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Musee Carnavalet, Paris (Carnavalet Museum) If we had to rely entirely on contemporary pictures of it to form an idea of the Revolution that was to make Paris the "absolute capital" of France, the nerve center of the nation, what would we find? Surprisingly few paintings, together with a few pieces of china patriotically decorated with red-bonneted revolutionaries carrying pikes, the Gallic cock, and the guillotine, and the collection of cupboards at the Musée Carnavalet on which we read the motto: Kings are tyrants and must perish. The Musee Carnavalet, nearby at 23 rue de Sevigne is just a hop, skip and a jump from the Place des Vosges (or take the metro to Saint-Paul); to walk there, head diagonally across the Square from the Victor Hugo Museum to the Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, which leads to the Rue de Sevigne. The Museum is devoted to the history of Paris and contains too many interesting relics to look at, let alone list. But the building itself is worth a visit: redone in 1655 by the architect, Francois Mansart, for Madame De Sevigne, who lived here from 1677 to 1696 (she's the lady who wrote to her daughter; you can see same of her letters inside the museum), it's a dark, stone, 17th-century town house with an inner courtyard whose fastidiously manicured garden (a petit Versailles) has as its focal point a statue of Louis XLV. Inside are such items as a model of the old Bastille (Rooms 31 and 32); many mementos of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI (locks of their hair, his shaving artides, games used by their children in prison, the dishes the doomed couple supped on, and some of the fumiture from their cell at Temple); the palette of Daumier; Napoleon's sword; and an astonishingly tiny glove wom by the Emperor (small hand, large ambition?). After you've finished wandering and looking through the neighborhood, make your way back to the main boulevard Rue SaintAntoine, where at number 62 you'll find the Hotel de Sully, recently deaned and restored and wedding-cake lovely. Sully, as you know, was Henry IV's brilliant Minister of Finance who spent most ofhis days living in spartan simplicity until he retired and broke out into the kind of splendor you'll see in his 'Hotel.' Since, at the moment, there are no formal visiting hours (the only way to get inside, as far as I know, is to attend one of the concerts presented here each June during the Festival du Marais), you'll only be able to view the courtyard and the building from the outside, but it's worth making the side-trip to see it. Statuette of Carolingian Emperor This bronze was formerly at Metz, and has been known since the beginning of the sixteenth century. Its history before that date is unrecorded; and although traditionally supposed to be a contemporary likeness of Charles the Great, its unique status as a work of Carolingian sculpture has naturally caused it to be regarded with a good deal of suspicion, and doubt has often been expressed as to whether such a work would have been technically possible in the ninth century. It is certain, in the first place, that the conception of an equestrian figure would have been possible to the Carolingian mind. Quite apart from the Marcus Aurelius of the Capitol, which stood outside the Lateran for all to see throughout the Middle Ages, it is well known that Charles the Great removed a mounted statue of Theodoric from Ravenna and set it up in front of his palace at Aachen. More beauty marks of Paris Please don't miss the gardens of the Palais Royale (built by Cardinal Richelieu), with their lovely shops and apartments (metro stop is Palais Royale, directly opposite The Louvre). The French Revolution was ignited here by Camille Desmoulins at the now-demolished Cafe Foy. . . . And be sure to schedule a stroll through the Luxembourg Gardens (metro stop is Odeon or St. Sulpice), which is like walking through a Seurat painting. . . . Attention all Interrior Decorators, Designers, Scenery Designers, and Antique Collectors: you willlove the Musee Des Arts Decoratifs, 107 (and be sure you enter at 107) rue de Rivoli (metro: Palais Royal), which has rooms full of furniture and trappings tracing the history of decoration not only in France, but in Europe and the Orient as well. . . . The Petit Palais, Avenue Alexandre III (metro: Champs Elysees-Clemenceau, directly across the bridge from Invalides), has an interesting collection of antiques, mostly 'objets d'art' of the 16th to 19th centuries (ineluding stamps, books, and dishware), some sculpture, a small Flemish collection, some drawings by Rembrandt and Van Dyck, several Monets, Renoirs, Degas, Cezannes, Rodins, Daumiers, and a whole room-full of Courbets. The inner cirele of the museum contains the picture gallery, the outer one houses everything else, and there's a nice garden in the center in which one can rest. For the kids The junior tourists will like the Palais de Chaillot (metro: Trocadero), with its cafes and park fronting on The Eiffel Tower, and most important for its complex of museums. Among the institutions elustered here are the Musee de la Marine (a maritime exhibition); the Musee de L'Homme (anthropology); and the Musee des Monuments Francais (large French monuments). The parents will undoubtedly enjoy the nearby Musee des Arts Modernes (Museum of Modern Art), at II Avenue du President Wilson (metro: Iena). For the clothes conscious, there's a Museum of Costumes in ,The Chaillot as well (admission: one franc), where you can see what the French have be en wearing from the 18th century on. . . . Elsewhere, the Palais de la Decouverte, Avenue Franklin Delano Roosevelt (metro: F. D. Roosevelt), is a museum dealing with everything scientific, all displayed with great flair-very much in the French manner; there is also a Planetarium here, for which you'll have to pay an additional entrance charge.