Left Bank

Day 11: Wednesday 8th Jan

We walked down through the Louvre and over Pont du Carousel then winding our way through St Germain des Pres to The Hotel de Cluny which is now the Museum of Middle Ages (1000 - 1400AD).The Museum is housed in the Gallo-Roman thermes (1st-3rd centuries) and the Cluny Abbey hotel (late 15th century) across the street from the Sorbonne.

Hotel du Cluny from Sorbonne University

The heads of the Kings of Judah

The Gallo - Roman baths were interesting and fitted with the description of Lutetia we learned about at the Crypt under Notre Dame.  Another connections was the exhibits of heads of the Kings of Judah (rediscovered in 1977) that were decapitated during the Revolution.  The busts clearly showed pigments of paint confirming that they had been originally painted along with all the 'gates' in the front of Notre Dame.

The Lady and The Unicorn - Desire

The Museum also had a series of 6 famous large tapestries called 'The Lady and the Unicorn' of Flemish late 15th Century origin.  Each tapestry highlights one of the senses with the last being called ambiguously 'To My only Desire'.  

The art of the Middle Ages period seemed to be focused more on religious themes than everyday life and there was lots of intricate altars, panels for churches and religious vessels.  The display of different types of shields from this period was also interesting.

A humorous item I found was a statue of Jesus on a donkey mounted on a wheeled platform used in Palm Sunday Processions .These items are called 'Palmesel' (palm donkey) and were part of Palm Sunday processions in many German-speaking regions until the Reformation.  

After lunch we browsed bookshops and sampled yummy pastries at left bank boulangeries.  It was 13 today and almost balmy - a nice day to stroll.  

Late afternoon we met the mother of our Landlord , Samantha, who talked about what it is like living in both Paris and England.  Apparently the French work day is 10am- 7pm  and most have a 2 hour lunch.  This explains why there are so many restaurants!  The French have had a 35 hr week since 2000 and have a culture quite different than in Australia in that:

• leisure time is valued more than work and money (plus they get 5 weeks leave /year)
• salaries are average of 40% higher in Australia
• Most French spend their disposable income on food and clothes, shoes etc where Australians spend a lot on home mortgages and home improvements 
• The French have a generous aged pension that starts at 62 so there is less incentive to save for retirement.  This is going to cause major economic problems as the number of aged increase and the birthrate continues to fall
• unemployment is much higher on France

People like me with a strong work ethic are 'pulled up short by this different culture regarding work and to me the economic problems of other EEC countries like Greece, Spain and Italy are not far below the surface in France.