The tours began this morning near Bastille at the Maison de Victor Hugo. We were greeted at the gates by Stephanie Cantarutti, the curator of the photographic collections, who guided us up several flights of stairs to an area of the building that was once Victor Hugo’s apartment. There, neatly displayed on the table, were boxes of photographs that were taken either by Hugo himself or more likely taken by some other photographer under Hugo’s direction. There were other photographers represented in this collection as well, including a large group of albumen prints by Julia Margaret Cameron given by her as a gift to Victor Hugo. Additionally, there were sets of drawings by Hugo himself some with photographs included in the designs. Victor Hugo was a novelist and poet who later in life became very active in politics and in the struggle for social justice. When Napoleon III came to power in 1851 he declared Hugo a traitor of France. Fearing for his life, he exiled himself voluntarily for the next twenty years to Brussels, Jersey and Guernsey. It was during that time that Hugo commissioned many landscape photographs of these areas, all of which can be seen in the collection at the Maison de Victor Hugo.
After a light rain storm and a long lunch, we headed off to the Société Française de Photographie to view some of the most magnificent and rare photographs in all of the collections in France. Carole Troufléau, collection manager and the woman responsible for arranging all of our tours in Paris, graciously showed us these rare treasures, some of which were so fragile that most of the public might not ever get to see them. It was incredibly generous for her to offer us this unique opportunity to view these early photographic items. We saw one of the rare extant daguerreotypes made by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre himself as well as a couple of daguerreotype portraits of him. We also saw an album of Hippolyte Bayard’s test samples for his direct positive process from 1839 (an incredibly rare treat!). Many of the fellows spent time viewing the six or seven Lippmann early color plates that were on the table for our viewing. There were really just too many amazing images to see; 
including large collodion transfers on paper,
and an early three color carbon print by Ducos du Hauron with a full visual explanation of how it was made.
On Friday evening, the last official night in Paris, most of the Mellon Fellows met up for dinner and drinks with former ARP Fellow, Claire Buzit Tragni and her husband Florent.
We took a stroll around the area of Bastille before deciding on a dinner location that could accommodate our large group. We each enjoyed a lovely meal while having conversations about our time spent in Paris that week.
