do you live? A:Pont Neuf

Also check out this photo of a cyclist launching him self into the Seine, and that was before the redbull flugtag was ever invented!

As the exhibition was free I would definitely recommend attending as it has just the right amount of posters and maps as well as some videos from the later 1900s. Its central location in the Hotel de Ville is also very convenient. The entrance for this exhibition is along the Rue de Rivoli.

Cycling by the Seine

Museum of the day was the Museum des Arts Asiatiques –Guimet, this museum is located in the 16th, just a little bit down the road from Palais de Tokyo. I took the same cycling route as the time I had visited the Musée d’Armée, down along to Bastille and across the Pont de Sully to the south side of the Seine before just following the combined bus and bike lane west.

This route while enjoyable for me, it is not for the faint hearted, it involves a combination of wonderful dedicated bike lanes along tree lined avenues and fighting tooth and nail with bumper to bumper traffic, while travelling at speed.

nice bike lanes

One tip, don’t hesitate. There are a number of on and off ramps and bridges along the south bank of the Seine and these can result in you being cut off mid cycle, if you don’t just go for it you will end up looking like a two wheeled deer caught in the headlights.

Another thing I remarked upon on my way to the museum was this:

That's right a Segway tour of Paris. Hmm before passing too much judgement on this concept I decided to look up this tours website to get a little more info, well to be honest more so the price of the tour. The result is barely any info on their website, no prices, duration, frequency or routes. Guess this is all something they do by phone. After reading some of the many, granted positive reviews of these types of trips on line and some more in depth research into price(starting from €85), I still remain largely unconvinced. Most of the people I saw on the tour seemed to be spending most of their time looking at their Segway rather than taking in the sights and to top it off the slow group were blocking up one of the nicest stretches of cycle lane I had been on. Maybe that is the main reason I have not taken to the idea. If you want to stand up and sight see, walk. 

Without continuing too much on this tangent I’ll reserve further judgement until I decide to blow the whopping €85 euro on a four hour segway tour.

After finally arriving to the Museum, I cruised in with the now usual no queue, no cost routine. 

Note ably on entry there was a large pink replica of the Taj Mahall occupying the first and principal exhibition space. I quite enjoyed the spectacle actually, as the contrasting colour was quite striking. 

As for the rest of the museum I must confess the content was not so much of interest, mainly due to the fact that I have little or no knowledge of Asian art and religions (most of the information I have gleaned through the years has been from Apu from the Simpsons). I sped through most of the exhibits, sometimes pausing to read from the hand-held info boards that were located by most of the entry points.

There were a great many statues and sculptures, mostly grey and lacking any kind of accompanying information. 

this one should work the cafe oz weekend shifts

 How every things did perk up temporarily, when I passed though into the Japanese section where there was some lovely screens and art, as well as more Ming Dynasty Crockery than you could shake a baseball bat at.

While the overall exhibition was not to my taste I would recommend going with a friend(possibly Asian) who has some knowledge and interests in these things and can help promote some enthusiasm about the history of one of the greatest civilisations in the World. 

However what I did thoroughly enjoy was the Architecture, the building was amazing with an interesting sequence of architectural spaces that circulated around the large central exhibition space and eventually leading you back to the Stairwell that would bring you to the next level of exhibits. The building also very elegantly used discrete materials that were very well detailed so as not to dominated the often grey or monotone items it exhibited.

beautiful circular bordmarked marked concrete pillars

 While the visit was enjoyable, I would recommend having an interest in either Asia or Architecture before going.

Napoleon at the Army Museum - small man, big tomb

So continuing with this months visit of museums, I yesterday visited Museé de L’Armée – Tombeau de Napoléon. To be honest I just picked this cause it was one of the first on the list and it was open on a Tuesday. I wasn’t really sure where this was and thinking I would be able to view the exhibition quickly in an hour and then maybe nip off to the D’orsay after, this was in retrospect a little premature.  Also worth the mention is the lovely cycle route along the Seine I enjoyed on the way to the museum. 

Well lets just say that my low expectations made this one of the coolest museum visits I have been on in a while. First of all turns out the front entrance of the museum looks like this.

So keeping that in mind I wouldn’t put it in the small and modest category of Museum. The building itself is called the Hotel des Invalide, and is that giant building with the gold dome you would have spotted by the Eiffel tower on several occasions. I'm think the buildings original purpose was to do with the army and soldiers who had been injured in wars, pretty much the fancy French equivalent of the Royal hospital Kilmanham in Dublin, but I’m not sure.

After a quick wander around through the cannon courtyard I reached the ticket office at the southern entrance to the building complex. Thanks to a separate ticket office at the front for groups and many automatic ticket machines, there was absolutely no queue, and my free ticket was handed over quickly and with a smile.

So with the ticket and a guide brochure in hand I proceeded to start my tour of the museum with Napoleons tomb. Since it was closest. Entering in to the chapel you instantly notice the amazing painted and gilded dome, before looking down into a pit in the centre of the church and realising that the giant slab of expensive looking red stone is in fact Napoleon. A quick walk around and I’m out and to be honest the thing I was thinking about most at the time was how did the masons manage to quarry and sculpt such a large piece of stone, and then carry it into this chapel.

Without letting this become too epic a blog entry I’m just going to summarise the rest of the exhibitions.

The medieval section with the Ancient Armour and Arms of the 13th – 17th Century was next on the list. This collection was very impressive and the museum holds more coats of arms than 5 Robin Hood films, as well as a very impressive collection of or old guns crossbows and knives. The thing i enjoyed the most was being able to see the intricate detailing of some of the more elaborate coats of arms up close. This clearly was and age where labour was cheap.

Next up the Section dedicated to the two World Wars, this was also surprisingly enjoyable. Especially as it the reasons for the wars and the tactics were all explained for dummies. The way I would describe it would be a history lesson really well and easily explained with loads of videos, maps, uniforms, posters, guns, grenades and photos. Seriously though as an amateur to the history of the world wars I came out feeling very informed and even, dare I say it, moved by the sheer vastness of the whole event. The clips from D-Day were very moving.

After this though I barely had any time left so a quick stroll led me across the canon courtyard to the Napoleonic part. But wait what's this, the Museum of Plan Relief is located in the attic, cha CHING, getting 2 museums done in one day. So I zipped up to the attic and managed to get a quick look at half the models on display before being kicked out. Lets just say they were awesome and the lighting was quite atmospheric, apparently to preserve the models.

So at the end of that I was wrecked, I’d easily spent over 3 hours in the museum. All worth it, and definitely would consider going back.