Paris Again, Part II

Okay, okay, so maybe I exaggerated a little bit when I said that we had visited everything in Paris! But we did visit a lot of new places this time around. One of those new places was the Museum of the Middle Ages (Cluny Museum), which had some really beautiful pieces in it, including sculpture, iron, stained glass, and tapestry. Here are a few pictures of our favorite pieces:

Some of this stained glass was originally from Saint Chapelle, but unfortunately, we didn't make note of which ones were. Either way, they're all from the Middle Ages.





Carved ivory:



Heads of the Kings of Judah (Paris, around 1220-1230):


Saint Mary Magdalene (Brussels, around 1500):


Opening Statuette: Virgin and the Trinity (Germany, around 1400):


Ste. Martha and the Penitents (end of 15th century):

Head of Christ (Franconia, around 1470):


Part of the museum is housed in an old monastery. The chapel still exists as a chapel:


Later that day, the weather took a terrible turn for the worse with snow and sleet, and Sophie had been such a trooper through all of our museums and historical sites, that we decided to take her somewhere (inside) just for her. We chose the aquarium, which she loved.


We had to go on a Finding Nemo hunt, and were happy to find Mr. Ray (below), Nemo and Marlin, Dory (not pictured) and Bruce, the shark (also not pictured). Mommy made a new aquarium employee friend, who when asked about where we could find a Clown Fish, told her all about how sea creatures were being used for pharmaceuticals. Fascinating stuff for a two year old. I ran into him later, and he asked how my visit went and encouraged us to return. Weird.


Nemo and Marlin:


They also had some really weird stuff, including this brain-like mass...

...and the ugliest fish known to man, complete with a set of two front teeth. Yuck.