Sunday in Paris

It was Sunday and many Museums were open - the Musee des Arts et Metiers or in English, Arts and Industry houses 1000s of inventions to recent times including many that were introduced in our own time.
The museum was founded during the French Revolution 1794 in the Priory of Saint Martin des Champs, rue Reaumur in the 3rd. As we were staying in the 2nd, it was only a Metro hop, skip and a jump away. Oh. yes and it was a free day.

Leaving our street we took a short walk up Rue Montorgueil to the Metro and then alighted for another short walk to Saint Martin des Champs to be greeted by the nose cone of a TGV. How many times have we travelled on the TGV  in France and the Australian Government still can't get their act together to link their two biggest cities by a fast train network.

On arrival inside the museum we noticed a very familiar model structure that reminded us of a previous trip to the Loire. This skeletal structure showed the framework of this amazing windmill house - something we were totally unfamiliar with when we saw in its entirety on our way to the little village of Thenay near Pontlevoy.
Maybe one of our readers could enlighten us further on the structure.

Music and screen plays a big part in our lives and the museum had many exhibits through the years of the progress of sound and picture. To think that our little iPod tucked in our pocket with the mini sound devices stuck in our eyes has progressed from cylinder and shellac recording devices of yesteryear. Today we pay our money and any song in the world pops on to our iPod from the iTunes store - how far we've come.

And then there's those amazing flying machines and cars of yesteryear - original examples of the early attempts of man's dream to fly like the birds hang from the ceiling of Saint Martins. You can climb structures that allow you a closer look at these flimsy flying machines and wonder the progress that allows us to now fly from Melbourne to Paris in a day with one stop and yet no more than a century ago Aviators of the day were challenged by a flight across the channel. Cars, boats and planes are part of the many exhibitions that show man's dream to travel longer and faster across distances.

Of course there were also bicycles and this one grabbed my attention as it was made from a combination of both metal and wood. A long way from the light carbon fibre racing machines of today.

Rather than returning to our apartment by Metro, we decided on a walk along the back narrow lane ways and discovered that we had entered what Americans would call the Tenderloin or in Australia, the red light district. I could be wrong but from memory it was in the area of rue Saint Denis, named I believe after the first Bishop of Paris who was beheaded but more about the Bishop in a future post when we visit the Basilica of Saint Denis.

Certainly you wouldn't want walk through the area after dark. So we scampered off to our apartment but not before ducking into the local Super Marche to buy a few bottles of wine to wash down another one of Sue's home cooked dinners. However we weren't quick enough as the heavens opened up and we became drenched on a late Sunday afternoon.

Sue and I take off for a week in the top end of Tasmania Wednesday AM and so we will post daily. We leave the house and our cat in the hands of our son while away. Sue, where's that list of things to do for Mitch??????