Tag: Museums

My Recent Trip to Paris: Cultural Highlights

I have recently returned from my trip to Paris, France and am sharing my highlights. Though the big attraction of my trip was the Musée de Cluny, there are some smaller, “off-the-beaten track” museums in Paris that I have also always wanted to visit, and I present two of them at the end of my post.

Musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris @ Thoughts on Papyrus.
  • Musée de Cluny

Address: 28 Rue du Sommerard, Latin Quarter, Paris; Metro: Cluny – La Sorbonne. Admission: Ticketed.

The Museum of the Middle Ages is one of the largest collections of medieval art and artefacts in Europe, and is located in the former town-house of the Abbots of Cluny, which also has elements of Gallo-Roman ruins. It has medieval sculptures, tapestries, metal-work, carvings, religious, household and war items, and stained-glass examples on displays. My highlight was, of course, The Lady and the Unicorn series of tapestries, which I have wanted to see for a long time. The beautiful tapestries, with elegant depictions of animals and plants, were woven in the late fifteenth century, and each represents one of the five human senses: touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste. The sixth tapestry, titled A mon seul désir, is said to represent the sixth sense of the heart or intuition.

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A Trip to London’s Anthropological Museum 

I have recently visited the Horniman Museum & Gardens in Forest Hill, London. This is a museum established in 1901 and dedicated to anthropology and natural history. It is situated in a quiet, leafy area of London, and also boasts extensive gardens and an aquarium. Below are my highlights from this trip, with some excursions-snippets into topics and themes I found the most interesting.

  • The World Gallery section of the museum is probably the most jaw-dropping, presenting various cultures through different elaborate displays of artefacts. I was drawn to learning about the cultures of people living in the Himalayan mountains, Africa, and North and South America. For example, it was interesting for me to find out more about the Wai-wai and Tuareg people. The Wai-wai are indigenous people of Guyana and northern Brazil. They nurture their children to become “real human beings” by sharing food, time and love. For them, “a real human is someone balanced, calm and beautiful, and knowledgeable about the world”.
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A Trip to Venice I: Cultural Highlights

“Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.” Truman Capote

This August I went to Venice and Venetian Riviera for my holidays, and below I am sharing some of the cultural highlights from my trip.

I. Piazza San Marco

I started my excursion with the Piazza San Marco, probably the world’s most famous town square, bordered by the Doge’s Palace and Basilica San Marco. The tall bell tower is the Campanile, constructed in 1912, since the original collapsed in 1902. The famous Café Florian (which some say is the most expensive café in the world) can also be found on this square, once being a host to a diverse literary clientele, including Stendhal, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas Moore, Charles Dickens and Henry James.

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3 Quirky Museums of Brussels

As with my series of “bookshops” posts (Paris, Brussels, London), I thought it was also the time to conclude my series of “quirky museums” posts (see my previous posts “3 Quirky Museums of Paris” and “3 Quirky Museums of London“). I think Brussels is the city to go if you love museums, and there are some 80 museums in the city to choose from. The city frequently hosts Museum Night Fevers and Brussels Museums Nocturnes (when museums are open until 10 p.m.), and it is also good to know that, while there are both paid and free museums, the majority of the prominent ones are free the first Wednesday (or Sunday) afternoon of every month. Whether you are a fan of Belgian surrealism (Magritte Museum) or the comic strip (Belgian Comic Strip Center), want to know more about dinosaurs (Museum of Natural Sciences), or interested in Brussels’ history (Brussels City Musuem) or its beer (Beer Museum), there is a museum for every taste and interest.  

museum mimI. Museum of Musical Instruments 

This very central museum is in a stunning Art Nouveau-style building and boasts some magnificent views as seen from its top floor. This unique three-floor museum is a host to some 7000 musical instruments that come from different historical periods and continents. From familiar musical instruments to some very exotic musical objects, the museum is bound to surprise, and the great thing about it is that the visitor experience will be interactive: through an audio-guide/headphones provided, one can actually listen how some of the instruments on display sound like or sounded like. Overall, this museum is a great place to go for those interested in music (who isn’t?) and would like to find more about the diversity of musical instruments, and the history of music. There is also a shop on the premises that sells music-related gifts and souvenirs.   Continue reading “3 Quirky Museums of Brussels” →