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After yesterday's disaster with the catacombs, today's schedule was more streamlined. The queue for the catacombs (with a limit of 200 per 45 minutes) meant standing inline all afternoon. Not this little black duck! So today after a meander round Parc Monceau and metro-ing north and south, the ambience of the Musee Legion D'Honneur was just my cup of tea.
The first image is one of the very early versions of the LdH, the 1802 version from the First Empire. Pardon the quality, but the lighting and the glass case were a challenge. Not that they should alter it just for pesky photographers.
It houses not only French awards, but similar bravery and merit awards from all over the world. I read all the captions (you knew I would) but had no idea what a 'chardon' was. It's a thistle. This next image is an Order of the Thistle. Equally, I figured that 'royaume-uni' had something to do with England. Why do they call it the United Kingdom? I thought it hadn't been that since the early 1800s when it became Great Britain. Back to the books, Julie!!
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Many of the medals on show, on the wall, in glass cases and in dozens of slide out drawers, are incredibly beautiful and expensive looking. And have been donated by fairly honorable folk, like Eisenhower, De Gaulle, and Foch to name a few.
This next one is the Plaque de Grand Croix from the House of Barberini in Spain during the 18th century.
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The museum stands alongside Musee D'Orsay (long queues :)), and is ever so easy to get around, with many little nooks and crannies. I especially liked the top floor with its emphasis on WW1 and WW2.
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I would rather like to be a recipient of the First Order of the Grand Croix of the White Elephant from Thailand.
7 comments:
Gorgeous images! Great post, thank you Julie.
Beautiful museum and stunning medals. A polarising filter is supposed to help control the glare in glass but its something I haven't been able to master as yet. Of course using a polariser cuts the light down by about 2 stops which gives you another problem.
(I gave in and upgraded to a 60D and Tamron 18-270 (oh the guilt) only had one outing with it - the mosque - but all of those indoor shots were taken at 1000 ISO and I'm pretty happy with the results. Couldn't have done it at all with the old camera and lens. Bloody heavy, though.)
Oh aren't you the lucky girl finding these. I am not and never will be a line stander. Bring on the gorgeous things Paris has to offer. You have shown me some nice options.
V
Never heard of this museum - looks like some real treasures - great macro shots too, what detail.
What I like is the way you find things ,,, not satisfied with the normal run of tourist spots. These medals are beautiful.
What amazing medals very regal looking. I don't blame the little black duck for not lining up for hours. We won't do that either. A good find for you and us, this museum.
Terrific treasures.
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