Rodin Museum

Helene wanted to take it easy on Tuesday, June 8, and perhaps find Ben's recipe book at a bookstore. I set off to see the Musee Rodin, which is housed in a mansion and surrounded by a large walled garden.

Rodin is mostly known for his rough-hewn figures with clumps of clay sticking onto the bodies, as if he hadn't quite had time to smooth out the rough edges. The museum, however, showed more of his earlier work in which he created idealized human bodies, much like those of the ancient Greeks.

The afternoon I visited, two groups of young schoolchildren were sitting before statues of young, beautiful lovers. I was struck by the children's maturity. They were perhaps 9 or 10 years old. Unlike American kids who would have been snickering at the woman's breasts or the man's penis, these kids were unfazed. I hearkened back to a visit to the Laguna Beach (Calif.) Museum of Art some months ago, when the docent informed Aaron and me that the schoolchildren were "protected" from the nude paintings, not allowed to view them. And here were these French kids taking in the splendor of larger-than-life sculptures, already understanding that the body is not shameful and that sex is a natural component of life. What a different approach to raising and educating children!