Musée des Arts Decoratifs - L'Art de L'Automobile

Today's walk took us to the Palais Royal.  On our way there we passed through the Galerie Vivienne, a passage built in 1823 that has pretty mosaic floors, a wine shop, a bookseller, and a famous teahouse A Priori Thé.

We then walked down the Rue Vivienne to the Palais Royal, former home to Cardinal Richelieu.  It is now home to the Ministry of Culture and the Constitutional Council.  It has a central garden where people were enjoying the sunshine.  It also has some very questionable artwork -- several colorful wind sculptures, and these striped columns in the Cour d'Honneur.

The Louvre building houses not only the Louvre museum, but also a less-visited museum called the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in the northwestern wing of the building.  We stopped in here because there was a special exhibit going on featuring several limited-edition cars owned by designer Ralph Lauren.

From the museum's website, shown is the 1955 Jaguar XKD

The 17 automotive masterpieces on display in this exhibit represent racing cars designed for both speed and aesthetics, from the 1930's to the present.  It is a "must-see" for car buffs.  Of course photo taking is prohibited.  We walked through the exhibit with the camera safely tucked away.  However, I had no control over Kevin once we got to the museum's upper floors.  At the entrance to the exhibit was a sleek Bugatti 57 S(C) Atlantic from 1938.  The car was capable of speeds up to 125 mph.

Here's an overview of the exhibit, you can see from the front: a maroon Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza (1931), a cherry red Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Mille Miglia (1938), a black Bugatti 59 Grand Prix (1933), a red Ferrari 375 Plus (1954), a silver Porsche 550 Spyder (1955), and a red Ferrari 250 GTO (1962).

And here is a view of the 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa (top) with the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO.  A closeup of the Testa Rossa is below.

Another shot of the 1938 Alfa Romeo Mille Miglia, in the wings you can see a small glimpse of a rare 1996 McLaren F1 LM (1 of just 5 prototypes).  It is a V12 with 691hp and can achieve 0 to 80 mph in 5.9 seconds, with a top speed of 225 mph.  Trust me -- if we could've managed a better photo of that car, we would have...but it had its own security guard!

The museum had some other special exhibits -- one was on the use of animals in the decorative arts.  But really, does anyone actually "decorate" with Care Bears?

Care Bear Stare!  I like that they gave them the French names, ie. "Grosgateau" instead of "Birthday Bear".

The rest of the museum was a typical decorative arts museum, focusing on furniture.  It was organized chronologically, starting with the Middle Ages/Renaissance...

...on through the 17th and 18th centuries...

....then through the 19th century....

And into the Art Nouveau/Art Deco period.

By the time we got to the 1960's - 1990's the displays started looking like an Ikea furniture showroom.

Although I liked this mountain of swinging 60's and 70's chairs.

From the top floors of this wing of the Louvre palace, we got great views of La Defense (and incidentally the Tuileries Funfair), and of course, the Eiffel Tower.