I went to a LOT of National parks and historic sites growing up. They’re very formulaic. You either a) have free reign to watch a short video about boring white man/military history and then stroll around to just skim the interpretative boards or b) have an actual docent take you on the longest, most boring tour of your life. If you’re not a history buff, this isn’t fun at all. Especially if you’re an annoying kid or teenager.
France does museums differently, though. Here’s a case study of my two favorite museum experiences so far. (spoiler alert:they’re my favorites because they were actually fun.)
Let’s start with the Chateau du Chantilly. After a 3 mile hike in the middle of nowhere, Amy and I found a museum at last! It was a f*cking horse museum. Like, we just looked at horses. They were all facing the other way so I only saw their butts.The only highlights were seeing two donkeys named Pirate and Pepito. I told my boyfriend about the experience and he said, “looks like you saw a lot of assess today!” The pain I felt as he died laughing at his own dad joke almost met the pain I felt paying to look at some stinky horse ass.
All hope was not lost, however. We kept walking, for what seemed like forever, to find the Chateau. Alas! we found the giant spire behind the tree line we couldn’t even see from the train station. Amy gave me one of the children’s audio guides and I was livin. I had to help Louise, the house ‘servant,’ and the family’s favorite hunting dog find the master’s lost pink diamond! We went through the rooms while asking people in paintings for clues. We looked up and down each artifact once and twice over. I had never been so immersed or examined a museum in depth like this before. We went all the way to the end, where we found a room that fit all the clues. I was getting excited when Amy gasped, “Jessica!” and spoiled the surprise about 45 seconds when my guide would lead me to the treasure. Despite the sadness I felt for having it spoiled, I still had fun going on a freaking scavenger hunt in a museum, because hey, isn’t that every preservationist’s/adult’s dream?
Museum 2 was the Joan of Arc museum in Roune. This was a truly unique experience. The tour was led by a hologram of a priest who called upon witnesses to learn about Joan’s life. The characters were engaging and were played really well. You follow them all throughout the castle, so you get to admire the historic structure while pretty visuals project on the walls to immerse you in the 15th century. The merging of modern technology and well researched history facilitate more engaged listening and thereby learning. Its almost as if interactive story telling is conducive to enjoying a museum.
This got me thinking about the possible downsides of a tour that lacked a human docent. How could you ask questions? Well let me tell you that my jaw dropped when I saw that you could ask hologram experts in the field any questions you had at the end. You had scholars’ knowledge available to you, in audio form! Accompanied by captions, this format is so accessible! Fun and functional, America needs to get with the times.
Wow, these museums sound super fun. I love the idea of a scavenger hunt! That is such an interesting way to engage visitors.
Aw, that donkey is so cute! Out of curiosity, how much did it cost to get in the horse museum? Also, how big was the Chateau du Chantilly and did the scavenger hunt cover the whole museum? While one of my favorite museums is the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum in DC,it’s so big that I’d imagine having a scavenger hunt would be hard (but probably really cool!) and would probably be really expensive to create. Can you think of any museums that would benefit from this scavenger hunt method (not to throw any shade!)?
The horse museum was 13,50. The Chateau was like 1/2 of the size of Fontaine Bleu.The scavenger hunt did cover the whole museum (it would entertain kids through the whole thing). I think Making a scavenger hunt would not be expensive, its just a ordered guide to things already in the museum. I think Historic sites that aren’t national parks which at least have junior ranger badges to entertain kids could benefit from this. For example, Kenmore.