Museum of French History

From the book “Come and Eat with Me: The Passion of Yann Legendre”

by Ariane James-Sarazin, Director of Culture and Education, French National Archives and Museum of French History, Paris

When people think of “National Archives,” the image that often comes to mind is that of an old man or an old woman, wearing broken glasses and dressed in prudish clothes. They think of the very image of people who the young queen, Marie-Antoinette—if she were alive today—would avoid in order to spend time with a more hip crowd, who would all be dressed by the trend-setting designers of the day. Just a few years ago, the graphic design image of the Archives resembled this stereotypical old person living in a now-defunct era—as if you had to look sad and uninteresting to be serious, rigorous and thoughtful. This is not who we wanted to be.

With Yann Legendre, the communication team of the French Museum of History has sought to prove that one can convey the characteristics of seriousness and reliability, while acting in a more subtle, humoristic and lively way. We do this in order to achieve what French author, Antoine Vittez would have called “taste for all”.

Of course, our National Archive has the right to be beautiful. Oui, she deserves it! By conveying a written testimony of the past that looks contemporary and full of life, we can help establish a very important dialogue between today’s cultures. This dialogue is open to anyone, no matter which community they belong to, which studies they have followed, where they come from, or which God or divinity they believe in. And acting as a cultural ambassador means no betrayal of the past, no vulgarity or “shock” marketing.

For our vision, we met the right person. He embodies the dreams of our whole team in his own artistic sense & sensibilities. Yann Legendre is an artist with whom we have created exceptional and excellent things, despite the rather incongruous way our administration deals with graphic design. Yann creates works of art that truly portray French history: a visual identity, many exhibition catalogs (each of them unique and perfectly crafted, with beautiful fonts, custom papers, incredible pictures, etc.) and, all in all, many gems (like Place Vendome’s) for anyone who wants to have a footprint of French history in their own library.

Our meeting and subsequent collaborative relationship, which has always been about the exchange of ideas, gives us a true sense of how we all belong to the same community—the one which believes that in this globalized and standardized world, we can still dream of something “unique”.