Sunday, November 27, 2005

Antique Walking Canes


Close to my place there is a covered street called Le Passage Jouffroy
(the 19th century version of shopping malls!) where you can find the Musée Grévin (wax museum) and a lot of shops - mostly art oriented. One of them is a stunning gallery of antique walking canes that you should not miss if you come to the neighbourhood. I took a photo of this one with Naopleon on the handle but all of them deserve to be shown.

10 comments:

  1. Very cool. My grandfather, I believe, owned one "canne-épée" (a cane with sword concealed inside of it), which I thought was really cool.

    Great photo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Napoleon looks like a slug as a cane handle.. Not very flattering for him!

    JM-

    ReplyDelete
  3. aran> Good question. The short answer: in France, he is clearly seen more as a hero than a dictator. One may argue on the abuse of power, the wars, etc., however he set the basis of a modern nation, with, among many other things, the Civil Code, which is the foundation of Europe's legal system.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Elisabeth, that is very cool!

    I love discovering quirky shops and I love the idea of these beautiful passageways - must visit them next time in Paris.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bonjour :)
    Je suis enchantée (littéralement) par ce blog.
    Il présente une vision vraiment enthousiaste et personnelle de cette ville fantastique qu'est Paris.
    Je le mets en lien sur mon blog pour que d'autres expat's puissent en profiter!
    Keep posting

    ReplyDelete
  6. aran > I would ad a little precision : even in France, the debate over Napoleon is considered a very complex one. Nevertheless, I guess I could say we make a difference -among others- between Bonaparte, heir of the Révolution, one of those who have freed France from the Europeans armies trying to set back the Ancien Regime, and Napoleon who imposed "un nouvel ordre mondial" or at least european, through continuous wars. As "Utilisateur anonyme" wrote, he also set the basis of a modern nation… notably through the building of a modern police… Is " modern police" -and its current evolutions- one of the elements of a dictatorship ?!!!… Sorry, just joking !
    Anyway, I guess we should remember not to judge the Past with eyes of the XXIst century. The references of Napoleon and its fellowpeople were maybe Louis XIV, Caesar, Charlemagne or Charles Quint, but certainly not Hitler, Staline, Pol Pot or Mugabe…

    ReplyDelete
  7. And another nice photo by Eric. :)

    This one has a very warm, Christmas-like atmosphere to it...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Those are beautiful canes.

    ReplyDelete