September 12, 2020
On our most recent trip to Paris in February of this year – before the pandemic shut downs took hold – Jackson and Parker took me to a Paris Saint Germain soccer game.
That was a thrilling experience for them (and me!), being inside the same stadium as Kylian Mbappé, Neymar Jr. and Edinson Cavani. Neymar even had a hat-trick, scoring three goals. The boys were in soccer heaven. But we had two full days in Paris to fill around the stadium tour and the game. This was Jackson’s fourth visit to Paris and Parker’s third. So they could start being more selective on what they wanted to visit. Multiple visits to the Louvre are always a good idea, but a “soon-to-close” Leonardo da Vinci special exhibit had sold out all the entrance tickets, so the boys could not go back to the most famous museum in Paris this trip.
So, true to my travel planning routine with my grandkids, we sat down and brainstormed what they would like to add to our itinerary. I was not expecting Parker to ask if there was a Pablo Picasso museum in Paris. He really wanted to see the works of Pablo Picasso. His second-grade teacher had introduced Picasso to the class, and he was fascinated. Jackson agreed. So the Musee National Picasso – Paris was added to the weekend agenda.
Was I really surprised? Only a tiny bit. My grandkids really do love to visit museums. (See my post from August 24 for ideas on creating a memorable visit to the Louvre that your kids will love – https://travelswithmiemie.com/how-to-turn-the-louvre-into-a-playground-for-your-five-year-old/.) It meant we needed to plan for the visit – back to my basic pre-travel planning goals. This works for any museum or other historical destination.
- Pique their interest in the museum
- Discover what catches their attention about the museum
- Create anticipation for the visit
Parker’s teacher had already achieved the first goal for us. She piqued Parker’s interest, who piqued Jackson’s interest. They added it to their list.
We went online to do some minimal research about Picasso. Beyond the basics of when he lived, where he was born, and that he had spent much of his life in Paris, we focused on three periods of his work that the boys thought would be interesting to explore.
Two were based on colors he used (it was easy to identify the blue and pink periods!) and cubism, which caught the boys’ attention. This took about 20 minutes to do. They knew enough to want to walk into the museum and see if they could identify the blue or rose period, as well as figure out some of the cubist paintings. They were ready. I still wanted to add some more opportunity for participation during their visit.
I ventured into some of the back cavities of my brain, and I remembered seeing young children sitting in the Louvre trying to sketch some of the masterpieces there. It seemed to be an acceptable activity for the children, so I thought we could try it in the Picasso museum. I purchased an inexpensive sketch pad at a nearby big-box store, along with a small box of colored pencils and two flat clipboards. I didn’t tell the boys about this until later.
To achieve my third goal, I sat down with the boys in the hotel room before heading out for the day. We’d planned to visit the Picasso museum after lunch. We quickly reviewed the three periods we had learned about Picasso. Then I showed them the sketch pad, colored pencils and clip boards, which all fit easily in my small tote bag. They couldn’t imagine being able to sketch like Picasso, but thought it would be fun to try. The museum visit guide suggested one to two hours for the visit, so we estimated we’d spend an hour and a half there. We now had established some anticipation for the museum visit, my third pre-visit goal.
We were using Uber to get around during this trip. We knew that Paris was in the full throes of the transportation strikes in January and there would be no metro or bus options for getting around the city. We planned our day to help minimize the need for transportation. We took an Uber from our morning adventure to a restaurant near the Picasso museum, so we could just walk to the museum after lunch.
The museum guide had identified that this was a busier time of day for the museum, but we fortunately encountered no line to enter. The transportation strikes may have lessened tourism a bit. We checked our bags in the cloakroom and started the self-directed audio tour.
It turns out the museum does a great job of engaging kids with special activities throughout the tour. Most rooms had a small poster with a children’s activity specific to the room. And they were so creative.
In one room, they were encouraged to distinguish the head, arms and legs in a Picasso painting. Another explained that Picasso had symbols he typically used for various body parts. It invited the children to study the paintings and identify what shapes were used for eyes, noses and mouths. Another room focused on how Picasso portrayed hair.
The boys did great, and they really felt brilliant to now be able to look at a Picasso painting and identify the elements of a face, even though those features were not where one might expect them to be! These 8 and 11-year-old boys were rocking the Picasso museum!
After seeing most of the museum, we circled back to the floor with the paintings they liked best, and each boy picked a favorite painting to sketch. I lucked out in that they each selected a painting in the same room. Then they seriously got to work.
They did a great job, don’t you think?
We actually spent almost three hours in the museum. And I had one more activity for them to do before we could call it a day. We took an Uber back to the hotel and planned to have dinner at a small Italian restaurant we’d seen nearby. I figured we had a couple hours before we would need to go get the pizza, so …
… I asked them if they thought they could draw a portrait of each other à la Picasso. They loved the idea, and each applied what they had learned at the museum.
Quite talented, wouldn’t you agree?
Most importantly, they had a great time, and I am totally confident they will remember their visit to this museum and their mini art lesson with Pablo Picasso for the rest of their lives.