Musee de Carnavalet: Histoire de Paris

-Jessica Boyd


Up until the end of February, we learned all about the history of France as a country but we hadn't discovered the history of the city we are living in. The museum is located about 5 or 6 blocks away from the Bastille and the Opera house across the Seine. 

With nearly 600,000 works in over 100 rooms, Carnavalet houses the largest  collections of the city of Paris:  which  combines archaeological remains, the views of Paris yesteryear, models of ancient monuments, signs, decorative ensembles from buildings missing, anecdotal or historical scenes, portraits of famous Parisians, memories or stories of famous men of everyday life and a unique set of the revolutionary period. 

One of the more interesting exhibits is a series of salons decorated in the style of Louis XIV. These would have been even more impressive if I had seen them before we went to Versailles where I saw the true Louis XIV style. Somehow, a replica in a museum does not compare to his humble abode. 

Another one of my favorite exhibits was the La Belle Epoque hall. It houses many paintings depicting Parisian life in the early 1900s. It was such a glamorous time: days strolling the tree-lined boulevards and eating at street cafes followed by nights filled with the opera and a late dinner.

Under the Second Empire, at the time the work of Haussmann upset the old Paris, the Paris administration conceived the idea of a museum dedicated to the history of the city. Thus was born the Carnavalet Museum . Inaugurated in 1880, is the oldest municipal museum in the capital. Until then, sculptures, paintings and murals were displayed in City Hall and the various municipal buildings, including churches.

Paris is one of those cities that was apart of a wide range of history, from Roman times up until the present. It has always been a center of culture and the Musee de Carnavalet is the perfect place to display everything Paris has to offer.