Sunday, January 27, 2013

Europe CNY 2012 - Day 13, Part 2 - Gallo-Roman Museum of Saint-Romain-en-Gal

Europe CNY 2012
Day 13, Part 2 - 31st January - Gallo-Roman Museum of Saint-Romain-en-Gal


Next, I went to the Gallo-Roman Museum of Saint-Romain-en-Gal (just across the river from Vienne)/Vienne.

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Syrian mosaics exhibition. The mosaics belong to the Louvre, but they came to Vienne for restoration, then display, then would return to the capital.

Annoyingly, the archaeological site inside the museum's grounds was closed due to snow.

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Map of place

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Mosaic of Hylas and the Nymphs

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The Romans didn't have handicapped people.

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Re-enactment - for him

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Re-enactment - for her

Photography was not allowed in the special exhibition.

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For some reason I didn't take the caption for this.

Amusingly, there was a wishing tree. Can you guess which one(s) are mine?

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"I hope to have a horse of my own"
"Always be nice"
"I would like people to leave me alone"

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"I would like to go to the World of the Teletubbies"
"I want to find a handsome boyfriend, and to be happy everyday !!!!"

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"I wish that Pierre loves me"

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"I would love a handsome, funny, faithful boyfriend who above all is very in love with me!!!"

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On the leaves: each entry consists of two leaves. One is a work from the museum and the other is where you write your wish (you're supposed to find the work first, but I doubt anyone did that)

One boy less than 12 years old said he wanted to find a girl in Thailand. I think he was too young to do that...

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"I would like to meet a pretty French girl and for us to fall in love"

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"To have a job"

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"I wish that the person I love loves me"

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"A baby for ??? and ???"

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Geena and wishing trees

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Closed site

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The nice lady let me step outside the door to take photos so there wouldn't be reflections from the glass.

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€1,50 discount (on €4 ticket price) because the site was closed. I approve. Well, I was on the combined ticket for the special exhibition as well, but I still approved. More museums should do this.

The site was only excavated in 1967 when they were building a school.

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Ocean God

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House of Love and Pan

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Glass Globe
Roman Murals. Wow.

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Dining room
The furniture on top helps one visualise how the dining room would've looked, but it also blocks one's view. And won't it spoil the mosaic?

Audioguide: "At the click of the fingers your favourite slave will be there to help you satisfy your every desire". Hurr hurr.

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Wading birds and winged genie

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Sucellus
One always talks about "Gallo-Roman" civilisation, but really it was mostly Roman and just a little bit Gallo. This was a God of Old Gaul.

Since 2002 they've put the mosaics in-situ in summer so people can see them. Nice touch.


Warehouse (I think). There were excellent mosaics here

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Plates

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Duck

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Rafraichissoir (type of table)

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On the history of Vienne

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Gym games

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Shop of a ceramics seller

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River Gods

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Bone work

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Orpheus charming the animals

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Orpheus charming the animals (again)

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Krater, birds

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Arabic style art

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On the mosaicists of Vienne

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Sun in Marble - there was stone from all over the empire in here: Asia Minor, Greece, Egypt, Tunisia and Italy

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Warehouse model (IIRC)

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Athletes

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River gods

Then was the showpiece of their collection, a stunning mosaic discovered in 1900 and worked on from 1907.

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The punishment of Lycurgus (a legendary Spartan lawgiver)

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Unfortunately some parts disappeared over the years (e.g. Ambrosia)

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On the mosaic

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Wading birds and winged genie (this was a different item from the previous work of the name)

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Orpheus charming the Animals
Yes, this was a popular theme

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Shield

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France was at red alert level. Presumably terrorists want to engage in cultural terrorism by destroying museums.

At 2pm the site was opened!

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Rue du Rhône

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Baths of the Fighters
The baths were on a higher level than the museum

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Luxuriously decorated toilets

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Road of the Portico

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Mirror palace

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On the building material

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The largest property on the site

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North Portal

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Grand Peristyle

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Château in background

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A small but richly decorated house - The House of 5 Mosaics

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House of Sucellus

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Path back to museum

While I was resting in the foyer, I was treated to an amusing sight:


Kids being briefed on testudo (tortoise) formation 1


Kids being briefed on testudo (tortoise) formation 2


Kids marching in testudo (tortoise) formation
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