So today i went to see the Institut Pasteur, which maintains as a museum the apartment where Louis Pasteur and his wife lived for the last 7 seven years of his life. The museum is restricted to three small tours a day, so arrive on time.
You must also present a valid photo ID and be issued a security card to enter the Institut grounds. Here's my ID which will also make a good souvenir.
This is the museum exterior. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside the museum, which includes a display of some of Pasteur's scientific instruments, the Pasteur's apartment and the crypt where Pasteur and his wife are buried. We had a very good guide, who was obviously proud of the Institute's work and Pasteur's accomplishments. She also told a touching story about when she started working there in the early 80's and how the isolation/infectious disease wards, which had been quite underused, suddenly were called into service again during the early years of the AIDS crisis. She said they were quite busy until drug therapies began to be used in the early 90's. Now they have been converted to laboratories. The Pasteur Institute is where the HIV virus was first isolated in 1983. Pasteur's tomb, modeled on the mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna celebrates his accomplishments in the vaccination for rabies and anthrax, and the pasteurization of beer.
Pasteur was also a talented portraitist as a young man, and several of his original works, including portraits of his parents hang in the apartment. Also in the neighbourhood you can drink some beer at the Cafe Pasteur. Cheers Louis!
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