Old, Older, Oldest: The Museums of France

Though I did say that visiting the Deaf schools of France was my favorite experience over the historical elements of France we got to visit, don't downplay the museums the country has to offer. The Louvre has the spotlight, obviously, and I was incredibly excited that we were getting to go see this iconic museum. But the other museums we got to visit were amazing as well, and I actually ended up enjoying the Orsay Museum better than the Louvre! This may or may not have been due to my immense love for Vincent Van Gogh but who's to say.

(It was.)

While in Paris, we got to visit three museums: the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, and the Musée des arts et métiers, which were two art museums and a sciences museum for children, respectively.

It'll Put A (Soft) Smile on Your Face: The Louvre

The Louvre is hyped up for a reason, folks.

The museum itself, even sans art, is gorgeous. It's got that iconic glass pyramid that you pass under as you enter the main museum, which made me feel like I was in either a very advanced sci-fi corporation, or an evil villains lair (but in the coolest possible way).

Group photo from outside the Louvre Pyramid 

The art inside the Louvre is mostly old art. Really old art. Really old, really iconic art. Works like the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Liberty Leading the People, and, of course, the Mona Lisa. Getting to see them all was, to put it bluntly, surreal. These are pieces that most people only see photos or recreations of, works that are references in anything from Loony Tunes to Coldplay album art. Seeing them in person and being able to associate the references with their concrete origin was something I thought I'd experience, let alone be able to photograph.

Venus (top left), Winged Victory (top center), Liberty (top right), and Mona Lisa (bottom center)

I love museums to begin with, so visiting one of the best known museums in the world was an unforgettable experience. However, like I said, it wasn't my favorite museum we got to visit. For that, we'll check out the Musee d'Orsay.

The Train Has Left The Station: Musee d'Orsay

In case you couldn't tell from my terrible title, Musée d'Orsay is housed in an old train station in Paris, L'Gare d'Orsay. The art here is newer than in the Louvre, mainly featuring French artists from the 19th century. Here you'll find names like Edward Degas, Mary Cassatt, Camille Pissarro, and Vincent van Gogh.

From left to right: Dance Class (Degas), Girl in the Garden (Cassatt) and Les Coteaux du Vesinet (Pissarro), and Eugene Boch (van Gogh)

I know I said the presence of van Gogh may have swayed my decision over which museum was my favorite, but if Vincent didn't seal the deal, the architecture of the museum and their temporary exhibit sure did. The way the train station was redone in order to become the museum it is today was done beautifully, and the arched structure and massive windows made it a beautifully lit, warm environment with all sorts of hidden areas and structures added in order to display the art. One of the works prominently displayed was two walls at the very end of the museum displaying the signatures of prominent black Parisian artists, and I even recognized a few names, like Josephine Baker and Alexandre Dumas.

From left to right: interior of the Musee d'Orsay, first wall of signatures, second wall of signatures

If the Louvre made me feel like a villain, the Orsay made me feel like I was on an adventure of sorts, exploring an old train station and discovering little treasures on the way. I can't wait to return someday.

From Arts to Sciences: L'Musée des Arts et Metiers

We visited l'Musée des arts et metiers for a project we had for class. We got split up into different groups, each with a different exhibit to study and work on. My group focused on sports and the human body, and I mainly focused on their displays dedicated to the Olympics.

The exhibit itself was really neat. There was a clock right at the beginning of the exhibit, counting down until the Olympics were being held in Paris. What I found most interesting was their main piece on the Olympics, which broke down why in certain years there are more records broken versus less records broken, and recorded them by country. It turns out that when there's war or political conflict, there are more records broken due to a greater sense of competitiveness, so there were spikes during WWI, WWII, and the Cold War. Additionally, the United States surpasses all other regions in setting and breaking world records at the Olympics.

The display didn't directly correlate the "conflict" aspect of breaking records with the United States being in the lead, but I got the picture.

To the left, the countdown to Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games, to the right, the explanation of the display on Olympic records

My favorite part of the museum, by far, was the accessibility. Not to say the other museums weren't accessible; we had Deaf tour guides and we were allowed in some restricted areas. But this museum was for kids, who don't always want to be following a tour guide around. They want to run through the exhibits, engaging in the activities and watching the videos at their own pace. So I was pleasantly surprised when I found that all the videos were captioned in French, English, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, but, taking it even further, some of the videos had sign language interpreters on the screen interpreting the video as it played.

That absolutely blew me away. I was overjoyed at how hard this museum worked to include kids who didn't want to be separated because they needed to watch an interpreter or follow a tour guide. These features allowed Deaf kids visiting the museum to experience the exhibits just like a hearing kid would. It was an amazing small thing I think all museums should feature in order to be more inclusive and accessible to all kids.