Metro : Trocadero
The Trocadero area, made up of the Place du Trocadero and terraced
gardens, is dominated by the Palais de Chaillot. Built in 1937 for the
Exposition Universelle, it's a rather ugly building, in sober
Neoclassical style. The central terrace between its two wings has been
kept clear, forming a perfect frame for the Eiffel Tower beyond. The
vast building houses the radical Theatre National de Chaillot and four
museums, only two of which are currently visitable, the Musee de
l'Homme
and the Musee de la Marine. Damage from a fire in 1996 closed the Musee
du Cinema Henri Langlois, for which a permanent home has still
to be found. The Musee des Monuments Français has been closed
for renovation and will form part of a planned "Cite de l'Architecture
et du Patrimoine", a vast architectural information resource center.
Musee de l'Homme
The Musee de l'Homme examines the origins, cultures,
languages and genetics of humans, from "Lucy", the Australopithecus
afarensis who roamed Ethiopia roughly 3,2 million years ago, to the
present day. In 2002, however, a large section of the
museum's collection has been uprooted and transferred to a brand new
museum on quai Branly, the other side of the river.
Musee de la Marine
Sharing the
southern wing of the Musee de l'Homme, the Musee de la Marine displays
beautiful models of French ships, ancient and modern, warring and
commercial.
East of Trocadero
As you head east and downhill from Trocadero, you'll
find a handful of museums all within a stone's throw of each other. The
first, on Place d'Iena, is the Musee National des Arts Asiatiques -
Guimet. It features a huge and exquisite collection of arts from China,
India, Japan, Tibet and Southeast Asia, and much more of the collection
will be on display in the future. The original core of the collection,
which the art collector, Emile Guimet, brought back from his
travels in Asia in 1876, is exhibited nearby in the small and
attractive Musee du Pantheon Bouddhique, at 19 Avenue d'Iéna. At
the back of the museum is a small japanese garden, complete with
bamboo, pussy willow and water.
The Palais de
Tokyo, a contemporary of the Palais de
Chaillot, is a short way east of the Pantheon Bouddhique, its entrance
on avenue du President Wilson. The east wing houses the Musee d'Art
Moderne de la Ville de Paris whose outstanding permanent
collection of twentieth-century art includes Dufy's enormous
mural la Fee Electricite, the pale leaping figures of Matisse's The
Dance and Robert and Sonia Delaunay's huge whirling wheels and cogs of
rainbow color. The west wing of the Palais de Tokyo is a Site de
Creation Contemporaine, a space devoted to the promotion of
contemporary
art which promises interesting temporary exhibitions. Opposite the
Palais de Tokyo, set in small gardens at 10 avenue Pierre 1er de
Serbie, stands the grandiose Palais Galliera, home to the Musee de la
Mode et du Costume. The museum's collection of clothes and fashion
accessories from the eighteenth century to the present day is exhibited
in temporary, themed shows. There are two or three per year - during
changeovers the museum is closed.
Across the Seine
from the Palais de Tokyo, on quai
Branly, the temporary structures of the Espace Eiffel-Branly, host
to international trade fairs, occupy a space which is to be transformed
under Jean Nouvel, architect of the Institut du Monde Arabe, into a
purpose-built museum housing the collections from the Musee de
l'Homme's ethnography department and the Musee des Arts d'Afrique et
d'Océanie. The new museum is open since 2004. In the
meantime, a showcase for the museum has been put together and is being
exhibited in the Louvre in the pavillon des Sessions.
