For our last day in Paris, we went to another museum, the Musee du quai Branly, which features indigenous art, cultures and civilizations from non-western countries. Once again, we entered a world of wonder and delight, which I have seldom experienced in museums. They have a river of words that is projected onto a wide, circular ramp that takes visitors up to the second floor. The "river" moves downward, words colliding as they rush along. They meander from side to side and visually flow down the ramp, sometimes splashing up the sides, providing a visual effect of water. The words include place names, names of cultures around the world, and words of geographical things (like "island" and "mountain") . It feels alive and draws visitors upward, beckoning us to find the source (the words start dribbling out from underneath a ceiling and down a wall). We were enchanted.
The whole design and placement of the exhibits was wonderful, drawing us from one thing to the next in a very creative way and giving us a feeling like we were exploring. We spent most of our time at the Oceania collection-- gorgeous carved items and clothing and masks. We also saw a fascinating exhibit on tattoos--the history and styles of tattoos throughout the world. Spent a wee bit of time in an exhibit about the Tiki craze in the USA in the 1950's. By that time we had reached our physical limit of 2 hours and were tired but so sad to leave.
We spent our farewell to Paris evening doing classic Paris things--a dinner cruise on the Seine and then a show at the Moulin Rouge. What a great way to end our visit. And yes, the show was quite spectacular.
So now we go back to Amsterdam on the high-speed train, spend a couple of days there eating pancakes and trying to get all our purchases into our suitcases, and finally head for home after 5 weeks of traveling. It has been a great trip and something of a Grand Tour, although that was not the intention when we started. As often happens when traveling, it just turned out that way.
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