25-8-2015 Paris

Now into my second week of the Paris MNHM research and the time has flown. I checked the exchange rate and it is not good but not as bad as I feared; 1A$ = 0.62 EU. Will have to see as the Sharemarket crisis unfolds.   

Up early and clear skies so I hopped on a Bus to go to Montmartre to see the Funicular railway and the superb Sacre Coeur Basilica. No real problem, the 67 bus got me to the Pigale and I climbed the streets/steps to the Basilica. Impressive. I then found the Funicular station and rode the “rack & pinion tram” back down, finding the return 67 bus stop along the way. I suspect the whole railway has been upgraded because it was much smoother than I thought it would be. 

Back in plenty of time to get to the MNHM by 2.00 pm and start on the Lesueur and Petit Atlas of the Baudin voyage. As noted in the Bonnemains et al book, Petit’s finished ethnographic artwork is there and is quite distinct from Lesueur’s work (and style).  This means I have sighted Petit’s original work and can happily refer to both Bonnemains et. al., 1998 and E.T. Hamy 1891. An unusual feature was that the initial visit to Timor is also described in the Atlas.

The J Goy 1995 book, on the Jelly Fish described by Peron and Lesueur, was more difficult. Entirely in French it obviously collated all of the Paris MNHM Library information on "Medusae" with that from the Le Havre Natural History Museum, which makes it invaluable. However I need to get it translated into English, or at least major passages from the important chapters. Goy appears to have followed Lesueur’s later cataloguing by genus. She works through each genus using the available images, but without ordering according to geography or chronology, although she gives notes and a map on where and when each collection/image was made.  An excellent find but it is really a taxonomic text and I am not quite sure how I can use it, apart from as a collated source of finished images from Lesueur’s hand. A pity it was not the fish species/taxonomy that interested Goy.

At this point I have successfully completed the major research tasks I set up, and now need to go back a to my research plan to see how best to use my time. Given the images from both Lesueur and now Petit that I have accessed at the MNHM and through Bonnemains publications are representative, then a further trip to La Havre Natural History Museum would not be productive or at least not cost effective. [Given the falling A$ exchange rate]. I have proved to myself the Bonnemains et. al., 1998 book is my best source of images of the artwork of both Lesueur and Petit. I have seen the originals and supplemented this work with my own photographs of Lesueur’s post-card sized manuscript illustrations, but in reality have simply validated Bonnemains et al 1998 accuracy in terms of the major paintings.