Musée National Eugène Delacroix

After the disappointment of having to pay for a museum on what should have been a typical First Free Sunday (see also: Château de Vincennes), we sought vindication in the form of another museum visit, this time to the Musée National Eugène Delacroix.

Occupying the former apartment and atelier of the über-Romantic painter, the (smallish) museum showcases many of the famous artist's lesser-known works, as well as a number of sketches and personal items collected during Delacroix's voyage to North Africa. The only major works on hand was an early draft of The Death of Sardanapalus, and completely missing were any references to a work we'd learned about through the "Jeunes ont la parole" program - The Women of Algiers (in their Apartment) - or my personal favorite work in the entire Louvre - Liberty Leading the People.

We were in and out in under an hour, but that shouldn't diminish the importance of the museum's collection. If you love any of the works above, the Musée National Eugène Delacroix offers many equally delightful gems. And even if you find the museum itself disappointing, at the very least the garden separating apartment from atelier provides a fantastic refuge for the weary First Free Sunday aficionado.

Château de Vincennes

To celebrate the end of our time here, we'd like to ask a favor of our readers: take a minute to read back through your favorite posts, and send your "top 3" list to panda.a.paris [at] gmail.com. We'll be collecting your submissions throughout the week, and next week (our last in Paris!) we'll post the results. Thanks in advance, and happy browsing!

For our last free museum Sunday, we set our sights high: the Château de Versailles. But then we found out that it's only free the first Sunday of the month between November and March, so that was a no go. We decided to substitute one château for another, and with Becky and Élodie (Maggie's conversation partner/our new friend), we headed instead to the Château de Vincennes.

From the outside, we could already tell we were in for a treat - this is an honest to goodness castle, with high, often crumbling walls, a moat, towers, and drawbridges!


A slight let-down once we got inside: like Versailles, the Château de Vincennes is only free on the first Sundays of November through March. (Clearly we should have checked our own post on this very subject from way back in September. Stupid, stupid, stupid.) On the bright side, the woman selling tickets took pity on us and let me and Becky in for free (because I'm 26 and she's 25 - although technically 25 is the cutoff, and you're supposed to be a resident of the EU). Maggie and Élodie, on the other hand, got stiffed with a 12-euro tour fee. Eek.

You can technically enter the Château de Vincennes for free and walk the grounds, but you can't go in the buildings, and you certainly can't benefit from the excellent tour. Our guide discussed in detail three highlights of the Château and led us through one of them. First, we learned about the Tour du Village, the only remaining tower of the original six constructed in the 14th century:

Second, we spent about an hour walking in, over, through, and under the landmark that Céline correctly identified to win our last Photo Challenge: the Donjon de Charles V, constructed between 1337 and 1373, is the highest medieval tower in Europe.

It began as the stronghold of French kings during the Hundred Years' War, then became a prison that held such luminaries as the Marquis de Sade and the Comte de Mirabeau. In addition to its historical importance, the donjon is something of an architectural marvel for its time, and many of the monument's details struck us as both brilliant and beautiful.




The two columns in the bottom row constitute the main supports for the tower - they're actually stacked on top of each other through five 30-ft-high floors. You might just barely be able to see the colors painted on the column on the right, which give a faint indication of the riot of color that these rooms originally boasted. (Another great place to see "authentic" medieval interior design: Église St.-Germain-des-Prés.)

And finally, the Chapel, designed after the much more famous La Chapelle of the Île-de-la-Cité. It doesn't quite measure up, but only because the stained glass hasn't been preserved as well. On the bright side, with fewer heavy panels of stained glass, there's tons more natural light, such that the ceiling seems to float above your head. Bonus: When we visited, there was a nifty temporary exhibition on medieval musical instruments. Score!


Unfortunately it wasn't possible to visit several of the 17th-century additions to the château, which now host archives of the Defense Ministry. But we'll see plenty of 17th-century interiors when we visit the Château de Versailles later this week with Maggie's mom. Stay tuned!

Musée Gustave Moreau

On the first Sunday in March, we took advantage of the fact that state-run museums were free to go to one neither have us had visited before: the Musée Gustave Moreau.

Known for his fantastic - in the "fantasy" sense of the word - paintings, Moreau may have been the first artist to leave his home and personal collection to the state, and this museum opened to the public shortly after his death in 1898.

The museum's walls assault visitors with clutter and rapidly shifting subject matter, but overall you get a good sense of what the space must have felt like when it was still Moreau's atelier. There are laminated guides that label all of the paintings and describe a few of them, which was helpful.


Best part of the museum: the awesome spiral staircase linking the third- and fourth-floor studios:

Zoom in on these paintings, and you'll get a sense for the amazing intricacy of Moreau's work. Plus, you'll realize that he defined "tripping" 70 years before the advent of LSD.

The temporary exhibition during our visit revealed an interesting aspect of Moreau's creative process: his use of clay sculptures to model the figures in his paintings. Part of the exhibit involved x-ray images of several of the few remaining sculptures, placed behind the sculptures themselves, which were usually right next to the relevant paintings.

The art portion of the museum is concentrated on the uppermost two floors, where Moreau had his studios. Below the studios, Moreau created his own "museum" focusing on his family, and today you can visit Moreau's apartments. Surprise, surprise: the walls here are jam-packed with portraits, the tables with knick-knacks, the rooms with period furniture. It only takes about 5 minutes to move through the rooms, but those 5 minutes were pretty overwhelming.

The museum is open every day but Tuesday, 10 AM through 5:15 PM. It's a wild ride, and we recommend it.