Group Outing: Week 1

I found the visit to the Musée National du Moyen Age to be very different and much better than I had expected. When we arrived at the front of the museum, it just looked like a smaller cottage/home, rather than a museum that could hold some of the most beautiful and historical treasures within. There were two things that truly impressed me and had my attention for most of the tour; the tapestries and the baths. I have seen tapestries hanging in churches mostly, but I haven’t really been close to them and had the time to really take in some of the amazing components of an individual tapestry. When we went into one of the rooms, there were four large tapestries that filled the entire room. They were by far the largest tapestries that I had ever seen. I really focused on the emphasis that there was on nature in these particular tapestries. Not only was there beauty and importance centered on the person in the middle of the tapestry, but there were so many other activities going on all around; making completely new stories within the same piece of art. This was the first time that I found myself enjoying and appreciating the beauty of what I used to see as just “big carpets hanging on the wall” (as I used to tell my mom when I was little). I also found the Gallo-Roman baths to be such an amazing part of ancient architecture that I didn’t really know much about. The rooms were so much larger than I imagined, and beauty and light inside was just incredible. It was really neat to be able to see what they used to bath…and we even found some neat perfumes! Over all, I had originally thought this tour was going to just be a quick breeze through type of tour, but I really found myself enjoying and taking in the ancient architecture in the baths and the remains of monuments and statues that are held within this museum.