So We’ll Go to a Less Crowded Museum 12-29-25

Based on what I found yesterday at the Musee d’Orsay we decided that we would go to a much less known museum today. The Musee Guimet is one of the premier Asian museums of the world, but their visitor numbers are a very small fraction of the crowds that visit the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay.  Our research on buses showed that we could get one direct bus at Gare de l’Est which has a stop a half block from the museum.  The museum also has a restaurant  where we had lunch on our last visit making the entire visit possible without leaving the building. On the ride over we once again passed the grand magazins with their holiday decorations and saw it was an absolute crush of people. But all the windows have animated little scenes and we may have to come back and see them perhaps on New Year’s Day.

We had a very nice trip over and got off at the correct stop. We walked around the corner and across the street to the front door. At that point we saw that they had a big Manga exhibit and the place was crawling with people, especially little people who know what Manga is, accompanied by their parents. For those of us who have more mileage under our belts but no ideas about Manga, they are Japanese comics and graphic novels.  Evidently they are very popular in Paris, too.  But there was no line to get in so we entered and bought tickets. Also the museum staff had done a good job in separating the permanent collection from the galleries displaying the Manga exhibits. Deb wanted to look at a number of the Hindu sculptures to compare some of their characteristics to the bust we have in our collection. Of course we each remember where it was created differently so we wanted to see if we could find similar sculptures. Today we were able to go into the galleries where the sculptures were displayed and had very little traffic to distract us. They dedicate each gallery to a particular culture and display the finest examples they possess. Fortunately for us these galleries are on the ground floor so we were able to view the galleries in which we had the most interest without using stairs or elevators.  When we finished we headed down to the restaurant in the basement. 

The last time we ate here they were displaying beautiful antique porcelains in cases next to the tables. But today the line waiting to eat was almost to the door. The staff was running around like a triage crew at a train wreck. Rushing from table to table delivering orders of food, water, desserts, etc. We had to wait perhaps 45 minutes before we got to a table, but once there the staff were as attentive as they could be under the circumstances. We speculated that they had never had an attraction like the Manga exhibit, and coupled with the cold weather everyone was loath to go anywhere else for lunch.  Today the menu was mostly focused on Korean cuisine with Bulgogi featured but most of the main dishes were rice bowls with other entries like Kimchi. Having eaten Korean food before we found several reasonable choices. So we began with a shared appetizer of the Korean equivalent of tempura of vegetables, octopus and shrimps. Then Deb opted for a chicken and vegetable bowl with rice while I had a spicy beef and vegetable bowl with rice. For dessert we shared two scoops of ice cream. We were amused by a couple at the next table, it was a young woman and perhaps her grandmother or aunt. The older woman was very hesitant about the food but the young teenage woman gently talked her off the ledge. Once she tried the first few bites she was much relieved to find it wouldn’t poison her. We generally credit the French with being very adventurous eaters. We forget that just like any culture there are some people who are timid about trying new foods.  We very much enjoyed our lunch.

After eating we went up to the third level and visited the galleries dedicated primarily to pottery and porcelain, with complementary furniture of the same age. There were also several paintings and prints that again were of the same eras.  Going through the various galleries I was amazed at how contemporary much of the porcelain and pottery appears.  It was also quite interesting to see what the basic differences were between Chinese, Korean, and Japanese were as well as the similarities. We laughed at how if we were to see some of this work in a garage sale we would probably pass it up, even if it were only a couple dollars. The basic idea is that once the artifact has been taken out of its context so much of the knowledge is lost.  However the day was fleeing and we didn’t want to compete with everyone trying to leave at closing time so we left a bit early.  I tried to make a bus change back that would take us on street away from the apartment but I’m having trouble finding the correct stop and so for a second time we had to walk down to the next stop. That’s normally not a big deal but once the sun goes down it gets pretty darned cold. We had to wait several minutes but finally a bus brought us back to our stop.