In the commune of Lilas (93), a somewhat special museum invites you to discover the world of Vampires and Monsters of the imagination!
Attention, lovers of the Dracula story and other fantasmagoric gargoons, there is an address in the Paris region where the world of vampires seems to have found itself: the Museum of Vampires and Monsters of the Imaginary. Small incursion in this museum museum Out of the ordinary, and for the least strange...
A uncommon place
You like chills, you like having chicken flesh? You can quickly find yourself in a museum of the most disturbing and fantastic, that of the author Jacques Sirgent, specialist in Anglo-Saxon Gothic Literature.
This passionate about legends, history and magic, fantastic and vampire history offers visitors to discover the universe of vampires for 1h30 during an improvised conference. The museum takes place more from the cabinet of curiosities installed in an old family home.
Photo credit: Atlas Obscura
It is in this place, this alcove could be said, that the most mysterious visitors are invited to unusual visits where a kit of protection against vampires dating from the 19th century is crossed in bulk, countless works on the world of vampires including the famous "Dracula" from Bram Stoker that he translated for the Flammarion editions but also paintings, movie posters, masks, dedicated photos and many other strange, curious, intriguing and even scary things that it would be impossible to see elsewhere.
In the Age of Mal
What interests the author Jacques Sirgent is the concept of monster, metaphor, legend behind the vampire. For him, the monster and the vampire reflect a certain image of a Puritan society in the 19th century and some codes are still current according to him.
Photo credit: Atlas Obscura
The vampire is a legend that has existed for over 450,000 years, when the Neandertal man painted the skeletons of his congeners with a red pigment. This legend is related to blood but also to the first night fears, witchcraft and repression during the centuries that followed.
Jacques Sirgent does not wish to frighten his visitors, on the contrary, he wishes to dispel this fear by bringing some explanations to the roots of evil, especially with the alleged existence of vampires. Legends like those of the vampire have always allowed the general public to apprehend an environment to be less afraid of it and Jacques Sirgent simply wishes, in great connoisseur and expert of the question, to show us that the creatures of the night and our imagination exist to better understand our own fears.
Photo credit: Atlas Obscura
An unusual museum
Innumerable objects and bibelots cut all the corners of the Museum of Vampires and Imaginary Monsters. Here and there is a personal collection that would give chills to anyone with a bat kept under glass, rows of ancient books on evil, dolls, and some sympathetic oddities like an anti-vampire crossbow or pieces collector like the (so-called) writing machine by Bram Stoker, a metal stake, a mercury fiber, a mirror and a prayer book, etc.
Photo credit: Aventours.co
Some pieces were punctuated by the collector himself, whether on the market at the Puces in Montreuil or on the Internet, and others were directly recovered at the cemetery of Father Lachaise (e.g., mummified cat or tree trunk that contains a woman profile).
How to visit the Vampires Museum?
If the fantastic adventure in the country of vampires seduces you, don’t hesitate to visit the Musée des Vampires et des Monstres de l’Imaginaire aux Lilas (93), 14 rue Jules David (Metro: Porte or Mairie des Lilas stations (line 11 ). The price of the entrance is 8 euros. Each afternoon, you will be able to attend a conference-visit with debate on the origin of vampires and their history as a general rule.
It would even be possible – if you show yourself deserving – to enjoy a cocktail Dracula or Bathory with the master of the place, quietly installed in the purple salon or in its Gothic garden.
Main photo credit: Aventours.co
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