Good Sunday

After a lazy morning, we joined some new musicologist friends for lunch at the New Nioullaville, a Chinese restaurant five minutes away from our apartment. We went for the dim sum, which was pretty excellent. Unfortunately there are no pictures of the food at the restaurant (I wouldn't give it an A for presentation) but on the way there we did enjoy seeing this:

Belleville, Panda loves you back.

Back from lunch, we walked Panda in the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, then took off again - this time to take advantage of our second Free Museum Sunday, the concept behind which we've mentioned before. On the way to our museum of choice, we passed not one but two wedding parties that had just gotten out of the former Théâtre de Belleville, now a Chinese restaurant. We wondered - did they have a joint ceremony? Just how big is that restaurant?

Maybe it was because of the wedding entourage, or maybe it was just because today was Sunday and everyone's heading back to the city from their country homes, but the rue de Belleville resembled a mix between a parking lot and a bumper car arena. Also, the afternoon light hit the Chinese store signs just so . . .

Anyway, eventually we arrived at our destination: La Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine. We had chosen wisely, since many of the other museums of the city are closed due to a strike. But also because this museum turned out to be way cool. One of the best things about the museum is that it's in the Palais Chaillot, originally built for the World Fair of 1937. It faces the Eiffel Tower from just across the Seine, and therefore offers some pretty stunning juxtapositions:

This is a replica! (The Eiffel Tower is real, though.)

Downstairs you find a collection of molds and models of important structures in France from Medieval times through the Renaissance - façades of churches, statues defaced (literally) during the Revolution, reconstructions of monasteries, fortresses, and chateaux destroyed over centuries of wars and natural disasters. There are interactive displays where you can take a virtual tour of some of the sites, and we were able to practice building our own arches and buttresses and such using wood blocks.

Are you surprised to see we weren't the only ones there?

Defaced . . . face. Stupid Revolution.

Upstairs, the museum traces the history of French architecture from 1851-2001, with lots of models, video, and audio. I drooled over everything ever created or proposed by Jean Nouvel. A temporary exhibition explored innovative efforts at public housing design.

Another section included exact reproductions of Romanesque and Gothic murals - complete with the architectural features you'd find them attached to within the original buildings (domes, side chapels, etc.). Pretty stunning stuff.

Overall, great museum. Definitely worth checking out - even if you have to pay.