It will run through the beginning of the Capetian dynasty to nowadays and will focus on everything related to France and its history.
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L’opéra comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called theThéâtre-Italien up to about 1793, when it again became most commonly known as the Opéra-Comique. Today the company’s official name is Théâtre national de l’Opéra-Comique, and its theatre, with a capacity of around 1,248 seats, sometimes referred to as the Salle Favart (the third on this site), is located in Place Boïeldieu, in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, not far from the Palais Garnier, one of the theatres of the Paris Opéra. The musicians and others associated with the Opéra-Comique have made important contributions to operatic history and tradition in France, and to French opera. Its current mission is to reconnect with its history, and discover its unique repertoire, to ensure production and dissemination of operas for the wider public.
Un livre enchaîné
XVe siècle, FranceParis, BnF, département des Manuscrits, NAL 226
Books were expensive during the Middle Ages: they cost as much as a small cattle of cows. So to avoid thieves in the colleges and universities’ libraries, books had to be chained to the bookshelves, which also enabled it to remain at the good place.
Unusual Museum of Taxidermy and Hunting
Every seeker of the unusual loves a good taxidermy museum and there are plenty of places in Paris that you can admire such zoological displays, however none of them host as theatrical and astonishing a display as the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Museum of Hunting and Nature) in Paris. Installed in two 18th century private mansions. The museum advocates for respectful hunting practices, wildlife preservation and ecological consciousness.
Arranged as a Wunderkammer, each room of the labyrinth houses are dedicated to a specific animal. Deer, wild pig, rabbit, birds of prey, they all have their own place. The genuine aspect of the museums work however is that each creatures appears where you least expect them, surprising you by their lifelike presence in a setting mixing baroque furniture, paintings, and cabinets of curiosities you’re encouraged to open and play with.
La Conciergerie, Paris Ier
The west part of the island was originally the site of a Merovingian palace, and was initially known as Le Palais de la Cité. From the 10th to the 14th centuries was the seat of the medieval Kings of France. Under Louis IX (Saint Louis) (1226–1270) and Philip IV (Philip the Fair) (1284–1314) the Merovingian palace was extended and more heavily fortified.
Louis IX added the Sainte-Chapelle and associated galleries, while Philippe IV created the towered facade on the river side and a large hall. Both are excellent examples of French religious and secular architecture of the period. The Sainte-Chapelle, built in the French royal style, was erected to house the crown of thorns brought back from the crusades, and to serve as a royal chapel. The “Grand Salle” (Great Hall) was one of the largest in Europe, and its lower story, known as “La Salle des Gens d’Armes” (The Hall of the Soldiers) survives: 64m long, 27.5m wide and 8.5m high. It was used as a dining-room for the 2,000 staff members who worked in the palace. It was heated with four large fireplaces and lit by many windows, now blocked up. It was also used for royal banquets and judicial proceedings. The neighboring Salle des Gardes was used as an antechamber to the Great Hall immediately above, where the king held his lit de justice (a session of parliament in the king’s presence).
The early Valois kings continued to improve the palace in the 14th century, but Charles V abandoned the palace in 1358, moving across the river to the Louvre. The palace continued to serve an administrative function, and still included the chancellery and French Parliament. In the king’s absence, he appointed a concierge to hold command of the palace. This was a very high ranking office, and could be considered the housekeeper for the king. In 1391 part of the building was converted for use as a prison, and took its name from the ruling office. Its prisoners were a mixture of common criminals and political prisoners. In common with other prisons of the time, the treatment of prisoners was very dependent on their wealth, status and connections. The very wealthy or influential usually got their own cells with a bed, desk and materials for reading and writing. Less well-off prisoners could afford to pay for simply furnished cells called pistoles, which would be equipped with a rough bed and perhaps a table. The poorest, known as thepailleux from the hay (paille) that they slept on, would be confined to dark, damp, vermin-infested cells called oubliettes (literally “forgotten places”). In keeping with the name, they were left to die in conditions that were ideal for the plague and other infectious diseases which were rife in the unsanitary conditions of the prison.
Three towers survive from the medieval Conciergerie: the Caesar Tower, named in honor of the Roman Emperors; the Silver Tower, so named for its (alleged) use as the store for the royal treasure; and the Bonbec (“good beak”) Tower, which obtained its name from the torture chamber that it housed, in which victims were encouraged to “sing”. The building was extended under later kings with France’s first public clock being installed around 1370. The current clock dates from 1535. The concierge or keeper of the royal palace, gave the place its eventual name.
Medieval, Knives, about AD 1406; Sheath, about AD 1406-1410
From Dijon or Paris, France
The ritual of feasting was more formal in the Middle Ages than today. The larger knives would have been used by an ‘esquire carver’ to chop, carve and then serve the meat to his lord, who would have used the smaller knives himself at the table.
The wooden handles of these carving knives are richly decorated with armorial devices, mottoes and floral motifs. This sophisticated design is carried out in translucent enamel and gilt silver. On each side of each handle are two armorial shields within a floral border, and a motto ’s’il plaist a dieu’ (‘If it pleases God’) with floral motifs.
The heraldry has been identified as the arms of Jean de Touraine and his wife Jacqueline of Bavaria-Hainault, who were married in 1406.
The sheath is stamped and engraved with the design of a figure of a peasant carriying a hoe within floral decoration, and the motto ‘J’endure’ (‘I persevere’). The cover of the sheath is similarly decorated with a watering pot and the conjoined initials ‘Y’ and ‘O’ possibly for Ysabel of Burgundy and Olivier de Blois, her husband, who were also married in 1406.
Although the motto may relate to the hard lot of the peasant, the watering pot was a recognized symbol of inconsolable grief, and may refer to the death of Ysabel in 1412.
Inside of Musée d’Orsay in Paris - Alexander Franke
The Musée d’Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d’Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Artsrailway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It is probably best known for its extensive collection of impressionistand post-impressionistmasterpieces (the largest in the world) by such painters such as Monet, Manet,Degas, Renoir, Cézanne,Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin and Van Gogh. Many of these works were held at theGalerie nationale du Jeu de Paume prior to the museum’s opening in 1986.
Couvercle à glissière provenant du trésor de la Sainte-Chapelle à Paris. Argent doré, cire et peinture, Constantinople, XIIe siècle./
Sliding lid with the cross, from the treasury of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Gilded silver, wax and paint, Byzantium, 12th century.
The Relics of Sainte-Chapelle are relics of Jesus Christ acquired by the French monarchy in the Middle Ages and now conserved by the Archdiocese of Paris. They were originally housed at Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and are now in the cathedral treasury of Notre Dame de Paris.
