Why No Guillotines in Paris?
#2
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There is no "active" guillotine since France abolished the death penalty some years ago. <BR>The last time I was in the Conciergerie there was a guillotine blade in Marie Antoinette's cell. <BR>I also recall guillotine blades, and other artifacts of the Revolution and the royal family, in the Musee Carnavalet which is a fascinating museum of Paris history in the Marais. <BR> <BR>
#3
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There is no "active" guillotine since France abolished the death penalty some years ago. <BR>The last time I was in the Conciergerie there was a guillotine blade in Marie Antoinette's cell. <BR>I also recall guillotine blades, and other artifacts of the Revolution and the royal family, in the Musee Carnavalet which is a fascinating museum of Paris history in the Marais. <BR> <BR>
#4
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Well, Joanne, I must tell you that my little sister is 25 and she was also disappointed back in October when she couldn´t see a guillotine or buy a small one as a souvenir. I guess she´s still only 12 years old. She is convinced that it would be a brilliant souvenir for little kids, and that she would make a lot of money... She is the one that almost convince us, when she was 6 years old, to get into an exhibition in Florence called "Heinous torture instruments".
#5
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Madame Tussards in London has a guillotine in the chamber of horrers including a blade rather well used at the time of the revolution. <BR> <BR>Why London? Well, the original Mme Tussard moved to London to escape the Revolution. <BR> <BR>It was 20 years ago when I was last there but since it's been on display for 200 years I'm sure that it's still there.
#8
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Do go to M.Tussauds in London, to the chamber of horrors, deep in the dungeon. It actually smells of dank, musty, ick, and I was scared out of my wits. You are sort of walking through a dungeon, and you hear moaning, wailing, and then you arrive upon the guillotine. It is actually a film of the guillotine, it is behind a thin curtain but you still can see, and with some enactment you hear the loud voices cheering on the guillotine as it drops onto the victim, etc., and I decided I'm glad I wasn't there during the Revolution.
#10
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All of you who pine for a model guillotine can rejoice. Your prayers have been answered at http://www.mcphee.com/products/new/10471.html <BR> <BR>I do not work for Archie McPhee (I suspect it would be a lot of fun, however, for someone who lived in Seattle), so I hope this doesn't count as a commercial post.
#12
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The only place I know of in Paris where you can see a guillotine is the Police Museum, on the second floor of the Police Station on rue de la Montaigne, off Boul. St-Germain in the 5me arrondissement. There are at least a couple of scale models of guillotines there, as well as a lot of other interesting historical documentation and weaponry.