When it comes to museums, Paris is experiencing a “Great Reawakening.” In just the past year, one museum after another has reopened after what seemed like decades of renovation. And now you can enjoy the art of dining, along with the visual arts. New museum eateries, both casual cafés and serious restaurants, have opened and are keeping pace with their exalted locations. They are no longer just pit stops to refuel in between paintings; one of them, the buzz goes, is aiming for a Michelin-star rating. Some of them even have lives of their own and are open evenings, when the museum is closed.
It's doubtful that most the media scenesters who dine and dance at the Café de l'Homme have ever been to the Musée de l'Homme. It's all about anthropology and education, while the café is about celebrity watching and decor — art deco panelling, gold highlights and glass-beaded chandeliers that cascade down from two-storey ceilings. No museum hours here: You can dine on sea bass tartare or chanterelle mushroom risotto and dance until 2 a.m.
Musée du Quai Branly, home to 300,000 artifacts from the civilizations of Africa, Asia and the Americas, is the largest museum to open in Paris in 20 years. Branly, as it's called, is the megastar of both new museums and new eateries in Paris.
From the day it opened its doors this summer, the complex of buildings was immediately heralded for its design by architect Jean Nouvel, who also fashioned the restaurant, Les Ombres, down to its last plate. Described by the architect as the carapace of a tortoise, the sixth-floor rounded space is capped by a domed ceiling with ironwork that's supposed to echo the Eiffel Tower, viewed just beyond. The rest of the wraparound vista covers much of the inventory of Paris landmarks: the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, the Pantheon and Invalides.
The dark oak tables suggest a low-key almost rustic atmosphere, but the food and service are haute cuisine with a contemporary, multicultural touch. Starters include lobster and leek en gelée, fresh sardines with spinach leaves stuffed with almond pesto; main courses include lemon-grass-flavoured mullet, calves' sweetbreads with leeks and a bean ragout; desserts feature mille feuilles with Tahitian vanilla on an apricot coulis.
Parisians don't even think of booking less than two weeks in advance at this hottest new restaurant in town. Fortunately, there's also a no-reservations ground-floor café.
Across the river on the right bank is the redone Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. It was built for the International Exhibition of 1937, which may explain the building's gargantuan size. The museum has major collections of works by Georges Rouault, Raoul Dufy, Marcel Gromaire and several monumental paintings including the Henri Matisse triptychs of La Danse, and La Fée Electricité by Raoul Dufy. Closed for two years, it recently reopened with a new café.
You buy your food inside a cramped cafeteria, step outside and voilà, an oversized terrace invites you watch the changing weather around Eiffel Tower. There are good salads with grilled calamari or salmon, and a variety of drinks.
In the next building, which shares the same address, is the Palais de Tokyo, Paris's answer to edgy, contemporary installations, and a restaurant called Tokyo Eat that has attracted the art and fashion crowd since it opened in 2002. Not a sushi bar, Tokyo Eat serves French food with hints of Asian fusion. It's best known for its decor — oversized coloured globes suspended from the ceiling and tables that have been decorated by some of the artists who have shown at the museum. “The food is better than the art,” sniffed one reviewer in French newspaper recently.
