Pavillon de l’Arsenal

Paris is a city of museums, there are literally hundreds, from art galleries to heritage sites. After the Eiffel Tower the Louvre is the most visited spot in Paris, with over 5 million visitors each year. Other highly trafficked museums in Paris include the Centre Pompidou, the Cite des Sciences at de l’Industrie, and the Musee d’Orsay. On Saturday afternoon while in Paris, we decided to visit a lesser known museum of sorts, the Pavillon de l’Arsenal, the urban planning center of Paris.

Run by the city hall, this museum-like space tells the tale of Paris’ past and present urban history. The main exhibition is chronological, with labels in both French and English, and follows the growth of Paris from the Gauls to now, including how legal changes effected the physical environment of the city during events such as the Revolution, Napoleon’s reign, and post-World War II reconstruction. Maps, paintings, scale models, photographs, and films present an interdisciplinary interpretation of urbanization through art, science, history, and architecture. Along with chronicling Paris’ past, the center also explores  the future, providing the building project models of local architects, through which one can envision the changing architecture and physical space of Paris. The design of the exhibition is industrial, with timelines spaced through interpretive text. As a visitor to Paris, spending some time at the center helps one become oriented to the city. Upon leaving and returning to the streets of Paris, I could make connections between the present day city and hundreds of years of development.

The center is free, a big plus, and relatively easy to find, thanks to my new favorite website, spotted by locals. This helpful site uses the advice of residents living at popular tourist destinations, pointing travelers towards a more local experience. Without it, we would have never known about the Pavillon de l’Arsenal and would have never stumbled upon the old fashioned and I believe smallest camera and photo developing shop in the world. We stopped in to purchase a new memory card and while Kevin ran to find an ATM (8 blocks away) I sat in a chair that just might have been 200 years old and exchanged awkward but polite smiles with a man half as old as the chair while we watched Celine Dion on a TV from the 1970s and he mumbled at me in French.