Musee Marmottan - Paris, France

Musee Marmottan is one of my favorites, not in Paris, but in the world. In the former hunting lodge of the Duke of Valmy (today located close to the Bois de Boulogne, in an elegant residential neighborhood), you can enjoy more than 60 paintings by Claude Monet, the world's largest collection of the famous impressionist. Monet wanted to paint something different, not what you see with your eyes, but what you feel. And he succeeded. He is the Master among the Masters.

In the Marmottan there is never too many people, especially when you compare with the huge crowd visiting Paris museums. Even if you are in Paris for a short weekend, you can still visit the Marmottan. It won't take you more than an hour or so. Of course, one can spend hours just sitting in front of the Waterlilies. No photos are allowed and every sign is strictly in French.

Inside: My suggestion is to go straight downstairs, where you can admire most of the collection in the same room. I got lost in front of the two London, The Parliament works (especially the sunset one) and I always get chills facing the famous Impression, Soleil Levant (the painting that gave the name to the movement Impressionism). Strawstuck is such an exercise in light and shadow through colors, while two of the numerous facades of the Cathedral de Rouen are real masterpieces. There is a lovely early Monet painting of a house reflected in a traditional way on water, when the Master was still drawing the line of the horizon. And then the series of Japanese bridges and Waterlilies from his garden in Giverny. Go close and you will see just layers of colors. The step back and squeeze your eyes, you will see the bridge surrounded by weeping willows. Magnifique!

On the upper level there some more Waterlilies. Here you can also admire the excellent work of Berthe Morisot. Undervalued for over a century, possibly because she was a woman, she should be considered among the top Impressionist painters. Her work focuses on domestic life, is fluid, 'legere', and colorful. Then, you should spend few more minutes strolling around the main rooms of the house which containts the original furniture. When you leave the museum, try to imagine this house in the wood with stags and deers running around, and the Duke’s party on horses ready for the hunting day. Not that hard, is it? (Last visited 10/2008)

Milwaukee Art Museum - Milwaukee, United States

The Milwaukee Art Museum has become a symbol of modern Milwaukee thanks to the eye-catching Quadracci Pavilion, designed by Santiago Calatrava in 2001. It is pure Calatrava! Modern, bright, white steel and glass, impossible to miss.

Outside: With its movable wings expanded to their full, the building looks either like a large white bird landing on Lake Michigan or the tail of a white whale emerging from the water. It is superb. The Museum’s signature wings, the Burke Brise Soleil, form a movable sunscreen with a 217-foot wingspan. The Brise Soleil is made up of 72 steel fins. It takes 3.5 minutes for the wings to open or close. Sensors on the fins continually monitor wind speed and direction; whenever winds exceed 23 mph for more than 3 seconds, the wings close automatically. And given that you are on Lake Michigan, you need some luck to see the wings open.

Inside: The gateway to the museum is the grand Windhover Hall, awash in white with marble flooring, filled with light through a front window and a glass ceiling located directly below the wings. On a sunny day, you need sunglasses! It is Calatrava’s postmodern interpretation of a Gothic Cathedral, complete with flying buttresses, pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and a central nave topped by a 90-foot-high glass roof. The hall’s front is shaped like the prow of a ship, with floor-to-ceiling windows looking over Lake Michigan. Adjoining the central hall are two tow-arched promenades, with expansive views of the lake, that remind me of a spaceship. Don't miss the Cafe' Calatrava, right below the main hall. It offers superb views on the lake with floor-to-ceiling windows in a modern design environment.There’s art, too. Once you have finished admiring the building, you can spend a good couple of hours in the Museum’s permanent collection which includes Old Masters, 19th and 20th century art, American decorative arts, German Expressionism, folk and Haitian art, and American art after 1960. Modern highlights include Auguste Rodin, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, Jóan Miro, Mark Rothko, Robert Gober, Roy Litchtenstein, Lucio Fontana, and Andy Warhol. The museum holds the beautiful Monet's Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect, and Caillebotte's Boating on the Yerres, with its excellent water reflections. (Last visited 05/2006)

Museum of Barbarism - Nicosia, Northern Cyprus

The Museum of Barbarism is not a museum. It is a run down house in a quiet suburb to the west of the Old City, on the Turkish-Cypriot side of Nicosia. Here, on 24 December 1963 a mother and her children were shot dead in their bath by EOKA (Cypriot Liberation Movement) gunmen (Greek Cypriots). The bloodstained bathtub is retained as one of the exhibits in this rather macabre and quite disgusting place. You can see bullet holes on the wall, and photos of Turkish Cypriots murdered in the villages of Agios Vasilios and Agios Sozomenos. Although these events really happened, this is one of the last bastions of the Turkish-Cypriot administration propaganda struggle against the Greek-Cypriots. Go only if you are interested in the recent Cypriot history and wish to better understand the use of symbols, propaganda, and history on the divided island. (Last visit 07/2002)

National Struggle Museum - Nicosia, Cyprus

This museum is for those interested in the recent history of the island. It displays documents, photos and other memorabilia from the bloody 1955-59 national liberation struggle against the British.

Cyprus Archaeological Museum - Nicosia, Cyprus

If there is one museum you want to visit in Nicosia, this is the one. Located at 1 Leoforos Mouseiou Street, this museum houses archaeological artifacts from all over the island. Some objects date back to the 8th millennium B.C.

Outside: just go inside, the building erected in 1883 is in need of renovation.

Inside: The collection is remarkable. Highlights include a display of terracotta figures from the 7-6 century B.C., coming from a castle in Northern Cyprus. Look out for the three limestone lions and two sphinxes found in Tamassos necropolis, which show a definite Egyptian influence and were discovered only in 1997. You can also see the famous statue Aphrodite of Soli, which is featured on tourist posters and on the 5 pound banknote. An enormous bronze statue of the Emperor Septimus Severus can hardly be overlooked. The rest is an abundant and impressive, but quite boring, exhibits of bowls, craters, and statuettes from Cyprus' archaeological past. A unique feature of the museum lies in the basement, where several graves rest in a dark cellar complete with skeletal remains and grave adornments that have been reconstructed. (Last visit 07/2002)

Museum Nejjarine Museum of Wood Arts and Crafts - Fez, Morocco

The Musée Nejjarine des Arts et Métiers du Bois is a 14th-century "caravanserrai," without a doubt the Fez medina's most modern restored monument. The three-story building is beautiful, with wood decoration and a patio. You can have tea on the rooftop and admire a great panoramic view over the medina. Originally, the building was a hotel where travelers could rest their camels and horses, get food, and sleep in one of the small rooms on the upper floors. There is also a former jail cell on the ground floor. The building displays Morocco's various native woods, 18th- and 19th-century woodworking tools, and a series of antique wooden doors and pieces of furniture. Nothing special, but the building is really fine and worth a visit. Also, after spending a day in the intricated pathways of the medina, you will appreciate the museum's palatial, cedar-ceiling public bathrooms, certainly the finest of their kind in Fez. (Last visit 03/2000)

Guggenheim Bilbao - Bilbao, Spain

There is only one reason to go to see the Guggenheim Bilbao, and it is a very good one: the building. Architect Frank Gehry has achieved a daring, sculptural design that many see as the foretaste of architecture in the third millennium. This building is enough of a reason to visit Bilbao, rather off track from main Spanish touristic areas. But, the town also offers other outstanding architectures and great food.

Outside: Spend your time walking around the building, first from a certain distance, and then right under it to capture the details of every curve and shape. Completed in 1997, the building is an extraordinary combination of interconnecting shapes. Orthogonal blocks in limestone contrast with the curved forms covered in titanium. Glass walls provide the building with the light it needs. The half-millimetre thick "fish-scale" titanium panels that cover the building reflect light and water in different ways and colors over the course of each day's 24 hours. It seems impossible that the building actually stands, being so sinuous and contorted. It is amazing! The museum was featured at the beginning of the James Bond movie "The World is Not Enough" with Pierce Brosnan.

Inside: Again, it is the building you really want to admire once inside. Curved white walls and steel and glass windows form a post-modern cathedral with huge spaces for art installations. The permanent collection is fine, if you haven't seen any of the other Guggenheim museums. There are works by de Kooning, Rosenquist, Rothko, Serra, Warhol and many other contemporary and avant-guarde artists, in particular Basque and Spanish artists. When I went, there was an interesting exhibition of Giorgio Armani's sartorial creations. (last visit 05/2000)

British Museum - London, UK

Where should I begin describing the British Museum? It is a must for anyone interested in art, with over six million artifacts and eighty galleries, ranging from archaeological fragments to massive statues from all over the world. There is no right or wrong way to visit the British Museum. Every time you visit, you will discover something new. My suggestions is to focus on the highlights during your first visit, and then explore section by section on your future trips.

Outside: The origins of the British Museum lie in the will of the physician and collector, Sir Hans Sloane, who wanted his collection of more than 71,000 objects to be preserved intact after his death. He bequeathed it to King George II, but the King had no interest. The Parliament was persuaded to accept the gift and established the British Museum in 1753. In 1754 the British Museum acquired Montagu House in Bloomsbury, and it remains on this site today. Around the original house, many extensions were built in the years. The last renovation transformed the Great Court, the Museum's inner courtyard, with the famous Reading Room at its centre, now covered by a spectacular glass roof , into the largest covered public square in Europe. Designed by Norman Foster and Partners, the glass dome is fantastic, built like a giant jigsaw puzzle! Visitors have now direct access west into the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery, east into the King's Library and north into the Wellcome Trust Gallery. Inside the courtyard, two monumental staircases encircle the outside of the Reading Room and lead to the Great Court Gallery, and the Court Restaurant. From the restaurant level a bridge link takes visitors into the upper galleries of the Museum.

Before beginning to visit the collection, you should go inside the Reading Room, at the center of the Great Court. Using cast iron, concrete, glass and the latest heating and ventilation systems, it was a masterpiece of mid-nineteenth century technology. The bookshelves surrounding it were also made of iron to take the great weight of the books and protect them against fire. In all, the library containes three miles (4.8 kilometres) of bookcases and twenty-five miles (forty kilometres) of shelves. It opened on 2 May 1857 and for more than 100 years the Reading Room was a centre of learning. Among those who spent time in the room were Karl Marx, Lenin, Bram Stoker, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Inside: Start with the King’s Library, at the right of the Great Court. This is not necessarily the most interesting part of the museum, but you can see how the British Museum looked in the 1800s. Built between 1823 and 1827, restoration work between 2000 and 2003 revived the room to its original glory. You can admire the oak and mahogany floor and classical architectural features, with the yellow and gold ornamentation and the re-gilded balcony. Thousands of objects from the Museum collection are crammed in huge wood cabinets, as it was in use in the Age of Enlightenment.
Then go for the highlights: the Rosetta Stone at the entrance of the Egyptian Hall (room 4), the Parthenon sculptures (room 18, awesome!), the sculptures from the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos (room 21), the Oxus Treasure from ancient Iran (room 52) and the beautiful Assyrian carvings and statues (room 6-10). The Asia rooms hold the richest collections of Chinese art in Europe (room 33). Room 34 has some of the finest Islamic pottery, while the Korean Gallery features a full scale scholar's house, which you can only see in Korean museums (room 67). The Aztec selection is phenomenal, with the famous turquoise mosaic mask of the god Tezcatlipoca (room 27).

I find the Africa section one of the best in the world (room 25). Look for the brass plaques from Benin. When they came to Europe at the end of the 1800s, people believed the plaques to be fake because they thought impossible for Africa to produce such beautiful artifacts (!). The Medieval Britain section features the famous 2000-year-old bog body known as the Lindow man (room 50), while in room 41 you can see the Medieval Sutton Hoo Ship Burial. And of course don't miss the vast collection of Egyptian and Sudanese objects (a lot of mummies in room 62 and 63!), and the Greek and Roman art in rooms 11-23. (Last visit 07/2008)

Jardin Majorelle - Marrakesh, Morocco

Jardin Majorelle, a beautiful garden and Islamic art museum, is a colorful oasis of calm in dusty and chaotic Marrakesh. This was Yves Saint Laurent's haven of peace in the city he made his second home after Paris and where his ashes were scattered after his death in June 08. It is a quirky, magical, inspirational place. Try to get there at opening time, before the rest of weekending Marrakesh turns up after breakfast.

Outside: the magnificent garden with its elaborate cacti, yuccas, water lilies, jasmines, bougainvilleas, and vividly colored canary-yellow and florescent blue pathways, vases, fountains, and buildings is a joy of sight. The garden was built by the French painter Majorelle.

Inside: the blue house built in 1931 by the architect Paul Sinoir shelters the Islamic Art Museum, the personal collection of Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent. It presents objects of Islamic art coming from the Maghreb, the Orient, Africa and Asia. It is an extraordinary collection with ceramics and potteries of a great value, weapons and magnificent jewelry, textiles, carpets, woodworks (the wood doors are amazing) and other treasures. A space is also devoted to the works of Jacques Majorelle. (Last visited 05/2001)