The Cluny Museum

Back to Paris in Spring for this post! The final museum that we managed to fit into our trip was the The Cluny Museum, officially the National Museum of the Middle Ages.

My overwhelming reaction to this museum was disappointment. This was mostly as a result of the fact that the 'Lady and the Unicorn' tapestry, star exhibit and something I really wanted to see, had just left the week before we visited on a long term loan to Japan. Gutting. Here is a photo (taken by my boyfriend!) conveying my dismay at this fact. I'm a big unicorn fan.

However all was not totally lost. We plugged in our audio guides, and spent a long time wandering round all the medieval rooms (of which there were many). I probably wouldn't advise a visit unless you've got a decent interest in the middle ages - you can only deal with so many stones/tapestries, and I'd probably say it's not great for children (although not having children I didn't make a particular note of provisions for them like trails or audio guides).  The museum itself is in a building that used to be the townhouse of the abbots of Cluny, which makes for some relatively interesting architecture as it was originally built in the 14th century. There's also a Roman bath underneath, although this was unfortunately shut when we visited.

Anyway here are some shots of the museum! I didn't get any pictures of the outside of it, but that's pretty and medieval and you can find it on google!

Hubert took this photo, not me. His camera is good. 

I like the way that the sculptures are displayed, especially the way that they look against the exposed brickwork behind them, 

Again, Hubert's photo.

Big fan of vaulted ceilings. 

There are lost of medieval features that are built into the building, some of which I guess 

are probably original, but lots brought from Parisian churches.

Cambridge - the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the Fitzwilliam Museum

Earlier this week I travelled to Cambridge, enduring three and a half hours each way on the X5 to get there and back. I'd like to say never again, however who knows what's going to happen next year, and there's a distinct likelihood Oxbridge connections are going to be a frequent part of my life as a graduate student. Or so I hope! Maybe.
Although this trip was mostly to check out the colleges and the town itself to make sure that I didn't hate it so much to not want to apply there for my masters (which I didn't, thankfully), I also seized upon the opportunity to go round two museums, boyfriend in tow.

The first was the university museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. I think it's currently going through a semi-renovation (the upstairs archaeology gallery in particular), however anthropology museums are always fun to look around. This was especially true in this case because the eclectic mix of objects combined with the shape of the room and the existence of a gallery, was extremely aesthetically pleasing, in a quirky mismatched sort of way.

We then headed to the Fitzwilliam. I was super excited to go there as I'm a big fan of their Early Medieval Coin Corpus online (yes, I'm that cool), in particular the help it's hopefully going to give me with writing my thesis next term. However, it turns out like most numismatic collections there were very few coins actually on display, so I spent most of my time marvelling at the architecture of the museum! The front facade is currently covered in really unattractive scaffolding, which I actually appreciated, as it meant I really had no idea what to expect when I eventually got inside. I'd never looked at any pictures of the interior of the museum, so was blown away with what I saw. The reception hall is amazing, in a 'the weird Egyptian escalator at Harrod's' sort of way. Looking up was definitely necessary!

The rest of the galleries were also pretty impressive - an amazing mix of designs, layouts, styles and ages. 

Big fan of the old/new brick/glass juxtaposition. 

Finally shout out to my long suffering boyfriend Hubert for putting up with me spending ages taking all of these pictures, I love you :) 

The Louvre

This entry, I must admit, is cheating. I didn't actually go into the Louvre when I took these photos, my only visit to the collections themselves being way back in easter 2004 or something, when I was too young to appreciate the artefacts and art on display themselves, never mind take photographs that could do the architecture any justice. However, I couldn't help myself and wanted to share these pictures that I took outside the museum at sunset when I was in Paris at easter. I think they capture the beauty of the famous glass pyramid, and the juxtaposition between this and the older, 17th and 19th century buildings, rather well.

The first of these photos was taken on my Nikon, and the rest are from my (now fortunately deceased) awful HTC camera. The fact that they actually manage to look pretty respectable acts as an illustration to the overwhelming beauty of the Louvre at dusk!

Musee d'Orsay

In April of this year, I went to Paris for a few days and it was lovely. In the time we were there, my boyfriend and I managed to fit in a couple of museums/galleries as well as doing all the usual touristy stuff, of which a personal highlight of mine was eating giant Laduree macaroons on the Champs Elysees, which was pretty great.

The first of these was the Musee d'Orsay. Situated just by the Seine in an old railway station, it's packed full of art, all of which was free for me because I was an EU citizen under the age of 25, how wonderful!

Being a converted railway station means that one of the coolest things about the Musee d'Orsay is the building! Despite the fact that you can definitely tell that it was a product of the 80s (think incredibly retro wall panels and floors and colour schemes, especially in the room with the art nouveau furniture...), it's definitely worth disobeying the 'photographie interdite' signs to grab some pictures.

Another nice architectural feature of the Musee is the big clocks on the upper floors. I tried for ages to get a photograph without people in, but that was not to be and I had to settle for these ones, which I hope capture the fact that looking through the clocks gave a really snazzy view of the city of Paris. 

The British Museum

The first time I visited the British Museum was on 7th September 2012. I remember the date quite well, because shortly after the visit, I found myself crying on the platform at Ealing Broadway station, having just been dumped by my then boyfriend. However that's another story, and looking back now, over a year later, the most important thing that I got out of that day was just as one 'love' moved out of my life, another one moved in, in the form of the BM. Although I'm not such a fan of their hideously overpriced afternoon teas, after that day, I realised that a national museum is such a wonderful thing, and one that I'd be quite happy to spend my life aiming for as an employment destination.

Since last September I've been back twice, the first time on a general wander around, and the second specifically to see the Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition, which I mostly enjoyed although I'm pleased to hear that the reading room won't be being used for any more of the big name exhibitions after this year, as there's just something unnerving about a big room with no natural light.

Anyway, I think one of the best things about the BM is the building itself. The great court in particular is genuinely stunning. Below is one of the pictures I took during my first visit to the museum, on the film camera.

The black and white fails to really capture how amazing it looks when the sun shines down through the roof, but it gives the impression of the juxtaposition between old and new museum that I really love.

So there you have it, the first blog entry is on the museum that started my recent love affair with museum architecture. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!