Last week I took a day trip to Rouen, the capital of Normandy, and the location of the imprisonment, trial, and execution of Joan of Arc. While there, I went to the Historial Jeanne d’Arc, the Joan of Arc history museum. From what I could tell via their website (and lots of Google Translate) the museum was supposedly filled with interactive exhibitions and used modern technology to tell the tale of Joan of Arc, all while being located within the buildings of the archbishopric of Rouen. Knowing that the structure was not built originally to be a museum, I was interested to see how “modern technology” would play into this. One word: holograms.
Holograms are a new and (frankly) wonderful non-invasive way of educating the visitor, all while protecting the integrity of the building the exhibitions are in. Each room had a new set of holograms and projectors that played the story of Joan of Arc’s humble beginnings, her rise to fame, and her subsequent fall and execution. I even watched her trial play out in the room where it took place, almost 600 years ago.
I have to give it to the actors they hired for the recreated scenes, they gave 110% and not only spoke their lines with conviction, but really threw in emotion. No monotonous tone here.
The tour was self-guided, that is to say, we had no docent following us around, but instead, I had a headset with a translator. Each room sent a signal to the translator, and after pushing the “OK” button, the language you wanted would play.
There was also no compromise on languages either. Most small museums I’ve been to like this, if they have any audio-tours/translators at all, are limited to the native language of the country, and two MAYBE three others. But here, you could choose from one of NINE languages. I was thoroughly impressed.
The tour mainly consisted of going from room to room to listen to the story but concluded with no guide and a few leftover rooms with some paintings, memorabilia, statues, etc. “But how did you ask questions?” says the reader of this post. One word: holograms. At the end of the library room, a row of chairs sat in front of a panel of buttons. Each button was a question you could ask a virtual historian, whose knowledge on Joan of Arc ranged from how she was treated as a woman, to her battle strategies.
This was definitely one of the best museum’s I’ve been in, in terms of museum education. Unfortunately, with the way Joan of Arc was treated in life, she has little to no artifacts to trace, and therefore a museum which only focused on the physical pieces would have been a flop. But this museum managed to take her story and present it in a clear way that can be understood and appreciated by most ages. I say most and not all because I don’t believe I saw a children’s version of the translator, but the content wasn’t too difficult to understand.
Also, there was a traveling Game of Thrones exhibition in one of the temporary rooms, so enjoy a photo of Arya’s Needle.