Sophie

Does the museum give explanations in English and would teenagers find the museum interesting. Any other suggestions?
Thank you

xxx

I don't remember seeing English explanations in Carnavalet, but the French was not complicated. The first floor had some interesting historical pop culture artifacts, eg advertising signs, including a huge thumb that someone with a deformed hand decided to use as his logo since everyone knew about his thumb. I did not find the art interesting.

I assume you're asking for museum suggestions, and I assume you mean besides the art museums since everyone is already aware of the Louvre, the D'Orsay, and the Rodin, among the outstanding art museums. For a not strictly "art" museum, try Cluny. It is outstanding, fascinating, and very well done, worth a long visit even if you are not a medievalist. And the setting reflects Paris's Roman as well as medieval history.

elvira

The Carnavalet Museum is full of stuff about French history, especially from the Revolution through all the republics. It might be a little ho-hum for anyone who isn't REALLY interested in French history. On the plus side, the museum often hosts special exhibits. A couple of years ago, it was Nureyev memorabilia; in September, it was "Paris in 3-D".
No explanations in English, but as xxx pointed out, the French is pretty basic and the items are easily recognized.

For art museums, the Louvre has it all (it now even has a few Impressionist paintings thanks to the bequest from the Lyon family's collection), so if you get bored with 17thc Flemish painters, you can go look at the royal jewels. The d'Orsay has the Impressionists, plus a collection of furniture and decorative objects - and a great view from the roof and behind the clock. The Picasso Museum has his works, plus notebooks and sketches, and works by other artists that he collected. The Cognac-Jay Museum is a family's collection of this and that, the Jacquemart-Andre is similar (I think it's closed, though). Then there's the Police Museum....

Carol

I think teenagers would find the Pompidou museum a lot of fun (it's the very modern structure with its multicolored piping on the outside of the building). Thre's always a lot going on inside and outside of the museum--it's a very lively place--and its permanent collection of Picassos, Matisses et al are marvelous.

Christina

Personally, I think the Carnavalet Museum sounds a lot more interesting than it is. I was disappointed in it as it was billed in my guidebooks as a museum on the history of Paris or something. Having been to London and seen their terrific Museum of the City of London, I expected something like that, and didn't get it. The museum doesn't seem to really try to teach you the history of Paris or France in any logical and instructive manner IMO, it's just an electic collection of objects and paintings (and some of the paintings were of old scenes in Paris, for example), some decorative arts items and furniture, etc. I would not put it at the top of my list, and I am very interested and well-read in French history. Even Prague has a better city history museum IMO and they don't have nearly the funds that Paris does.

clairobscur

I don't remember having seen any explanations in english, either. Even those in french are scarce. I would add that currently the galleries focused on the oldest periods (gallo-roman to the end of the middle-ages)are closed. The museum mainly displays furnitures and murals from several periods. More intersting if you're in this kind of things than in history, in my opinion. There's also a lot of paintings depicting Paris at these times. Interesting if you know well Paris as you can understand its evolution. However, the "Paris in 3D" exhibition (until the end of the year, I believe), wich depict all the methods which have been used to create 3D pictures from strange XIX° cent. apparatus to virtual visits on computer screens could be fun for teenagers.

They would possibly be more interested in somethink like the "Cité des sciences", but it's not typically french.

Sophie

Thank you for you help. We have decided to leave it off our list. We'll go out to Monmatre instead. French tourist officials should read this forum. They could learn alot.