Showcasing Paris: A museum tour

"The whole city is a museum, it is so old," Pierre tells us when we tell him that the tourist guides list some 100-odd museums in Paris. "But if you're going to see even five of them, I suggest you buy the museum pass to dodge the long queues at the museums' gates," he recommends. Since Pierre's a good guide and a very warm host, we take his suggestions seriously. It's 48 euros for a four-day pass. We pay for two.

Art with a difference at Centre Pompidou

At Centre Pompidou's National Museum for Modern Art the pass helps us get through the gates with ease. We take the escalator to the fourth floor of the giant glass-and-tube building that resembles more a children's theme park than a museum that hosts over 60,000 works of modern and contemporary art. At the entrance of the museum are two giant doll-like structures made from PoP and wires. We know what to expect. It's modern art after all. Since neither of us know anything about modern art or artists we choose to present ourselves as mere tourists instead of admirers of a white line cutting across a black canvas who wait for the painting to 'speak to them'.

We move through the paintings quickly and head towards the installations and sculptures that we find more exciting - shadow play with ropes, statues made of toothpaste tubes and glasstop tables with bicycle wheels for legs. We marvel at the eccentricity and the creativity till we reach a tent-like structure that asks you to step inside. We watch a man, standing under a lazer-beam sweeping the floor. Like the Japanese tourists, we stand in rapt attention, trying to figure what the installation is telling us. Labour or discrimination, we think. Then the man steps out and we see his badge. Damn! He was actually sweeping the floor!

The theme of most of the artworks revolves around sex and women. There's a whole section devoted just to the female reproductive system that evokes giggles from schoolkids on tour. A giant poster talks of discrimination between the sexes in fields of art. "Only 3 per cent of the artists are women while 80 per cent of nudes are all women," it says.

Mona Lisa and Egyptian Sphinx at Louvre

The Louvre's a different experience altogether. In the courtyard, we find people of every race, religion and colour. French Africans selling Eiffel Tower key chains, Indian and Pakistani immigrants selling bottles of water, Spanish and Mexican tourists herding their kids towards the entrance to the museum. The pass allows us to skip the serpetine queue straight into the entrance where we go for the baggage checks. They allow us the camera, but we're told not to use the flash. We comply. We decide to go straight in without the multimedia hand-guides. The Louvre boasts of many tourists, the displays will have English titles, we think. A few moments into the section that displays remnants of the Louvre fort, and we're proved wrong. It's all French. We need our guides. We head back with a map. It's impossible to see the whole museum in a day. We opt for sections of intest to us - Egyptian relics, paintings and Greco-Roman sculptures.


At the entrance we see the giant Sphinx. The Japanese tourists get into a frenzied photo-clicking activity. There are a couple of flashes. But not many seem to mind.

We make our way through the relics of the pharaohs and Greco-Roman sculptures, including a headless Athena (the guide doesn't tell us how the head came apart though there's a picture of the head alongside the statue) to the paintings of Giovanni Bellini, Leonardo Da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Verrocchio and Michelangelo. We look forward to the signages for La Joconde or the Mona Lisa.


Finally we find her, surrounded by tourists from all over the world who look as happy as pilgrims who've found their God. She looks small. The painting's the size of an ordinary portrait, dwarfed by the huge canvasses that adorn the walls of the hall. For a few Bengali tourists, the tour of Louvre stops at this masterpiece. Their tour bus is waiting. We take our pictures and move to the French Renaissance. After four hours, there are two more sections left - the Mesopotamian and European history. It's impossible to finish in a day. We hope for a next time.

Winding through the Musée des égouts de Paris

In a city that boasts of art and history, sewers make for unlikely display. Not so, think the French.


Sewers have been draining wastewater in Paris since the beginning of the 13th Century, when the city's streets were paved and drains were built on orders from Philippe Auguste, the king of France from 1180 to 1223. Covered sewers were introduced during the reign of Napoléon Bonaparte, and today's network of more than 2,100 km of sewer tunnels was begun in 1850. The sandstone tunnels carry drainwater from the streets, sanitary sewers (now in separate pipes), mains for drinking water and the water used for streetcleaning, telecommunications cables, pneumatic tubes between post offices, and (or so one assumes) the occasional rat.

A fresco on the sewer wall!

Until recent times, the Paris sewers also carried tourists: initially by carts that were suspended from the walkways along the tunnel walls, later by carriages drawn by a small locomotive, and--until the 1970s--in boats.

Today, the carts and boats are gone, having been replaced by an even better attraction: the Musée des égouts de Paris, or Paris Sewers Museum. This museum of the Mairie de Paris is located in the sewers beneath the Quai d'Orsay on the Left Bank, and it's a "must see" destination for any visitor who's interested in engineering, public works, or unusual tourist attractions -- and for fans of Victor Hugo's novel, Les Misérables.

For those used to the smell of the Mahim Creek, this one's an easy walk. And if you think you just pictures are not good enough to treasure, you can pick up some rat memorabilia too!

Gowns, lace and pearls at the Musée de la Mode et du Textile

That the world's fashion capital will have a museum for textiles doesn't come as a surprise. That it would be tucked into one corner of the Louvre, does. Had Pierre not been around, it would have been difficult for us to figure this one. Luckily we reached just before it closed for the day at 6pm (most monuments and museums close at 5pm in Paris).


The museum houses over 16,000 costumes going from the 16th century to modern times. In addition, it has some 35,000 fashion accessories and 30,000 pieces of fabric – in all, 81,000 items illustrating the evolution of clothing from the Régence period in France to the present day, along with the development of the textile industry since the 14th century.

The museum shows theme collections which change each year - costumes, accessories from the 17th century to the 21st century, textiles, important works by grand couturiers of the 20th century, silk, cloth, lace, braid, and embroidery.

The gowns and the jewellery are beautiful but what really brings out their colours and richness is the way they've been displayed and the lighting that brings a sparkle to the diamonds. Wish Indian museums would take note.

Travel tips

• The museum pass allows you access to 60 national monuments and museums so it's good that you buy one especially if you don't want to spend hours in queues. Besides, the information guide with the pass also tells you which museums are closed for repairs.
• Paris' museums and monuments are huge. That means you have to walk. Heels aren't the best bet. Take a look at the locals who choose sneakers and boots instead of fashionable stilettos.
• Don't use the flash on your camera unless it is allowed.