A visit to: Musee du Fumeur

[Puros Y Vino]

Yesterday afternoon was rainy in Paris. We went for a bit of a trek to a shopping district and then settled for lunch at a cafe. Fortunately for me, there was something of interest nearby.

I found this place Musee du Fumer . It looked like a little smoke shop with an entrance to the back where the museum was. I noticed there wasn't a lot of cigar items covered other than what I saw at the entrance. I asked the guy working there how much cigar content there was and he told me it was all in the front area and that I was free to browse.

So below are some photos of the "cigar" content. A bit disappointing but not a waste of time as it would seem.

Some interesting bands and items.

A see through humidor with some very old looking, unsmokeable cigars. One of which is a Cuban Henry Clay.

While that was about it for the cigar portion of the museum there was a great selection of cigar related books for sale. Some of them in English, the majority in French. So I picked up a few choice goodies.

First off. A CD-ROM. Yes CD-ROM on Cuban cigars, packaged nicely in a cigar box package. He practically gave it away to me given it's age.

Some details on the back.

Found this great book on cigar label art. Very little if any Cuban representation, but still a great book.

Circa 2005, a Gerard Per et Fils publication. Lots of great pictures in this one.

There were dozens of other French only books available, many of which were tempting but I'd have trouble really enjoying them. My French reading ability is pretty basic. Some cool books he showed me were cookbooks and recipes for cigar pairings. Another book dealt with wine/cigar pairings. Great photos and some recipes too. One last item I was treated to was a cigar scent kit. Similar to a wine tasting kit, this one contained 6 bottles the size of Testors model paint bottles. Each one was numbered and you had to guess what each scent was. Among the scents were Leather, musk, moss, wet earth, burnt caramel and pepper. I did guess 4/6 though. I associate some of these more with taste than scent though. And "moss" IMO is a better descriptor for Scotch.

So, that was our little visit. The actual museum part holds little cigar content but the trip was worth it for the deals on the books.

[bolivr]

Thanks for sharing. A very interesting place that I haven't heard of before

[Squarehead]

Fantastic Frank.I'm glad that you're having a good time.

[ebhead]

Very Cool, and very interesting, Frank...Hope the vacation is going well...

Have a great one!!!

[cottierm]

Excellent Frank! You should come to my office some days to have a look at my own collection of books on CC (it has grown massively over the years).

Have you tried Art Tabac, 2 Place de la Catalogne? I'd like to have your views on this shop.

All the best,

Michel

[dicko]

Nice pick ups, those books look like good light reading for your holiday. Enjoy botl

[CaptainQuintero]

Cool!

I love the ' UWANTA' band! It should be brought back, have a question mark added to the end and put on the BHKs