Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac near the Eiffel Tower

May 22, 2019 — Day 13 (Wednesday)

Woke to sun again and it stayed that way. We took the Metro to Alma-Morceau and following one of Ed’s “Paris Walks” cards, walked along ave. du President Wilson until we got to the street market at rue des Frères Périer where we crossed and walked through the market which was really fun. I got lots of pictures! We checked the Palais Galliéra but it was closed for renovation. We passed the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (free), the Palais de Tokyo, the previously mentioned Palais Galliéra and continued down ave. Wilson to Musée Guinet but it didn’t look very appealing so we moved on to Place du Trocadéro to look for lunch. After we checked the menus, we chose Le Malakof. We had the 19 euro menu with crudité, roast chicken and dessert. I had ice cream and Ed got a crème caramel. Nice restaurant; nice lunch.[i] [Le Malakof Restaurant, 6 Place du Trocadéro and also at du 11 Novembre, tel: +33 (0)1 4553-7527; Click here for Le Malakof Restaurant
Click here for the Palais Galliéra web site
Click here for the Museum of Modern Art web site
Click here for the Musée Guimet web site

After lunch we crossed over to the Palais de Chaillot to take Eiffel Tower pictures, then through the gardens, past the Aquarium of Paris and down to Pont d’Iéna. We walked across the bridge dodging scammers and fellow tourists. They have built a glass wall around the Eiffel Tower and are directing everyone through the “East Entrance” that we did not bother looking for since we wanted to visit the new Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac.

We found the Branly with no trouble, passed security and bought combo tickets for their collection and the Oceania Special Exhibit. The permanent collection is presented as a circuit in a continuous manner on either side of a central aisle conceived to resemble a river. Going up a very long ramp from ticket check, there was a wonderful projected installation of a moving river of words, "The River" by Charles Sandison created for the museum in 2010 that contains 16,597 names of all the peoples and geographical places present in the museum's collections to accompany the flow of visitors. The entire museum is arranged to resemble a river so this gets you started on the river theme and you then follow the river upstream through the various exhibits. We walked and walked and walked and went back down the river of words to the Oceania Special Exhibit in which the outstanding work was a highly carved bright red Steinway concert grand piano. Some things just speak to you! Click here for the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac web site

Exhausted, we exited and walked back to Alma-Marceau Metro for the long ride home. Ed had mercy on me and did supper shopping while I transferred photos to my computer. The ladies at Saines Patisserie had our demi-blondie bagged and ready for him and asked where I was. I think we’ve officially moved into the neighborhood.