| Small Paris museums offer you an alternative | | | | Still closer to the Gare Montparnasse is the |
| to the large venues when you wish to avoid | | | | Musée de la Poste, an offshoot of the |
| the crowds there. See which museums to visit | | | | postal administration - and a good place to |
| here. | | | | take the prettiest mail-woman in your |
| | | | neighborhood. |
| Fan of Klimt, Schiele & Co., I recently | | | | |
| wanted to take a leisurely look at the Grand | | | | Opened in 1973, it's a museographical |
| Palais blockbuster exhibition on Vienne 1900. | | | | surprise: you take an elevator to floor five |
| I picked a weekday mid-afternoon, assuming I | | | | then spiral down, room-to-room, to the ground |
| could whizz in and loiter through. Oops! I | | | | floor. |
| lined up before the entry (in freezing | | | | |
| weather) for over an hour. And when I got a | | | | Goodies along the way include: an |
| glimpse of the over-populated jostling going | | | | articulated-arm Chappe semaphore (ca. 1800), |
| on inside, threw in the towel. | | | | part of a France-wide network enabling |
| | | | messages to come 10 km. station-to-station in |
| If body-contact sport isn't your ideal for | | | | clear weather from, say, Calais to Paris in |
| expo-visiting in Paris (or elsewhere), try | | | | just over an hour until France imported |
| small museums. | | | | Samuel Morse's system in 1856; a lovely 1900 |
| | | | ceramic post office counter; and an |
| Here's a sampling of Parisian fares in this | | | | explanation of Paris pneumatique system that, |
| vein, where - despite the displays' intrinsic | | | | 1866>1984, air-propelled correspondence via |
| interest, and English documentation generally | | | | underground tubes at a speed of up to 700 |
| available - you're not likely to have your | | | | meters a minute. |
| feet trampled or be elbowed in the ribs. Some | | | | |
| are so tiny they aren't mentioned in Bordas' | | | | Address: |
| authoritative Guide des Musées de France. | | | | |
| | | | 34 boulevard Vaugirard |
| Let's begin by wandering down rue Antoine | | | | |
| Bourdelle, 15e arrondissement (district) near | | | | Paris 15th district |
| the Gare Montparnasse. At no. 18 you can't | | | | |
| not notice, through a grillwork fence, a | | | | Open except Mondays and holidays 10 a.m.>6 |
| garden hosting a bronze horse almost two | | | | p.m. |
| storeys high. | | | | |
| | | | Full entry: €5; reduced: €3.50;under |
| This is the Musée Bourdelle, former home | | | | 18 and mailmen/women: free; |
| and studio of the sculptor (1861-1929) for | | | | |
| whom the street is named, and whose work - | | | | Metro station: Montparnasse. |
| fittingly for a small museum? - was grandiose | | | | |
| in intent and result. The style is somewhere | | | | And now, for gruesomely comic (?) relief : |
| between rough-hewn Rodin (with whom he | | | | Paris' Crime Museum a.k.a. Musée des |
| collaborated for a while) and Art Déco's | | | | Collections Historiques de la Préfecture |
| wind-swept streamlining. | | | | de Police. |
| | | | |
| On view are samples of his inclination for | | | | Can you imagine what early handcuffs looked - |
| antiquity and exoticism that range from | | | | and felt - like ? Ouch ! They're there. As |
| statues of Sappho and Archer Heracles to a | | | | are: a genuine guillotine blade, perhaps used |
| monumental portrayal of Polish national poet | | | | on the murderer of a nearby victim's |
| Mickiewicz and bas-reliefs of music, drama, | | | | punctured skull, and stark temporary |
| etc. for the Théâtre des Champs | | | | exhibits. |
| Elysées, inaugurated in 1913. It was | | | | |
| inaugurated with a scandalous premiere of | | | | A recent one of these documented |
| Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, danced by a | | | | oh-so-graphically the trials and tribulations |
| rather lightly clad Nijinsky. That year | | | | of bagnards - forced-labor convicts |
| Bourdelle exhibited work at New York's | | | | transported to hellish camps in e.g. New |
| landmark Armory Show. | | | | Caledonia and French Guyana as late as 1953. |
| | | | Among them was the escapee-author of 1970s |
| Address: | | | | U.S. best-seller Papillon. |
| | | | |
| 18 rue Antoine Bourdelle | | | | Address: |
| | | | |
| Paris 15th district | | | | 4 rue de la Montagne Sainte Geneviève |
| | | | |
| Open except Mondays and holidays 10 a.m.>6 | | | | Paris 5th district |
| p.m. | | | | |
| | | | Open Monday through Friday 9 a.m.>5 p.m. |
| Full entry: €4.50; youth: €2.20; | | | | |
| under 14: free. | | | | Free entry (except for executed criminals) |
| | | | |
| Metro stations: Montparnasse, Falguière. | | | | Metro station: Maubert-Mutualité |
| | | | |
| Just around the corner is the diminutive | | | | For wine buffs I can think of no place better |
| Musée du Monparnasse recalling such | | | | than the Musée du Vin (Wine Museum). It |
| Roaring-'20s Montparnasse denizens as | | | | opened its doors in 1984, and hunkers in 13th |
| Hemingway, Picasso and Modigliani. It opened | | | | century quarries reconverted in the 16th-17th |
| its doors in 1998 in a quaint paved street | | | | centuries by monks to store their wine |
| (Chemin du Montparnasse) which itself is | | | | (grapes grew abundantly on the Passy slopes, |
| worth the visit. | | | | now facing the Eiffel Tower). |
| | | | |
| The museum offers its visitors a treasure | | | | Ranging through time from Roman domination, |
| trove of photographs taken by such luminaries | | | | and signposted by mini-Bacchus figures, |
| as Robert Doisneau and Henri Cartier-Bresson, | | | | displays include viticulturists' tools, a |
| and many watercolours and prints by | | | | barrel-maker's workshop, and vessels for |
| Montparnasse artists. | | | | testing, storing, transporting and consuming |
| | | | the beverage. |
| Address: | | | | |
| | | | The visit ends with... wine-tasting. You can |
| 21 avenue du Maine | | | | also lunch there. |
| | | | |
| Paris 15th district | | | | Thermal springs once flowed here, so the Wine |
| | | | Museum is on... rue des Eaux: Water Street! |
| Open except Mondays and holidays 12:30 a.m.>7 | | | | |
| p.m. | | | | Address: |
| | | | |
| Full entry: €5; reduced: €4;under 12: | | | | Rue des Eaux - 5, square Charles Dickens - |
| free; | | | | |
| | | | Paris 16th district |
| Metro station: Montparnasse | | | | |
| | | | Open Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m.>6 p.m. |