Handy QR Codes for Paris Buses and Museums

QR codes are a handy way to visit Paris. The Paris transportation system (RATP) uses the code at the bus stops. The Arts and Decoratifs Museum uses the codes for some of their exhibits. Two QR code readers available for my smart phone are Mobiletag and QRReader.

Bus stops post the time before the next bus. It is rare to find a stop without this service. Look for the QR code on the sign. You will be taken to the RATP site for the next two arrival times.

Until January 5, 2014 at the Musée des Arts décoratifs, bring your smartphone with a QR code app. Using the QR code and the museum’s WiFi to tour the exhibit “Trompe-l’œil, Imitations, pastiches et autres illusions” (click on the UK flag for English). The explanation of objects on display comes up in both French and English with a photo. Save the information and read again later. This is a “thumbs up” exhibition. You will never look at linoleum the same ever again! and you may learn about the origin of toilet-related phrases of sitting on the stool.

Use the code from home
I took some photographs of the exhibition codes, held my phone up to my computer at home and it works! I could re-visit the highlights.

The museum is one of four museums and learning centers taking part in the QR code experiment. The five include Les Arts décoratifs, Le Pays d’art et d’histoire de la vallée de la Dordogne lotoise, Le Cube, Le Clavim, Issy Média, Le musée français de la Carte à jouer.

After a visit to the exhibition you will look at displays in the Arts décoratifs and other museums with a new eye. Lion heads on chair feet jump out at you. Fish swimming on plates almost look alive and that face in the mirror is just an illusion.

And if you don’t know when that next bus is coming, whip out the smartphone. More and more, Paris is using QR codes.

[Qr]iosité is a software technology used to automatically update information using QR codes.

Slideshow of the exhibit from the Musée des Arts décoratifs

Photo gallery virtual or should I say trompe l’œil visit ….

Fish in a basket, Auguste Chauvigné (1829-1904) Tours, @1890

Reptiles on a plate Trompe l’Œil example at Musée des Arts décoratifs

Trompe l’œil Fish on a plate, Édouard Avisseau (1831-1911) Tours, 1870

Tabouret d’aisance – tabouret d’affaires-Tabouret d’aisance – tabouret d’affaires The stool was a low seat upon which an accused would sit for interrogation. Thus, the expression “to be put on the hot seat” or also a reference to a toilet activity. © Les Arts Décoratifs / Photo : Jean Tholance

One of a pair of Neo-Grec vases, Maison F. Barbedienne, signed Ferdinand Levillain (1837-1905), Paris 1878 with goat feet

Porcelaine tea pot (théière) Manufacture royale de Sèvres 1833, belonged to the King Louis-Philippe

Oak and leather bidet signed Simon Oeben (d. 1786) France from the Château de Chanteloup and belonged to the Duke of Penthièvre

Table set with Trompe l’oeil of vegetables-Ceramic terrines, bowls, vegetable dishes, pots, plates from Belgium, German, Holland, France (1745-1790)

Lark mirror (hysteria) trompe l’œil lying down with lark on handle – held up a face is visible in the glass

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