Toy Soldiers in France (1 Viewer)

[Russell]

In March my wife had some business in France and so I got to tag along on the cheap. Maybe you’re a lucky fellow and will be in France this summer. Here are a few toy soldier tips.
While my wife was doing her job, I was hunting out the toy soldier shops. The most important one is les Drapeaux de France at 1 Place Colette , 75001 PARIS, tel : 01 42 97 55 40. This is on the right bank. It is very close to the metro (subway) station named ‘Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre and the building itself is part of le Palais Royal at the juncture of Rue de Richelieu (north-south) and Rue Saint Honoré (east-west). It’s right close by the Rue de Rivoli where your wife can shop, heaven forbid, or close to the entrance to the Louvre Museum where she can see all that art work, much less expensive.
The shop has thousands of figures on its shelves and seemingly most of the CBG Mignot modern collection on display plus much more. The shop owner was very kind and even offered me a small toy soldier book authered by Édouard Pemzec the owner of CBG Mignot after we'd had a long discussion in French.
The euro is strong and so prices are expensive, still for the pleasure of having entered the shop I’d feel honnour bound to buy at least one figure. Below are some photos. Tomorrow I will mention two other soldier related places to visit.
Bye the way, when leaving the shop I recommend entering the gardens just to the right of the shop as you leave it. The gardens are beautiful.

I'll try for bigger photos tomorrow. I'm out of practice.

 

[Njja]

Looking forward to the larger photos!

 

[Russell]

The second important toy soldier shop in Paris is on the left bank and is called Au Plat d'Etain at 16 rue Guisarde, 75006. This shop also has many soldiers on display but not quite as many as at les Drapeaux de France. They have lots of CBG Mignot and quite a few Tradition sets. The internet site is http://auplatdetain.com/adf.aspx . The shop is near the metro station named Mabilon. It is south of le Boulevard Saint-Germain.

The phone number is 01 43 54 32 06. I don’t have any photos.

The next site I'll be mentioning is remarkable. Well, I thought it was.

 

[Russell]

Here are the photos now bigger. The glare is due to the store windows.

 

[Russell]

Still working on the circus photo.

 

[damian]

Mignot make some lovely figures which the Anglo Saxon World tends to ignore a bit.
Thank you for psoting these unique photographs.

 

[jazzeum]

Wish I'd known about this store when I was there. Thanks for the info Russell. Do you think your wife can ask me next time she has to go?

 

[Russell]

The purpose of this thread is to see that any forum members going to France not waste their time only seeing beautiful buildings, drinking good wines, and sipping coffee in outdoor coffee houses. There are important things to do. Tomorrow I'll write about l'Emperi.

My wife, ... well I'm an old fashioned kind of guy. All mine. Cheers.

 

[4th Hussar]

My wife, ... well I'm an old fashioned kind of guy. All mine. Cheers.[/QUOTE]

Right on my friend

 

[Capitolron]

Russell

Don't forget to stop in my favorite TOY SOLDIER SHOP IN PARIS !

TOYSOLDIERS Paris !

They are on 12 Rue Amelot - near the Bastille Monument - TEL : 01.47.00.00.20

It is a great shop and they sell lots of King & Country in there ! You can also pick up some of his SPECIAL EDITION figures that K&C has made for them.

Please tell Fred (Frederic Genard) - That CapitolRon says HELLO !

I LOVE PARIS - Can't wait to get back there one day !

Ron

 

[VIRIATO]

I've been to Paris at the end of March, first to Disneyland Paris (we took our 7 year old son there, lots of fun for both him and us) the last 2 days we stayed in Paris, but the TS shops were closed (weekend and Monday was returning day). Paris is really formidable, beautiful city and very friendly French people, no problems at all, I feel just like Ron, the more I go there the more I want to go back.


Paulo

 

[VIRIATO]

Oh, and the food, excellent, on mange trés bien à Paris, J'aime les bistrots....


Paulo

 

[Russell]

My next stop is le Musée de l'Empéri which is in Salon-en-Provence. Salon is near Avignon. You can’t miss the museum. It is in the citadel which sits at the top of the hill in the old town. The museum has hunderds of mannequins dressed in the various uniforms of French armies (not copies) in beautiful diorama settings. About 25 to 40 of the mannequins are horses. Also there are many different rifles and revolvers to be seen. There are some toy soldiers, but not many, maybe three or four hundred in one cabinet. The largest part of the collection covers the Napoleonic era, but other periods are also covered. It is one of the largest museums of its kind in the world. Last winter when I was there I was one of maybe three or four people visiting. So no crowds.
You can go to the following internet site ( In English ) http://emperi-museum.org/. There are photos and lots of information like the following which I lifted from the site … “With 27 rooms and nearly 150 display cabinets with over 120 full-size models including some twenty horsemen with complete equipment, Musée de l’Empéri presents a former private collection, assembled by Raoul and Jean Brunon, the largest of its kind in the world relating to the history of the French army from the end of the reign of Louis XIV to World War I.”

Tomorrow I will present my last soldier site in France. Unfortunately it's a private collection not open to the public. It's wonderful and unique. But more on that tomorrow.

Capitolron wrote

TOYSOLDIERS Paris !

They are on 12 Rue Amelot - near the Bastille Monument - TEL : 01.47.00.00.20

Thank you for the information. I'll include it in my next visit.

Below are a few photos of some displays at the museum.

 

[King's Man]

Musée de l'Empéri which is in Salon-en-Provence is an excellent museum. Although out of the way, it is well worth the trip.

King’s Man

 

[Russell]

Now to my final toy soldier destination in France. The curators of this private collection are the brothers Louis and Paul; my nephews as it so happens. They do not open their doors to the public. Sorry.
In the first photo you see me enjoying this unique moment with them.
In the second photo you see their use of videocassettes as material for castle building.
In the third and fourth photos you see that physically handicapped soldiers are welcomed. Frankly no one seems to notice.

 

[Russell]

In photo five we can see the intense focus of the players in wargaming. Note the use of children's books to construct fortifications.
In photo six we can note the expert use of a pirate book as a diorama setting for some Romans and knights.
In photo seven we see the use of Lego boxes as fortifications.
And finally in photo eight we see Paul with his personal army where soldiers from WWI, the Middle Ages, the Roman period, etcetera, all go at it together.

Following some intense war games I sat down to a coffee while they sipped their chocolate milk. Between sips Louis confided that at Christmas a relative had given him a 'real' store bought castle but that he preferred constructing his own. The 'real' one was put away for another day.

And so there it is, a private collection of two experts.

 

[thebritfarmer]

Wonderful Russell and how refreshing it is to see kids being kids and actually playing with toys and interacting with one another instead of stuck up in their rooms eyes glued to a monitor/tv screen.