Rachel Kaplan's Secret Paris
A Museum That Underscores The Meaning of the Phrase
Gallic Tradition
Excerpted from Little-Known Museums In and Around Paris
Paris Kiosque - October 1998 - Volume 4, Number 10
Copyright (c) 1997 Rachel Kaplan - used with permission
Few people know (and that includes many Parisians) that adjacent to the small zoo and
amusement park in the Bois de Boulogne a strikingly modern edifice consisting of two
opposing and sharply intersecting parallelepipeds, shelters a museum that richly
illustrates the occupations, customs and traditions of rural and urban French society
dating back to the Gallo-Roman era.
Known as the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions, its atypical displays demonstrate
that until very recently, many of the tools, occupations and activities long associated
with France, such as the making of bread, wine, and cheese, remained virtually unchanged
for centuries. The words "Gallic tradition" take on an even greater significance when
one sees that a sickle for cutting wheat, a plane for planing wood, and a pair of shears
for shearing sheep's wool - all tools used early in this century - differ hardly at all
from those used during the Gallo-Roman era.
The wearing of wooden shoes and the use of wine barrels are as old as Gaul itself, and
French tastes in food and drink are just as enduring. For instance, a text by the Roman
author Strabon praises Gallic "charcuterie" (pork products). Although it was under Roman
domination that the nation's vineyard first took on their now celebrated importance,
viniculture was already being practiced prior to Caesar's invasion of Gaul.
France's strong ties to the ancient world are underscored through a whimsical display of
a pack of "Gauloises bleu" cigarettes and of an original drawing of a popular comic
strip hero, "Asterix le Gaulois", created after World War II.
At the same time, the exhibits document the impact of industrialization. Few of us
realize that whereas 1850s France was covered with vineyards everywhere (including in
Paris), a 1974 map shows that the onslaught of modern roads and rail transportation has
shrunk viniculture by more than a third.
Despite France's important culinary tradition, until after World War II the average
Frenchman lived on a grain-based diet, in the form of gruel, bread or crepes. Meat,
fresh fruits, and vegetables rarely made an appearance on the rural table (one exception
being salted pork). Until the 1880s, the French peasant rarely drank wine; the most
common beverages were water laced with vinegar or fruit-based alcohol. Only on feast
days did the rural classes dine on dishes of poultry, game, and other meat, as well as
wine and sweet cakes.
A comprehensive step-by-step presentation of wheat and bread production prior to
mechanization demonstrates that the methods of soil preparation, planting, and
harvesting remained essentially unchanged for almost two thousand years. The French
farmer was so faithful to tradition that it was not until the nineteenth century that he
replaced his sickle with a scythe, and his flail with a threshing roll. Similarly, as
late as 1931, there were still almost 10,500 windmills and watermills compared with
5,482 industrial flour mills. As recently as 1963, these windmills, which once ground up
to one hundred kilos of grain a day, were crushing chestnuts for pigfeed.
Yet, despite this emphasis on recapturing a forgotten past, visitors will be surprised
to learn that the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions was one of the first
institutions to use interactive displays. By the mere touch of a button, a vitrine
lights up to reveal the "Marianne-toute-seule", an authentic sail-powered fishing boat
built until 1945 at Berck, a port town near Calais. The fisherman's universe comes alive
through the swaying boat, the recorded sounds of wailing seagulls, and a narrative
describing each facet of the boat and its activities.
The sounds of mooing cows, tinkling cattle bells, shepherd's calls, and milk being
poured into wooden pails, as well as the various steps of artisanal cheese production,
bring the visitor into the lives of dairy producers in the Aubrac, a mountainous plain
in the Auvergne. The reconstructed wooden shepherd's hut with its straw-laden bed and
wooden cheese vats was shared in 1910 by five men working in shifts, as was used for
sleeping and eating as well as for making Cantal cheese.
The museum vividly documents the slow changes in rural life through the reconstructed
dwelling of a Breton couple, Guillaume and Catherine Deuffic. In this single room, the
family worked, took its meals, entertained, slept and witnessed the progress of the
technology that was gradually introduced into the home. In 1906, the oil lamp replaced
the candle; in 1910, the ground was covered with cement; in 1930, a stove was added to
the fireplace, at the same time that a water pump was added on to the house. Finally, in
1941, the house was electrified, and in 1951, piped with running water.
Witchcraft, clairvoyance, and astrology, which have been and continue to be widespread
in both rural and urban France, are also richly documented in this museum. One of the
most intriguing exhibits is the cluttered, book-lined office of Belline, a well-known
Parisian clairvoyant, which remained open until 1974 on the Place Blanche. Apart from
the tarot cards, a crystal ball, a painting of "The Third Eye" and a pair of stuffed
owls(a symbol of wisdom), it might be difficult to believe this innocuously furnished
office once belonged to a psychic. "I wanted to dispel the false idea that psychics
operate in a fantastic world," Belline explains in the museum's recorded interview.
This surprising, engaging, and unexpected museum in the heart of the city's biggest
park, does a lot to dispel some of the myths we hang onto about the history and heritage
of France. To discover more about it, take the Metro to Sablons, and walk to 6, Avenue
du Mahatma-Ghandi, 75016 Paris. With a Paris Carte/Musées, your admission is paid for.
Rachel Kaplan, author and connoisseur of Paris,
was educated at the Lycée Français de New York and
at Northwestern University,. She is an
international correspondent who has written
articles for American, British, French, and Czech publications on a
wide range of subjects.
This article is based on a chapter from Rachel Kaplan's internationally acclaimed
Little-Known Museums In and Around Paris (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.) which was translated
into French last year (Guide des Musées Insolites et Méconnus, Paris et Alentours
(Minerva), both available in all fine bookstores (electronic and otherwise).
Signed copies may be ordered here.
For those
whose French is less than perfect, you can learn more about Rachel Kaplan's personalized
tours in and outside of Paris, as well as her slide lecture appearances, and her books,
by going to her new Website,
French Links.
Travel & Leisure magazine has this to
say about Ms. Kaplan: "A tour guide can make or break a vacation, which explains why
Rachel Kaplan is so sought-after. An inspired leader for Butterfield & Robinson's Paris
Walks program, Kaplan is the author of the best-selling guided Little-Known Museums In
and Around Paris."
Rachel Kaplan may be contacted via
kaplan@club-internet.fr.
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