Visiting the National French Renaissance Museum at Ecouen with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget – Ruth Pennington Paget
On
a cold wintry weekend, Laurent and I drove out to the French National
Renaissance Museum at Ecouen, which is located by the Charles de Gaulle Airport
in Roissy. There might be a bus that
goes there now, but when we went you had to drive.
In
the courtyard of the château are marble copies of Michelangelo’s torso-turning
Dying Slave statues. The statues remind
you that a lot of backbreaking, work went into creating these beautiful French
castles.
Ecouen
is the National Renaissance Museum, because it was the home of its celebrated
Seigneur, Anne de Montmorency. Anne was
a “prince du sang” (prince sharing royal
blood with the king), who could hold the throne, if the king became
incapacitated or if he so desired to take it; Anne was a general and well-liked
by the troops.
Anne
worked as the name for a man or woman during the Renaissance in France. If you look at the story of Anne in the
Bible, you can still see that as the mother of Mary, Anne still holds an aura
of dignity and ethics for being the grandmother of the founder of the Christian
religion – Jesus Christ. Anne de
Montmorency played this role in France, too, as an advisor to kings and
protector of the realm as a general.
However,
Anne used his early retirement by a Valois king who did not like him to direct
and complete the work at Ecouen.
When
Francis the First died and Henri II became king, Anne de Montmorency was
reinstated as a general to support the Catholic Cause against Protestants in
France.
Anne
de Montmorency died fighting Protestants on November 10, 1567. Despite being a soldier, he lived to be 75
years old.
I
liked Anne de Montmorency, because he could combine the work of being a general
with that of reading and the arts as a true Renaissance man. I always liked working with management
consultants for the same reason.
Anne
de Montmorency’s library was my favorite part of the château. He read books from antiquity as well as those
from his era. He also reminded me of
many people in my family, who have home libraries: a ladies’ library for the
women with cookbooks and gardening books, and a gentlemen’s library with
farming, boat navigation, and irrigation books.
The
Ecouen Château had furniture whereas many other French châteaux do not, because
the furniture was sold during the French Revolution.
Ecouen
had some interesting pieces of furniture, though, including a Spanish vargueño,
which was a Spanish military desk from the Renaissance period. It folded up and could be transported from
battlefield to battlefield.
They
were many wooden chests called “coffres” that the military elite and royals
used to transport lifestyle goods around the countryside, too. The royals did progressions around the
countryside from one loyal noble’s home to another in the Middle Ages before
Louis XIV stayed at Versailles and ran the kingdom and much of Europe from that
palace.
I
liked the cassoni (wedding chests) and marveled at the luster of the dishes
from Iznik (Turkey) that Anne de Montmorency probably bought, but considered to
be war booty.
The
National Renaissance Museum at Ecouen clearly shows with its items on display
that at least French royals and aristocrats knew all about acquiring
high-quality, luxury products on the international market long before
globalization became a business buzzword.
By
Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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