Open Monday Tuesdayand Wednesday from 2 00 p

style henri ii, coffered ceilings, walls lined with blue cloth embroidered flowers of lys over gold, Museum-workshop is a series of fans gathered over time by four generations Hoguet. Majestic, extravagant, discreet, Golden fine gold, in lace, silk, feathers and sequins of money. One thousand two hundred pieces available to view. This room, preserved in the State and classified a historical Monument, is imbued with the history of Parisian éventaillistes. In the 19th century, the Ernest House Kees, purchased in 1960 by Joseph Hoguet to form his daughter Anne, organized the first exhibitions on this fashion accessory. Ladies urged to discover the last fans in vogue, with which they earmarking their wardrobe before fan in their lodges at the Opera. It is not far away, on the Grands Boulevards, that Anne Hoguet has installed his workshop then the Museum has created. Today, it restores the fans of a few rare collectors and makes for Opera, theatre, cinema, but for the great couturiers also. Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Dior, Christian Lacroix, Nina Ricci and Karl Lagerfeld - great amateur of the accessory - are the last holder of this expertise.

In the workshop, patterns of fans piled on wooden tables, the fabrics are carefully stored below. Silk taffeta, organza, satin, lace in Calais in delicate patterns will be used to mount the "leaf" of the range. Some models, most eccentric, consist only of peacock feathers, ostrich, cock and Swan. Large wooden boxes, already used the time of the great-grandfather of Anne which had established a workshop in 1876 in Oise, the frames in tortoiseshell, mother-of-Pearl White bones of beef and exotic wood waiting wisely. They form the backbone of the range. On a desk in arc of a circle, Anne Hoguet manufactures its patterns. A first pencil drawing just define the major features of the ground. On the sheet of thin flakes or lace will be attached to varnish or sewn. Tower to Tower painter, lace-making and embroidery, Anne Hoguet manufactures fans from their design to the finishing touches. The pleating is done using a mold. Probably the most delicate stage. "It is not only a face or otherwise falls into the edge or the hollow of a fold." On a table, a few sketches for the latest film by Sofia Coppola on Marie-Antoinette are small vignettes of the Court of Versailles. Before delivering a few secrets, Anne Hoguet presents its last restoration: a magnificent range painted by Renoir that his descendants had brought in pitiful condition.

Invented by a Japanese craftsman

"The range has its mysteries, no one knows where it is apparent, but can be traced its history to the domestication of fire by man." In China, Egypt, India or Greece it protects the sovereigns of the flies. The first fans were as "screens" that could close. "According to legend, the range folded, said"broken"is invented in the 7th century by a Japanese craftsman, following the observation of the flapping wings of a bat, which is water and is deployed", she whispers, walking on the floor grinding of his Museum. "The Portuguese have made known in Europe range in 1540, on their return from the Japan." But it's to Marie de Médicis, after her marriage to Henri IV, that is to be his France mode.

Amused, Anne Hoguet continues with a few anecdotes on the language of the range. "In Spain, in the 19th century, a woman covered her mouth with his range while watching a man, if that she sent him a kiss." If it placed him against his chest, this meant that it was free. But if she was waving him violently, this indicated that should not be the covet.

Workshop Hoguet-Museum of the range

2, boulevard de Strasbourg, 75010 Paris.

Tel.: 01 42 08 19 89.

Open Monday, Tuesday

and Wednesday from 2: 00 p.m.

6 p.m. (except holidays and August).