medieval things

(post written in May 2019... because I'm a slacker and didn't get it done earlier.)

We went to the Musée de Cluny, which is an excellent museum of the middle ages.

They've got all kinds of different things in their collection, ranging from pieces of stained glass rescued from churches and other buildings, carvings, paintings, metalwork, pottery, games, armor, tapestries, books, and all manner of other objects from both sacred and everyday life.

The stained glass is in a series of darkened rooms, mounted on the walls and backlit, which allows one to really see the detail work that went into many of the pieces.  We happened to be in the room when a guided tour came through; as I recall, the guide explained about some of the techniques used in creating the stained glass, and also what things were lost to time, some of the symbolism in various pieces, things like that.

The room with the metalwork, enamel and gems was pretty stunning as I recall. However, one thing that I found particularly interesting was that in addition to amazing craftwork, there were also a number of everyday objects - toys and games, some clothes, kitchen utensils, things like that, from both well off and a few less well-off households. The site also includes the ruins of a Roman bath and a more modern medieval monastary.

ceiling of the chapel

This is the museum that holds the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestry set (there are better pictures on the internet than the ones we took), as well as a number of other beautifully worked tapestries. I also learned that "comic book" type panels were used even back then... but in somewhat larger format...

Lunch was burgers at Bistro 1.

In the afternoon, we went hunting for English language books. First was Abbey Bookshop, which is a delightful warren piled to the ceiling. And floor. The walls are bookshelves. There are rolling bookshelves in front of the bookshelves. There are precarious piles everywhere. The owner seemed to know if he had any particular book, and where to find it. It's the kind of place where one could visit every day and still find interesting things tucked into corners that one hadn't seen before.

And then to Shakespeare & Co which  is a more sedate, mainstream kind of place. Full of books everywhere, and quite large, with staircases and shelves and rooms spreading in all directions, but there was actually space for *people* as well as books. It was also much more busy.

Finally, we squeaked in a quick visit to Notre Dame. It was the end of the day, not much of a line - but also not much time for looking around. We were practically chased out... but we figured we'd come back again sometime...

Unfortunately, it will not happen for years now.