Does the world really need more pictures of Paris?

Yes of course when it’s things you don’t see every day such as the French counterpart of Target, chocolate-scented postage stamps and mail being delivered on stilts! As usual I’m posting pictures of things I’m pretty sure you’re not going see to anywhere else, with one or two exceptions.

I know, the Postal Museum sounds less interesting than watching paint dry –

but trust me it’s riveting and absolutely worth a visit.

and by pigeons carrying microfilm during the siege of Paris in 1870-1871 during the Franco-Prussian war (one of the actual pigeons and yes actual microfilm like in 1960s spy movies)

Projection of mail from microfilm, 1870-71

Chocolate-scented stamps celebrating 400 Years of Chocolate (2009). Sorry for the glare. They really need to get anti-refliective glass!

This is a 20-foot long map from 1265 of routes from Bordeaux to India or rather a reprint of it from 1887

Exhibition on the history of postcards at the Postal Museum

In marshlands they used stilts for lots of things besides mail delivery

Occasionally people would write in two directions when there wasn’t enough space

Musée Carnavalet, the Paris history museum

Earrings depicting Louix XVI and Marie Antoinette with guillotines. At the top is the liberty cap aka Phrygian cap which also appears on several U.S. state flags.

Perfume bottle “Révolte” (1937) in the shape of a cobblestone, referring to their use in the barricades in the Paris Commune in 1871

Container for artificial beauty spots, which were made of fabric (1771)

Shoes with flags of the Allies made on the occasion of the liberation of Paris (1944)

Masks used by Grace Jones in her shows (early 1980s) which she would break as part of the performance.

You don’t think of Ben Franklin as someone who was around French kings but here he is arranging a treaty with Louis XVI (1779)

Libretto from a ballet in which Louix XV performed in 1720. He was not the only French king to dance in ballets.

Louis XV wrote and printed this book on his own little printing press when he was 8 and already king – “Courses of the Main Rivers of Europe by Louis XV King of France & Navarre”

Area around my hometown St. Louis, which hadn’t been founded yet but many of the place names are still in use

Anonymous letter to the regent Philippe, duke of Orléans, who ruled France during the time that Louis XV was king but still a child and too young to rule

Rebuses about current events such Louis XIV’s recent death, the court and an opera ball (1715)

Etching of fireworks (1763). The words “Vive le roi” are backwards but the label didn’t say why.

I did not know that Beaumarchais, author of the plays The Marriage of Figaro and Barber of Seville, was also a clockmaker (and activist for American independence). He made this around 1750.

Many bridges at the time were filled with buildings like this. A jousting game is taking place in the river; the central building is a pump works.

Wallpaper with Declaration of the Rights of Man (1871)

Shop signs, which were how people found places in the days before addresses were used

Odd and ends

In the subway there’s mini-lockers where you can leave your keys for someone.

Vivienne Westwood in a photography exhibition in the subway

There were lots of big ads in the subway for a graphic book history of Jerusalem. Graphic novels are immensely popular in France.

If you forget your umbrella they’ll loan you one for free in the subway for an $8 deposit which is returned when you bring it back. No receipt, no paperwork and if you want to keep it you just keep it (photo found online).

In the train stations they have people on the platforms to help you figure out the schedules and find your way, unlike in Berlin where the rail staff stood by and watched while someone threw me to the ground and poured a beer on me and did nothing when I shouted for help.

A little crazy but I took three photos of the very nice bakery section at France’s version of Target.

A bouillon, a type of cheap traditional restaurant

The Spirit of Electricity (La Fée Electricité)

This 30 by 200-foot mural was painted by Raoul Dufy for the electricity pavilion at the 1937 World’s Fair and is now at the Modern Art Museum of the City of Paris. It depicts the history and role of electricity in society. They sort of folded it in half to fit into the limited space which is not how it was originally displayed.

In case you go to Paris brace yourself for museums being crowded like a bar on Saturday night even on weekdays in late January which is probably about the slowest time of the year and with timed tickets. The demand seems to soar every year with no end in sight. From the crowds in the Louvre you’d never guess they’ve set caps on admissions because they were getting twice as many visitors as the pyramid entry complex was designed to handle.

Nicolas de Staël retrospective – Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris

The Louvre

Not posting a lot of photos because as always I only post things you can’t easily see online, if at all.

This basket of strawberries (1761) by Chardin is one of the Louvre’s highest-profile purchases in years. In 2022 it was going to leave France forever after a museum in Texas made the highest bid at an auction but at the last minute the state pre-empted the sale by assigning it national treasure status. This means the seller has to let the state buy it for same price as the foreign buyer was going to pay.