Amiens I--Kids in the Museum

Amiens' Musée de Picardie is highly impressive, with fine art through from the Middle Ages through the 19th century, and a surprisingly strong archeological section (Egypt though regional artifacts). Both before and after lunch we encountered dozens of young school children (mostly 5 to 8), all under close supervision and generally with lesson materials to write and sketch in. Here they're in a gallery of 19th century sculpture (mainly by regional artists).

In our experience school visits are quite common in French museums, but we had never seen so many children at one time. Especially in the morning their coats and backpacks formed a pile in the lobby that reminded us of Boltanski's heap of clothes in his Grand Palais installation (see my blip from Feb 19).

Our hotel here charges for WIFI, and so I've taken refuge in a McDonald's (its French nickname is pronounced MacDough) to upload yesterday's and today's blips. I'll post another from Amiens tomorrow after we return to Paris.