opaldog

ira: I am a horse racing fan. I understand the stables at Chantilly are also open to the public as a sort of livign museum. I'll check out the website for info on that. Anyone been to the stables?

nancy

I'd like to add one more stop. The Nissam Camondo house which is near the Jacquemart-Andre. It's a beautifully furnished home left to the City of Paris after his family was killed during WWI & II and the Holocaust. It doesn't take long to walk thru. It's one of my favorites.

ira

>The Nissam Camondo house which is near the Jacquemart-Andre.<

And the Jacquemart-Andre',which is well worth a visit.

They have Sunday brunch as well.
http://www.musee-jacquemart-andre.co...re/home_en.htm

Christina

I think Chantilly is a castle in the sense that the Disneyland entrance is a castle -- really probably because the French word chateau translates as castle but is also used as "manor".

sorry, I differ from 111op on the worthniness of the Jeu de Paume museum which now has avant-garde photography and other some other modern stuff. don't even know what you'd call it, not paintings, but "things"--I don't know modern art terms, not exactly sculpture. Too avant garde for me, I guess, I really didn't like it and was sorry I'd gone--at least to the exhibit in July. It was expensive, also, although if you have a museum pass and it's on it, no harm done. I really would not suggest it for someone as a top pick of museums. Unless you really know what it is and that's of interest, of course.

111op

Interesting. I don't know if we saw the same things -- but they had an exhibition called "Eblouissant" (or something like that -- is that a French word?) when I went in early September. There were a couple of classic Man Ray photos. The theme was basically on the interaction of light, darkness, and shadows in photography (sorry this is so vague...). Some stuff that was shown -- fireworks, eclipses, etc.

I like looking at photographs, and I actually enjoyed it quite a lot. Also the museum was well air-conditioned and that was great as it was very hot during my visit.

As the French say, "chacun a son gout." I think that it's an interesting museum for people interested in this sort of stuff.

The Sully location had an exhibition on photos from the Warsaw uprising when I was there (but I didn't see it).

Personally I'd find out what's going on there and then go look if I'm interested. Ditto the Pompidou, where the special exhibitions can frequently be more interesting than the permanent collection.

What I'm trying to say is -- think of museums also as dynamic institutions. Art is not dead. While the Mona Lisa will always be there, you may not get a second chance to see a Miro retrospective (which was at the Pompidou, but which I missed).

111op

By the way, I did a search on "Jeu de Paume." Here's an article:

http://www.bonjourparis.com/pages/ar...ume_Museum.php

"The French art world recognizes that this museum is where the action is."

I guess I can claim to be hip now, but then Joel Robuchon let Christina into his restaurant and not me, so I still have a lot to work on.

PalQ

No Chantilly, though nice, is not totally awesome and your time is better spent elsewhere.

PalQ

Yes stables are open and they have a riding school building where at times you can see the horses doing their thing. Reach chantilly by frequent trains from the Gare du Nord, about 45 minutes to within a mile of the castle. Chantilly is a nice castle but if i'd never been to paris before i'd go to Versailles or Fontainbleu or one of the Loire castles such as Chenoncceau. But chantilly, the town is famed for Creme Chantilly, is very nice. The town isn't much.

BlueSwimmer

Stever-

Your trip sounds great. I like your attitude of choosing what you really want to do instead of feeling that you have to see every single sight.

If your wife's shopping lust is because of an obsession with fashion, she might be interested in the Musee Musée de la Mode et du Textile http://www.ucad.fr/ucadgb/indexgb.html

I visited this fashion museum last January, when my husband had a day of food poisoning (He ate- at one meal-andouillette, that tasty sausage made of intestines, and an appetizer that consisted of a long cow's leg bone sawed in half so you could eat the lukewarm marrow. Even the French owner of our hotel was shuddering at this meal, but DH loved it. The lost day of sickness was IMHO not worth it.)

Anyway, he would never go to a fashion/costume museum, but I love them, so while he was miserable I seized my chance. I think it was covered by my carte musee and the entrance was on the back side of the Louvre. I could be wrong- no sense of direction. Anyway, the exhibition changes all the time, so check the website to see if something interesting is on display.

I saw a retrospective of the designs of Viktor and Rolf (funky, to say the least) and another on AirFrance flight attendant uniforms through the years (strangely charming and glamorous.)

Have a fabulous trip!

MAC1

Bonjour,
Why not treat your wife to a couple nights
in a chateau near Chantilly? I stayed
here in May- Chateau de Chaumontel and enjoyed it! I took a taxi ride to Chantilly and looked around all day.
It was a rainy day for me-so I hope you have sun!
Bon Chance!
http://www.chateau-chaumontel.fr/