I took a tip from Time Out Paris when we were at a loose end one afternoon and decided to visit Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature (Museum of Hunting and Nature). It was recommended as a "Critics Choice" on the site and was, conveniently, only a few blocks from where I was at the time.
It was basically the weirdest museum that I've ever visited.
The strangest part, if I had to pick only one, was the set of drawers that each major game animal had dedicated to them. You could peer into some binoculars in the miraculous set of drawers and see the sort of landscape that a deer might have inhabited. Pull open another and there's some French poems written about a boar. Another small drawer might have footprints of a fox and yet another might have an example of its droppings, presumably to arm you with the knowledge to go animal tracking yourself, should the need arise.
All this, intermingled with a disturbing collection of hunting art (dogs savagely killing rabbits or similar), a French-speaking and animated hog's head, as well as a variety of more modern (but equally disturbing in their own way) hunting works.
Would I recommend this strange museum? I don't think I possibly could but, at the same time, if you ever get sick of art galleries...
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