The Museum of Fairground Arts appears in Midnight in Paris: the rented venue of a Scott and Zelda party, where Gil (re-) encounters Adriana (here). It's a real place and not just a movie set: three large halls of restored circus, fun-fair, and fairground art and mobiles, mostly belle epoque, collected and presented by one Jean Paul Favand, and in its present location, in the Pavillons of Bercy, since 1996. At the time depicted in the movie it did not exist, of course, and Bercy, once the largest wine market in France, and probably the world, was in the last stages of its decline. (Something about the growing preference for "estate-bottled," changes in transportation, wars, taxes, etc.). The museum is housed in three large former wine warehouses--several more warehouses are said to contain spares, items in restoration, and so forth. In whole or part, it can be rented for assorted events--yes, weddings--but it also conducts limited tours. En francais, seulement. Through Rebecca's perseverance, again, we scored tickets. Granted, this is not one of the must-see venues of Paris, but it is a wonderful respite from all the seriousness and much fun for both kids and adults. See the museum website for much more. And in English, too.
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| In the Venice hall |
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| Us, there |
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The tour is in French only, but the non-Francophones can read along
in the multi-page hand-out in the language of their choice; half our
group of four are Francophones; apparently the guide's lengthy narration
is replete with puns and humor... |
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| Among the many working carousels |
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| Our tour group in another hall |
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| The place is more than replete with the relevant artifacts |
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| Famous elephant-toting hot air balloon |
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| More artifacts |
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| More animatronics; sort of |
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Our guide explaining the first of several skee ball-powered race
tracks; from what I could tell and hear, she was very good |
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| Penelope (purple jacket) came in second |
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| Us all, there |
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| Unicorn and piano |
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| Fairground organ |
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| Many re-creations of iconic Parisian scenes |
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| Toulouse-Lautrec painting |
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| Victor Hugo writing |
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| One of the halls |
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Between the halls, in what remains of the old wine warehouse district;
the tracks would go all the way to Burgundy, the Rhone, and Provence;
Bercy is right on the river, too, in the 12th, so there was that mode of
transportation before railroads |
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| Whimsy everywhere |
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| Lots of opportunities for shots like this |
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The piece de resistance for us was the skee ball-powered
derby of the cafe waiters |
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| Based on a real annual event in Montmartre; 8kms without spilling |
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| Yet another carousel |
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| Peeking into another hall |
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| The very famous velo-powered merry-go-round |
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| Enjoyed more than once by our party |
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| Now departing the much gentrified and attractive Bercy; great visit! |
1 comment:
What a fun venue! Memories of "Midnight in Paris."
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