By: Kim Kovel

We took a trip to visit the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, Musée D’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. They have an ambitious jewelry exhibit featuring the history of jewelry from Mesopotamia to today that is open through November 15, 2017.

You can spend days visiting the major museums in Paris and seeing all kinds of rare and beautiful antiques. We chose to go to some of the lesser-known museums and, of course, explore the antique shops and flea markets.

Our first stop was Monet’s garden in Giverny. You can admire the flowers and the plants for days (tended by seven gardeners). Monet’s paintings were also inspired by Japanese woodblock prints and the walls of his house are still covered in them.

One of the important museums that we had never visited is the Guimet Museum of Asian Art. This museum contains one of the best Asian collections in the world. This is the place to go to learn about Asian ceramics. The collection methodically shows you the periods, glazes, and styles through the centuries. While we were there they also had a special show on Japanese kimonos.

Baccarat, a French company owned by Americans, has their headquarters and production in France. We heard their restaurant was very good. So, we planned our day to have lunch there and then see the museum. The museum is in a private mansion that belonged to Marie-Laure de Noailles, a French artist and patron of the arts. The dining room is like eating in a palace and, of course, every table was set with Baccarat crystal drinking and wine glasses. We ordered the daily special which was delicious and affordable, and as an added (and unexpected) bonus, if you eat in the dining room, admission to the museum is free! The museum is small but interesting and the gift shop is extensive. Baccarat is one of the oldest companies in France. It is protected by the French government, so production must remain in France. The crystal goblets decorated in gold are painted by artists with up to 15 years of training before their work is good enough to put on top-quality glasses. The glass objects are hand blown and it can take 15 hours to make just one glass.

Next we went to a flea market under the Alexander III Bridge. Except for the prices in euros, it seemed similar to the trends in the U.S. “Brown” furniture was very reasonable and designer names were selling well.

TIP: This app came in very handy. If you are traveling this summer to Paris, NYC, Chicago or other big cities, download the Citymapper app. It tells you how long to get anywhere by foot, car, Uber/taxi, train or bus plus the approximate cost.