Musee des Arts Forains in Paris.

There is a private museum in Paris which shows a fabulous collection of
fairground artifacts, sculptures, merry-go-rounds, etc. The man who built
up this collection is Jean-Paul Favand.

Till last year, his collection was exhibited on week-ends in a huge
abandoned warehouse in Paris, but they were obliged to leave (real estate
promotion) and found beautiful new premises in the Eastern part of Paris,
in old Wine Merchants storage buildings from the last century (briks,
vaults, etc. but no more wine). There are more than ten merry-go-rounds,
several scores of fairground attractions, and hundreds or fairground
sculptures, in several very large rooms covering probably 30.000 square
feet as a whole. Many articles were written in newspapers and quarterlies
about this collection, which is a favorite of the TV too.

Recently, Jean-Paul Favand succeeded in opening new rooms including
mechanical music. As he does not want to invest too much in a field he is
not too familiar with, he borrowed or rented from several collectors and
institutions (including the Musee des Gets, in France) several mechanical
music instruments, but he hopes to increase shortly the quantity and
variety of these items.

Right now, the "collection" includes several pianos and nickelodeons, a few
music boxes, a beautiful pipe Mortier cafe-Organ (101 keys, 1934), several
other organs (Limonaire Jazzbandophone, Hooghuys fairground organ), an
entirely electronic Decap dance organ, a Yamaha Disklavier grand piano,
etc.

The problem is that this fabulous collection is not opened to the general
public, excepted in very rare occasions, 2 or 3 times a year. But several
times a week, this private museum is rented to companies or organizations
who want to feast such or such event, with an audience ranking from 50 to
800 people, having drinks or dinner (and wine) and enjoying themselves,
with very often performances of artists, acrobats, etc. Of course, the fare
is quite high ...

Although it would be almost impossible for the occasional visitor to get
in, unless he is integrated in a large group, I thought the MMD members
would be interested to know that such a collection does exist in Paris ...

If you visit Paris, you could always try calling the administration of this
collection at :
+33 (0)1 43 40 16 22
The postal address is :
53, avenue des terroirs de France (Bercy), 75012-Paris France

No printed material is available about this collection for the moment.

Best regards,

Philippe Rouille

Philippe Rouille
(Paris, France)
rouille@cnam.fr
http://www.cnam.fr/museum/musica_mecanica/