In 1960 the museum transitioned into a showcase for the African and Oceanic arts. Although not specifically linked to the museum’s new mission, the aquarium had become an integral part of the space and so it was maintained. In 1980 the building of the museum itself — constructed during the art deco period — became the object of attention and a renovation was undertaken to restore the historic structure. Thanks to this convergence of different arts, cultures and anthropology, the museum grew in reputation throughout the 1990s. In 2003, the Musuem of African and Oceanic Arts left the historic Porte Dorée building in order to be integrated into the brand new Quai Branly museum.

Throughout all of these developments the Aquarium was kept open, and now visitors can discover over 5000 water animals coming from 300 different species. Sharks, crocodiles, eels, jellyfish and a large variety of saltwater and freshwater fish of all sizes occupy the aquarium tanks. The space is relatively small for an aquarium, but its size and lighting give the collection a curiously old-fashioned feel that makes for a charming visit. The contrast between the dark corridors and the brightly colored tanks is pleasantly surprising. Plus, a few remnants of the exhibition from the old Colonial Museum have been left behind, adding a quirky historical element to this lively environment.

Aquarium tropical de la Porte Dorée
293, avenue Daumesnil – 75012 Paris
Metro: Porte Dorée

Tuesday through Friday, from 10 a.m. until 5:15 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. until 6:45 p.m.

+33 (0)1 44 74 84 80

This audacious collection has been brought together in order to provoke analysis of the representation of the body in Arab visual art. This analysis is animated by themes as ‘Trance,’ ‘Suffering,’ ‘Beauty,’ ‘Desire’ and even ‘Memories.’ Two hundred pieces by seventy artists hailing from different Arab countries breath life into the collection.

The collection spans two levels of the building, where visitors can see how Lebanese and Egyptian painters — among others — learned the art of the nude painting in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century and imported it to their home countries upon their return. These artists would go on to open art schools where their appreciation of nude artwork was propagated. Through paintings, photographs and videos, visitors will understand this history in its proper context.

The collection represents an ode to contemporary Arab culture, where a new generation of artists have been expressing their vision of the body on canvas and in sculpture for the past 30 years or so. The works of female artists are especially celebrated in the second part of the exposition, which is dedicated to contemporary creation. The desire for equal treatment is apparent throughout. Until July 15, 2012 visitors staying at the Hotel Regencia can discover this unique collection for themselves.

Institut du Monde Arabe
1 rue des Fossés-Saint-Bernard
Place Mohammed-V
Metro : Jussieu / Cardinal-Lemoine / Sully-Morland

Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Closed on Monday

Tickets: 8 euros

The exposition Patagonia, Images from the Edge of the World effectively displays this multiplicity of representations — the tales and myths that have successively attached themselves to the southernmost tip of the South American continent. By juxtaposing the imagined accounts with those that we now know to be accurate, the exhibit reveals to visitors how facts and science can be manipulated to suit anthropological whims. The goal, however, is not to diametrically oppose fantastic images and scientific discourse, but rather to measure the gap between the two.

At the Musée du Quai Branly, Patagonia, Images from the Edge of the World follows a chronological timeline as it presents archived documents, photographs, literary texts and film excerpts that come principally from the museum’s own collection.

Early ideas of Patagonia come to life through watercolors depicting the birds and fish that inhabited the Strait of Magellan in the 18th century, before the invention of photography. Starting from the 19th century, however, photographs guide our journey through this exhibition, and spectators can see this mysterious land and its people in images captured by explorers, artists and scientists. Visitors staying at the Hotel Regencia can see these images with their own eyes at the Musée du Quai Branly until May 13, 2012.

A principal theme of the exhibit is the ‘animal as spectacle.’ The shining example of such work is a group of several paintings and sketches of Clara, a rhinoceros who was taken on tour from Rotterdam to London to Berlin to Venice. Her melancholy journey lasted 20 years and was chronicled by artists who themselves witnessed the gleam of her despairing eyes. Within the same theme, the exhibit also includes paintings and a charming wooden model of Zarafa, a giraffe belonging to Charles X. Zarafa became a celebrity in the early 19th century when he journeyed—by hoof—from the city of Marseille all the way up to Paris.

More cheerful perhaps is the exhibit’s demonstration of the growing influence of animals in contemporary art. In these works, the animal is not imprisoned and admired for its exoticism; instead, the animal takes on virtues comparable to those of the human species. Visitors will see tried and true portrayals of the dog as brave and loyal or the cat as sly and nonchalant—characteristics that reemerge time after time in artistic works. The collection, which is organized by theme rather than time period, blends all eras together, allowing visitors to recognize that many of our perceptions have remained the same over several centuries.

Showing emblematic examples from France as well as cities all over the world, the emphasis is placed on large cities and sustainability concerns.  Some of these projects are linked to transportation, some are purely digital, while still others are intended to better equip city spaces for public usage—like plans to give La Défense a makeover by adding structures for seating and shelter. Projects like Tim Fendley’s « Legible London » or the sound design of Tokyo’s JR East subway line give a glimpse of the goings-on in cities across the planet. By visiting this exhibit, guests of the Hotel Regencia can clearly see that designers play a strategic role in shaping the cities of tomorrow.

The exhibit itself was created with usability and visual appeal in mind, and as visitors easily traverse the minimalist space, the goal of each station is clearly marked in some creative way. Thanks to a variety of stations offering visual and auditory stimuli, visitors can see and hear how concerns about design enter into the conception and execution of urban projects. Notions of comfort, shared usage, accessibility, durability, social relationships and cultural identities all come into play when reflecting on such developments.

The exhibit presents « The Designer » as occupying eight distinct—and quite ambitious—positions: humanist, inspirer-creator, innovator, economic actor, responsible engager, problem solver, mediator and identity demonstrator. But perhaps only one word is needed to describe the designer, as presented by this exhibit: indispensable.

Le Lieu du Design
74 rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine
75012 Paris
Metro: Ledru-Rollin or Bastille

Monday through Sunday from 1p.m. to 6 p.m. (Saturday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.)
Free Entrance

The interactive exhibit suits all ages and explores both the facts and myths surrounding this mysterious arachnid. Videos, kid-friendly interactive games, artistic photographs and a few live examples serve to give visitors a new appreciation of these complicated critters. Visitors staying at the Hotel Regencia should make sure not to miss the videos that cover techniques for hunting the spiders used in experiments and products. These videos are complemented by real examples of the interesting contraptions featured. Visitors can also examine spider parts under a microscope or sit at a table and imagine that they are part of one of the Asian or South American cultures that dines on spider like we eat crab.

A collection of common products that use spider venom and spider silk — which is stronger than Kevlar ® and used in a variety ways — tops off your exploration. With 35,000 to 40,000 known species in the world — and about 1,600 in France alone — spiders have colonized almost every possible kind of environment.  Au Fil des Araignées seeks to help visitors better understand these complex creatures with which we share so much of our space.

Au Fil des Araignées
October 5 – July 2, 2012
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Grande Galerie de l’Évolution
36 rue Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 75005 Paris
Every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., except Tuesdays and May 1
Tickets: 9 euros for adults and 7 euros for children, free for children under 4

Given his eccentric point of view, many may not realize that Burton grew up in Burbank, California, only a few miles away from that mecca of homogenized entertainment known as Hollywood. However, it seems that the banality of this environment only added fuel to the fire burning in the budding auteur’s creative soul, and he spent much of his childhood developing the offbeat ideas that he would later bring to life in front of the camera.

The collection offers many things to get excited about, such as an extremely rare short film directed by Burton at the age of 16. Film buffs can also see drawings from the big budget but ultimately abandoned Superman project that Burton was set to helm in the mid-90s. Stepping through the corridors of the exhibition, one is transported to the Gothic, expressionistic world of an atypical artist. Tim Burton: the Exhibition provides curious visitors with an understanding of just how prolific and versatile Tim Burton, the Artist, has really been.

Created around 1508, the application of multiple varnishes throughout the centuries had caused the surface of the painting to become irregular and yellowed. This rendered much of the imagery, including Saint Anne herself, difficult to discern. A decision was therefore made in 2009 to correct the irregularities and remove some of the additional layers of varnish. A scientific committee of around 20 specialists was established to supervise the restoration.

It was during the most delicate stage of the restoration that tensions flared, resulting in the departure of two key committee members: Jean-Pierre Cuzin, the Louvre’s director of paintings, and Ségolène Bergeon Langle, the head of conservation for all of France’s national museums. Ms. Bergeon Langle expressed disagreement with the committee’s decision to remove a varnish present on the body of the child, which may or may not have been part of the original painting. Despite concerns about preserving the integrity of the original painting, certain additions—like secondary tree trunks most likely added in the 19th century—were conserved by the committee. What remains is a masterpiece as rich in history as it is in artistic value.

Visitors staying at the Hotel Regencia can discover the Saint Anne‘s five-century-long journey from da Vinci’s workshop to the halls of the Lovure through the exhibit’s 130 documents chronicling the painting’s conception and execution. These documents include preliminary sketches from the collection of Queen Elisabeth II and rough workshop versions of what would become one of da Vinci’s greatest works.

Trompe l’oeil is a word borrowed directly from the French language (who else could have invented such insane spelling!) to speak of an object that fools the eye. From its bottomless collections, the museum drew the most unexpected objects falling under that definition, ranging from paintings and furniture to games and clothes.

400 objects distributed among 12 sections demonstrate that the art of fooling, imitating and imagining is really an art, a magic of matter and optical properties. This art of fooling responds to the most varied goals. Appearance has preoccupied people throughout human history: a ceiling painted in such a manner that it looked higher than it was was a means of increasing one’s social status in the Renaissance. Marie-Antoinette’s wigs were up to 2.5 yards in height, and we all have seen the cruel corsets of the Romantic period and the fake bottoms that ladies used to carry under their crinolines. Fashion is the kingdom of illusion…

But artists have also play with the eye for fun – one amazing example of which is Marcel Jean’s “Surrealist and oneiric wardrobe”, a 3-dimensional representation of Magritte’s painted world (Jean was a close friend of Magritte’s). An exhibition as instructive as it is fun, Trompe-l’oeil should also greatly please children – and it is only steps away from your Hotel Regencia!

The first part of the night is dedicated to Jerome Robbins’s 1969 Dances at a gathering – a one-hour classical ballet beautifully interpreted by the Paris Opera Dance Company. Chopin’s delicate piano chords lead sophisticated circle dances, full of airy leg work and gravity-defying portés. Nothing much is happening, aside from intense, limpid, feathery movement, and that tells it all: love at its beginnings, timid and careless, fleeting and eternal, and already, luring, is the nostalgia of its end.

After the intermission, the spectator is invited back in, still dreamy from Robbin’s transported swirls, and the shock is violent. Here, amidst an armchair, an oven, a TV set and a vacuum cleaner, love is being undone and trampled in its domestic tragedy. Created in 2000 by Swedish choreographer Mats Ek, Appartement (Apartment) is an eruptive, tense, nauseous analysis of the couple, responding to the anguished jazz-rock beat of the Swedish band Fleshquartet.

It is hard to believe that the two shows belong to the same night. A night falling under the theme of love, albeit through its darkest, most pessimistic interpretation, from fantasy beginnings to everyday, harshly realistic endings – and a night celebrating dance as the art of saying it all without saying anything.