Paris Notes September 2002

PARIS NOTES

September 2002

Volume 11 Issue 7

As you descend the steps, the lush, blood-red carpet is like a long tongue that leads into the bleached innards of some fantastic beast. Skeletal hands jump out from behind a portrait of a sorcerer. A mirror in a strange black box turns your head upside-down. A fortune teller automaton behind glass softly beckons, "Bonjour, bonjour ?"

Welcome to the little-known Museum of Magic (Musée de la Magie), a chaotic and cramped dungeon in a calm 4th arrondissement quartier between Rue de Rivoli and the Seine where vaulted chambers crammed with hundreds of objects celebrate the history of sleight-of-hand, optical illusions and the supernatural.

"This is a 16th-century cellar where travelers once stayed with their horses when visiting a nearby castle in Village Saint-Paul," says Jerome Cadeac, the museum's magician in residence. The museum was founded by one George Proust, who in 1993 decided to give the public access to his quirky personal collection, Cadeac explains. Though housed amid newly plastered walls, the exhibits do not whitewash the story of the "black art."

The small rooms are roughly organized by subject, although nearly every available wall space is hung with magic-related ephemera, such as old vaudeville posters of crazed conjurers and their sleepwalking assistants, and antique "automata" of mechanical baboons and owls: early robots, if you will. Brief texts, in French throughout (though an English guide can be had for 1.5E), recount the history of enchantment, from antiquity through the Middle Ages, to the 18th century, and finally to the Golden Age of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Display cases are chock full of aged wands, trick boxes and other objects used by Spiritists, who purported to commune with ghosts, and "escamoteurs," old-time con artists. The French magician Robert Houdin (1805-1871)—not to be confused with the American escape artist Houdini (1874-1926)—and even David Copperfield are given their due. If ignorance is bliss, close your eyes and ears: museum staff provide impromptu talks, such as revealing the reality behind the venerable "saw a woman in half" trick.

On the day of my visit, the caverns teemed with children on school break hoping for a quick glimpse of now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t. Squealing one moment, slack-jawed the other, kids and their shorter attention spans seemed ideal visitors to the Musée de la Magie, which can be seen in under an hour and a half. Plenty of hands-on exhibits—like gadgets demonstrating properties of physics and optics, such as shape-shifting mirrors, holograms and the phenakistiscope motion wheel (a precursor to the movies)—kept youngsters occupied, even if they couldn’t read the descriptions.

Nonetheless, people of all ages should be equally entertained, for it seems the realms of childhood and maturity still intersect in the caverns of the unexplained. To bring the museum displays alive, a magician performs classic tricks in a tiny theater about every half hour. Monsieur Cadeac’s 15-minute show covers such standards as the broken string that reassembles itself, the cup and disappearing ball, and a card trick where four jacks change color at will.

"I know which tricks will please an audience of adults or children," says Cadeac, who customizes his shows for each performance, drawing upon a repertoire of dozens and dozens of tricks. He involves the audience, calling up a young girl who, much to her astonishment, transforms a small foam rabbit in the palm of her hand into a whole litter.

Luckily, for the addicted magician, a "magic academy" every Saturday (20E) offers lessons for the budding Blackstone or escape artist in any family. A well-stocked gift shop near the entrance sells both new and antique tricks and books, as well as videos demonstrating how to conjure your own benevolent spirits.

•Musée de la Magie: 11 Rue Saint-Paul, 4th. Tel: (1) 42 72 13 26. Fax: (1) 45 36 01 48. Open Wed, Sat. and Sun. and school holidays (except July and Aug.), 2-7pm. 7E adults, 5E children.