Porcelain Installation, Musée de Sevres

INSIDE

Laurie Rolland 2
Presidents Message 3
Lynne Johnson 4

Marie-Clare von Hausmann 5
TechnoTalk: Ceramics Online ©

Book Review 9
Call for Applicants 10
Clay Lines 11

OTTERS

July/August 2007 Volume 43 No. 6

POTTERY MUSEUMS IN FRANCE:
THE SOUGHT AND
THE SERENDIPITOUS

Travelling to France for the first time, I had the usual agenda: to see as much
art as my eyes could absorb. I took in the wonders at the Musée d’Orsay,
Monet’s les Nymphéas at the Musée de ’Orangerie, a surprise René Lalique
show at the Musée du Luxembourg, and, of course, as much of the magic
at the Louvre as one person can fit into four hours, with sore feet. But the
potter in me needed to be satiated, too, so I made plans to visit a lesser-known
museum in Paris, devoted entirely to ceramics. And, further in my journey, I
stumbled upon a gem I don’t think even shows up in the guidebooks.

The Sought

If you find yourself in Paris with an empty spot in your itinerary and you're
up for a little adventure, I recommend a museum designed specifically with
the ceramics-obsessed in mind. The Musée National de Céramique Sévres
houses a vast collection of ceramic objects unlike anything you'll find on this
continent; 1t’s well worth the trip, but with one small caveat.

My research before leaving for Paris led me to believe that the Musée
National de Céramique Sévres was a simple walk across a bridge from a
Metro station at the end of the Number Nine Line. I confess, my French

y

language skills are seriously lacking, and it’s possible that the
instructions got somewhat lost in translation, but finding the
museum was an adventure in itself!

In the suburban outskirts of Paris, the neighbourhood of
Pont du Sévres is not at all like the pedestrian-friendly streets
in the heart of the city. The simple walk across the bridge is
more like to walking across the Knight Street Bridge than the

POTTERS

GUILD

of BRITISH
COLUMBIA

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