Re: Railwayana - is it a UK thing ?


"Waldviertler" <wyrleybart@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1149089927.037723.156450@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On the subject of Mulhouse museum - I visited Mulhouse 20 years ago
and was very unimpressed considering it was the French National musem.
The exhibits were cramped into dark halls where it was difficult to try
and take photographs. All I remember is lots or varnished wood
everywhere with the two high speed locos 9102 and 7107 hemmed in.

Fortunately, it was just a whistle stop on the way to the Rhaetian
Railways which were far more exciting !!!

Phil

Railway enthusiasm seems to take a different form in France to the UK. I've
visited various 'preserved' railways, as well as participating in three
model railway exhibitions over the past 15 years. Most seem to have a more
'family' air to them than their equivalents in the UK, with the whole family
attending and with a shut-down for lunch. To be honest, I found them much
more agreeable than their UK equivalents, which always seem to have their
fair share of males trying to confirm the media stereotypes of railway
enthusiasts.
As to Mulhouse, the atmosphere is that of the greater part of the French
museum network, which always seems unrelentingly didactic. The 'Museo
Gallo-Roman' in Lyon seems to have endless floors of scarcely-differentiated
exhibits, with painfully-long descriptions and no obvious means of escape.
Worst of all are those where one has a guide who is reading from a script ,
has little knowledge of their subject but who insists that people have to
stay with the group till the end- one rapidly loses the will to live.
The Science Museum at La Villette is an honourable exception- well worth a
visit whilst in Paris.
Brian


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