After we saturated ourselves at the D’Orsay, we hopped on the Metro and had lunch in the Latin quarter; panini and cheese hotdog and our first carbonated beverage of the trip, cherry coke with REAL sugar.  Then we hopped back on the metro and went up to Cite de la musique to the music museum.  Many of the exhibits had a number on them, and you could dial it into your headset and hear either an excerpt played on the instrument, or some history about it.

They had cases of instruments, with examples of the instrument’s evolution through history.  The old lutes are amazing, and some of the old guitars had very intricate designs on the inside made out of layers of parchment.  We ran through the evolution of the recorder and flute, and checked out the bassoon evolution.  We also checked out the double-reed ancestor of the saxophone, before they wimped out and went to single reeds.

The pictures aren’t fabulous, because the light was low, and everything was behind glass.  Plus, I got chastised in French for using my flash. Oops! I’ll photoshop them when i get home.

We checked out a display of these cool instruments.  We should start up a fund to get one of these for the FCPO! I think we could jam this in the back of a civic, which would save a lot of hassle over moving the harpsichord!

Laura, here’s what we need to look for in our next instruments!  You need a violin with a head carved at the top (ignore the 3 extra strings), and I need an English Horn with a serpent head as the bell!! (I’m sure that won’t affect resonance in the slightest!)

I know the French Horn is hard, but how about this horn from 1820? It has some interesting valve work AND holes!

Instruments for unique individuals.  The man with two extra arms for those extra lute necks, and the inverse hunchback, for the curvy oboe d’amore.

Eli was thinking about taking up the bass, but this looks big even to him!

Flutes made of glass.  I guess schoolchildren learn on the wooden ones first, until they outgrow the clumsy stage.

That’s parchment inside.  I wonder if those designs did anything acoustically, or were just decorative…

Then we went and looked at the oboes again and I took more pictures.

I need to look this one up later… a double chambered oboe?

Mel with the case of old oboes.

And that concluded our music museum tour.  We took tons more pictures, and have some more on our picture site, and lots more on our computer (will upload later).

Now getting our snooze on.  Alarm set for 3am so we can catch the bus to the train to the airport for our 7am flight to India!

Au Revoir for now.  We may not have internet connectivity in India, so will be back on as soon as we can!  Our itinerary is at the link at the top right of the screen, so you can track where we are.  Night!

Note: click on any picture to see it bigger.  There will be a dropdown option with size choices.

We got a bright and early start (at the hour of 10am, since Eli’s still recuperating from sleeping too little in the last two months), and began our morning at the Patisserie, with chocolate croissants.  We then hopped the Metro to the Musee Rodin, which is primarily a garden with statuary amid some lavish botanical displays (although I’m sure they’re more dramatic at their full glory in the spring/summer).

Hil and Laurel, this next one reminded me of that time at the beach with the huge waves!  (although we were more clothed at the time)

We then walked over to the Musee D’Orsay, which is in an old rail station built at the turn of the twentieth century.  It was turned into a museum in 1986.  Enough with the history, and on with the pictures!  We only put a few here, the rest are on Mel’s website (link below, or click on any picture!)

http://wildsprite.com/gallery/v/honeymoon/Paris

More from this afternoon’s trip to the music museum after I download the pictures!