The enchantingly named, Dusty Hawthorne, wrote to point out a simply stunning museum in Paris called the Musée des Arts et Métiers – or The Museum of Arts and Trades.  Their ‘virtual museum visit’ in particular is wonderful (if a little flash-based) and has such fantastic categories as Scientific Instruments, Telecommunications, Power and Energy and Transport – with descriptions and images of items categorized into pre-1750’s, 1750’s to 1850’s, 1850’s to 1950’s and post-1950.  So much there from the Victorian era, and will no doubt please the Steampunk fan of brass and cogs. There is a beautiful surfeit of things of brass and wood, and apparently the museum itself is reached through a medieval church with beautiful flying machines (such as the Eole bat-plane above) hanging from intricately carved ceilings.  A visual feast; where beauty and science are dramatically entwined, where history smells of varnish, tarnish and soot, and where three-wheeled steam carriages rest proudly next to hand-cranked cinomatographs.

Thankyou Dusty!  It does look a wonderful place to see.  (If you wish to find the virtual museum, in French, click ‘Collections’ and ‘Discover the Museum’).