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.mheu, Historical Museum of the Urban Environment

Powerful and immaterial

On earth as it is in heaven

Taming fire

Quest for Fire

The raw and the cooked

Roasting, frying, grilling, boiling and braising

Household arts

It's Winter, light the fire!

Heating the artist's workshop

Adding fuel to the fire

From earthenware jug to fridge

Alchemy

Vulcan's forges

Magic of transparency

The Candelabra's luster

The electricity fairy

City lights

The steam horse

Boom!

3, 2, 1...blastoff!

Fear in the city

Caught in the cross fire

Auto-da-fé

Show me a sign

Witches and the stake

Up in smoke

Saint John's bonfires

Like a great sun

One last bouquet

The steam horse

Though steam's power has been known since Antiquity, it was not mastered until much later, thanks in part to Denis Papin, inventor of the first piston engine in 1690. Harnessed for rail, its efficiency earned it enormous success by the dawn of the 19^th century.

"Let Parisians have it for their amusement, but it will never carry a single passenger or package."

So intoned the ineffable Adolphe Thiers the day before the first French rail line was inaugurated in August 1837. A few years later, in a speech to the French parliament, he changed his tune and stated:

"Gentlemen, in 1838, as now, I favored building a large rail line that would cover every inch of France. That was the opinion I intended to profess with my honorable friend, Count Jaubert. An indisposition prevented me from doing so. It was always and ever my opinion; I have come to assert it today..."

That's what you call jumping on the bandwagon!

Locomotives became cult objects, from the "Stephenson rocket," the first modern locomotive clocked at 50 kilometers an hour, to the "Pacific 231." Steam trains would become the leading means of ground transportation until the widespread adoption of the automobile in the fifties.

The invention of souffléd potatoes

The train for the Paris/Saint-Germain-en-Laye line inaugurated on August 28, 1837 by Queen Marie-Amélie—Louis Philippe's advisors having dissuaded him from taking part in such a hazardous expedition—was late.

A meal was planned for the travelers on the train's arrival and the chef had already started cooking his potatoes. But the guests were late and he removed them from the frying oil, dropping them back in when the latecomers finally put in an appearance. To his astonishment, the potatoes puffed up and became light and crispy. They were a great success at the royal table.

Bébert and Slow Train

Made in 1963 following the success of "War of the Buttons" (10 million tickets!), "Bébert and the Train" was also built on the lively nature of "little Gibus"—alias Martin Lartigue, now a fine arts painter—in the title role.

It features a constellation of actors, including Pierre Mondy, Jean Richard, Jean Lefebvre, Michel Serrault, Yves Robert, Christian Marin, Pierre Tornade and a young Jacques Higelin. The film is based on a novel by screenwriter François Boyer and recounts the peregrinations of Bébert, left behind in a suburban train by his older brother Tiennot (J. Higelin). What follows is a frenzied night during which good-natured French rail employees keep an eye on Bébert while his brother and father (Jean Richard) search for him separately.

Though not a masterpiece, the film is nonetheless funny and touching, thanks mainly to the acting of little Gibus and of Jacques Higelin, who nails the character of a beatnik adolescent pickup artist.

Yves Robert

Born in 1920 in Saumur, actor, screenwriter, director and producer Yves Robert started his working life as a typographer. His career as an actor began in 1948 and he quickly moved into directing.

His first major success was an adaptation of Louis Pergaud's novel "War of the Buttons," which he wrote, directed and produced and that sold nearly 10 million tickets. A tireless worker, Robert appeared in almost 60 films, directed more than 20 and acted and directed in the theater. Specializing in comedy, he had a number of major box office hits, such as "Very Happy Alexander" and "The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe", followed by "An Elephant Can Be Extremely Deceptive", "My Father's Glory" to name just a few. He also produced several Pierre Richard films. Yet Robert was perfectly capable of changing registers, as he did for the Claude Sautet movie "A Bad Son".

He died in Paris in 2002 and the inscription on his tombstone at the Montparnasse cemetery reads: "Yves Robert, un homme de joie" (Yves Robert, a Man of Joy).

.Fire

The steam horse