la_rainette | The doll museum in Paris

I suggested we go to le Musée de la Poupée because we were meeting up with my brother-in-law, his wife and their 4-year-old daughter that day, and it seemed like something that would interest all the kids.

Little did I know that I would LOVE it as much as I did. I am strongly recommending it if you go to Paris with children and even if you are on your own.

The permanent collection contains a number of interesting and unusual dolls.

PJ holder.

The doll at the back was one of my favourites among the old dolls. Notice her skirt? Well, it's made out of pieces of folded paper, and each piece of paper has something written on it. This doll was used in a fortune-telling game: you'd ask a question and pull out a random piece of her skirt and read whatever is written on it...

This is an utterly exquisite window. We spent at least 10 minutes in front of it (more than the kids!), taking stock of all the small details: the dog, the freaked-out cat, the tiny mouse disappearing under a lady's skirt; the fan on the armchair, the long gloves, the folded umbrella; the tiny clock and tea set. Everything was just perfect.

Dolls from all over the world! (Including a snake charmer. Yeah, I don't know either.)

Puppet theatre for dolls!

Even the doll has a doll!

Doll school

Household appliances for dolls.

And then there was the temporary exhibition, and I wish I could find words to express the wonder we felt when we saw this. We knew it would be about Ken and Barbie through the ages, but I expected something FAO Schwartz-like, with traditional Barbie and Ken dolls in their traditional Barbie and Ken outfits.

We were entirely wrong. What we saw was the work of Claude Brabant, a very talented lady who decided to take famous paintings and re-create them by re-making the clothes herself and using Barbie and Ken as the main protagonists.