Paris Off the Beaten Path: Try Small Museums

Small Paris museums offer you an alternative to theStill closer to the Gare Montparnasse is the
large venues when you wish to avoid the crowdsMusée de la Poste, an offshoot of the postal
there. See which museums to visit here.administration - and a good place to take the prettiest
Fan of Klimt, Schiele & Co., I recently wanted to take amail-woman in your neighborhood.
leisurely look at the Grand Palais blockbuster exhibitionOpened in 1973, it's a museographical surprise: you
on Vienne 1900. I picked a weekday mid-afternoon,take an elevator to floor five then spiral down,
assuming I could whizz in and loiter through. Oops! Iroom-to-room, to the ground floor.
lined up before the entry (in freezing weather) for overGoodies along the way include: an articulated-arm
an hour. And when I got a glimpse of theChappe semaphore (ca. 1800), part of a France-wide
over-populated jostling going on inside, threw in thenetwork enabling messages to come 10 km.
towel.station-to-station in clear weather from, say, Calais to
If body-contact sport isn't your ideal for expo-visiting inParis in just over an hour until France imported Samuel
Paris (or elsewhere), try small museums.Morse's system in 1856; a lovely 1900 ceramic post
Here's a sampling of Parisian fares in this vein, where -office counter; and an explanation of Paris
despite the displays' intrinsic interest, and Englishpneumatique system that, 1866>1984, air-propelled
documentation generally available - you're not likely tocorrespondence via underground tubes at a speed of
have your feet trampled or be elbowed in the ribs.up to 700 meters a minute.
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,Paris 15th district
15e arrondissement (district) near the GareOpen except Mondays and holidays 10 a.m.>6 p.m.
Montparnasse. At no. 18 you can't not notice, through aFull entry: €5; reduced: €3.50;under 18 and
grillwork fence, a garden hosting a bronze horsemailmen/women: free;
almost two storeys high.Metro station: Montparnasse.
This is the Musée Bourdelle, former home andAnd now, for gruesomely comic (?) relief : Paris' Crime
studio of the sculptor (1861-1929) for whom the streetMuseum a.k.a. Musée des Collections Historiques
is named, and whose work - fittingly for a smallde la Préfecture de Police.
museum? - was grandiose in intent and result. TheCan you imagine what early handcuffs looked - and
style is somewhere between rough-hewn Rodin (withfelt - like ? Ouch ! They're there. As are: a genuine
whom he collaborated for a while) and Artguillotine blade, perhaps used on the murderer of a
Déco's wind-swept streamlining.nearby victim's punctured skull, and stark temporary
On view are samples of his inclination for antiquity andexhibits.
exoticism that range from statues of Sappho andA recent one of these documented oh-so-graphically
Archer Heracles to a monumental portrayal of Polishthe trials and tribulations of bagnards - forced-labor
national poet Mickiewicz and bas-reliefs of music,convicts transported to hellish camps in e.g. New
drama, etc. for the Théâtre des ChampsCaledonia and French Guyana as late as 1953. Among
Elysées, inaugurated in 1913. It was inauguratedthem was the escapee-author of 1970s U.S. best-seller
with a scandalous premiere of Stravinsky's Rite ofPapillon.
Spring, danced by a rather lightly clad Nijinsky. ThatAddress:
year Bourdelle exhibited work at New York's landmark4 rue de la Montagne Sainte Geneviève
Armory Show.Paris 5th district
Address:Open Monday through Friday 9 a.m.>5 p.m.
18 rue Antoine BourdelleFree entry (except for executed criminals)
Paris 15th districtMetro station: Maubert-Mutualité
Open except Mondays and holidays 10 a.m.>6 p.m.For wine buffs I can think of no place better than the
Full entry: €4.50; youth: €2.20; under 14: free.Musée du Vin (Wine Museum). It opened its
Metro stations: Montparnasse, Falguière.doors in 1984, and hunkers in 13th century quarries
Just around the corner is the diminutive Muséereconverted in the 16th-17th centuries by monks to
du Monparnasse recalling such Roaring-'20sstore their wine (grapes grew abundantly on the
Montparnasse denizens as Hemingway, Picasso andPassy slopes, now facing the Eiffel Tower).
Modigliani. It opened its doors in 1998 in a quaint pavedRanging through time from Roman domination, and
street (Chemin du Montparnasse) which itself is worthsignposted by mini-Bacchus figures, displays include
the visit.viticulturists' tools, a barrel-maker's workshop, and
The museum offers its visitors a treasure trove ofvessels for testing, storing, transporting and consuming
photographs taken by such luminaries as Robertthe beverage.
Doisneau and Henri Cartier-Bresson, and manyThe visit ends with... wine-tasting. You can also lunch
watercolours and prints by Montparnasse artists.there.
Address:Thermal springs once flowed here, so the Wine
21 avenue du MaineMuseum is on... rue des Eaux: Water Street!
Paris 15th districtAddress:
Open except Mondays and holidays 12:30 a.m.>7 p.m.Rue des Eaux - 5, square Charles Dickens -
Full entry: €5; reduced: €4;under 12: free;Paris 16th district
Metro station: MontparnasseOpen Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m.>6 p.m.