Blog #6: Museum Adventures and Marseille

So Many Museums to Discuss, so Little Time!

Alright, I’m back to blogging for this third week! It’s not Monday yet so I’m getting in my blogs now, everything during and after the break from class made things so busy and hectic! I’m going to list all the museums I saw during week two and on break and then dive into a few of them because this will not be an “and I did this…” blog that Smith does not want.

So, after our last class before our five-day break, on July 13th and 14th I hit a LOT of museums. I was going ham. On the 13th I went to Maison de Victor Hugo and the Memorial de la Shoah. On the 14th I went to Musee de l’Historie de France, which were at the National Archives, and Musee Carnavalet. After this was my two days in Marseille which I’ll discuss in the second half of this post.

The main museums I want to focus on for this post though are the Memorial de la Shoah and the Musee Carnavalet. Two very different museums that I want to discuss for entirely different reasons.

Memorial de la Shoah

The Memorial de la Shoah was an extremely well-done museum and very interesting to see having been to the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. Now, I know these two museums are structured around different focal points, but they still touch on many of the same topics regarding the mass genociding of the Jewish population during WWII.

Everything in this museum was just so powerful, as you walk through the entrance there are marble walls filled with names of the Jewish population that were deported from France in collaboration with the Vichy government. So, right off the bat, the museum is showing how France is taking accountably for the actions of the Vichy government. This theme remains consistent throughout all the exhibits, it was honestly so eye-opening because we are not really taught about the Vichy government’s role in aiding the Nazi party in history courses. In all honesty, before this trip, I was truly unaware. In public school, all that’s mentioned is that France was being invaded by the Nazi Party and surrendered the Northern part to them, but they were still our ally. This museum visit was such an educational experience and the way they honor the lives lost was very moving.

Whereas, thinking back to my experience with the Holocaust Museum in D.C., there were a lot of really powerful moments. It was also incredibly informative, but it didn’t hit me in the way the Memorial de la Shoah did. I partially feel that the information at the D.C. museum was pretty broad and the parts about Nazisim in the U.S. felt like background information. I think it would have been more impactful and important to show accountability in a similar vein to what France is doing.

Musee Carnavalet

Okay, so this is on a completely different note, totally different subject matter. Complete 180 and I apologize for that, it isn’t easy trying to talk about so much even though they don’t match tonally.

So, with the Musee Carnavalet, which is about the history of France, I have less to say in regard to its content and more to discuss with its layout. Oh gosh, the layout, how I felt so overstimulated in that place, and how I cannot take any more maze-like museums (I’m looking at you Musee d’Orsay and Louvre).

The ground level (0) is honestly pretty straightforward. The main hall is an exhibit about how businesses drew in people with their signs, and there’s a side corridor about the design of Paris and the monarchy. The -1 level also made sense layout-wise about prehistory. This is where my compliments end. Listen, I am directionally challenged, but level 1 was such a maze for me. I felt like I was just going in complete circles around the rooms and winding up in either the same place or somewhere I did not recognize. The chronology also made no sense to me, personally. I was in sections that were about 18th-19th century French living and then would turn a corner and now we’re looking at medieval artifacts? I also kept trying to find a way up to the 2nd floor and couldn’t find it until the very end when I had to speed run it.

Listen, if anyone else has been there and has different opinions, that’s great but, for me, it felt like I was stuck in the Twilight Zone. This is also exactly how I felt in the Musee d’Orsay and the Louvre. I know they are all very different buildings with very different layouts, but they all gave me the same feeling that I was stuck in purgatory with no way out. (I am of course overexaggerating for some comedic effect)

The museum exhibits were very cool and they showed many awesome examples of how rooms may have been set up in the 18th century, upper-class residences. The history of the building itself starting from the 16th century was also incredibly fascinating. However, I definitely think this museum could use some floor arrows on the first floor to help guide people in the right direction.

Marseille

I’m realizing how much I wrote about the museums, so I’ll try to keep this short! I went to Marseille for about two days and it was really interesting being in another part of France! I will admit, it was not as picturesque as I thought it would be, it was very much lived in and urban with graffiti on almost all surfaces and trash piles due to strikes. However, the history there is very rich, and that is mainly what I went for, in all honesty.

I mainly wanted to address some of the beautiful architecture. First was the Palais Longchamp which is a monument that houses their Beaux-arts museum on the left wing and the Natural History Museum to the right. Admission was completely free and both museums were so quaint and well put together, I loved it. The monument itself is also just beautiful and gives an elevated view of part of the city. The history behind it is that it was constructed in 1839 (finished in 1869) to celebrate the completion of the Marseille canal and the bringing of water into the city. It was designed by Henri-Jacques Espérandieu, who also designed the other Marseille structures I wanted to discuss.

In addition to Palais Longchamp, Henri-Jacques Espérandieu also helped design the Marseille Cathedral and Notre-Dame de la Garde. In a sad but kind of ironic fashion, he apparently passed away due to contracting pneumonia from the Notre-Dame de la Garde crypt. He was only 45 years old, but he definitely made his mark on the city as these are some of the biggest highlights. Notre-Dame de la Garde was jaw-dropping. Not only was the view stunning, as it sits 154 meters above sea level, but the interior was also not like any of the churches I have seen thus far…which is a lot. While the interior is somewhat small in comparison to other churches I’ve been to, the design is just stunning. From the floors to the ceilings, I think the photos speak for themselves.[1]