Discovering a wax museum in Paris

We had been saving this piece for when US President Barack Obama would visit the country. We felt it would be an interesting scoop over all others who would be covering his arrival. But his visit was not to be so instead we are now relating how we got to meet him in Paris.

It was more than a year ago when we travelled to Europe and in the process made a few discoveries. One of the most novel and exciting was our visit to the Musée Grévin waxwork museum in Paris on Boulevard Montmartre. It is one of the oldest in Europe although in terms of popularity Madame Tussauds in London is more familiar to most people.

Our discovery of the Grévin was, in fact, accidental. While walking along the boulevard, we followed a group rushing into a small entrance with a sign saying Musée Grévin, Cabinet Fantastique, Palais des Mirage. It sounded to us like a magician’s place but upon entering, we found the unassuming gateway opening to numerous huge halls of baroque architecture, with the dome a masterpiece of Venetian mosaic, shades of blue on a gold background adorned with busts of Michelangelo, Benvenuto Cellini, Germain Pilon and Jean Goujon. 

This, therefore, is the setting for around 450 wax characters retelling the history of France from Charlemagne to Napoleon Bonaparte and on to more current world history and famous movie stars. They are arranged in storytelling fashion. A tableau shows Charlotte Corday killing Jean-Paul Marat using the actual knife and bathtub. Quasimodo is shown hanging from the gallows, etc. Also, unlike other museums, the management allows picture-taking, even lets visitors to touch the wax figures.

We found Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Pope John Paul II, Isabelle Adjani, classical composer Mozart, actor Bruce Willis, the eccentric Spanish painter Salvador Dali, Sir Elton John at his piano, well-known American writer Ernest Hemingway having a drink with French songwriter and poet Serge Gainsbourg, Marie Antoinette at her trial, the comedians Laurel and Hardy, General Charles de Gaulle of World War II who became president of France, actress Penelope Cruz, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Christian Dior from the world of fashion, Quasimodo the Hunchback of Notre Dame who fell in love with the beautiful gypsy dancer Esmeralda, Luciano Pavarotti and Maria Callas from the opera world, literally hundreds more and one of the more recent entries, US President Obama, who agreed to have a photo-op with us.

One can stay forever at the place but since there are many other things to do within the museum, you need to pick which ones interest you the most. For us, the most interesting part of the visit was the “Secrets of the Workshop” unveiled. This is where the workers on a wax figure display the many phases of coming out with a single figure. It takes 150 hours to sculpt a single face based on actual sitting models or photos. This is placed in a mould; wax is cast for the face and resin for the body. Hairs are implanted individually at 500,000 natural hairs for a single head. Teeth and eyes are made of glass. Then the facial makeup with oil paint follows. Beauty spots, scars, shadows around the eyes are painstakingly reproduced amounting to 42 hours per face. The period costumes are also designed individually. How many museums would take the trouble of opening up their workshop to customers? Very few, we are certain.

We left the Grévin greatly impressed. Clearly, we shall be back for another visit. And on that occasion, we shall look for the one figure remaining — that of a Filipino of international acclaim or which we have many.

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