1925-2025 - 100 years of Art Deco - Musée des Arts Décoratifs, L’Orient Express

 

On New Years Eve day I went to 100 years of Art Deco at MAD. It is on till 26 April.

I thought it would be empty. HA!

L'Orient Express

I love riding trains. No doubt a trip on the Orient Express would be most thrilling.

You can easily do so until August 31st. Just take yourself off to the Institute du Monde Arabe at 1, rue Fosses St. Bernard 75005 Metro Jussieu

It's an exhibit in 2 parts - the passenger cars standing out in the open and the 2nd part inside Jean Nouvel's historic building downstairs featuring posters, artifacts and tea salon.

Getting through the exhibit was almost as convoluted as riding from London to Cairo.

I thought I'd arrived early enough at 10:30 am (the exhibit opens at 9:30 on the dot) and like any good train, it leaves on time.

But in fact there were a slew of people ahead of me, many bought tickets online.

Once inside it felt claustrophobic. After passing through 2 cars I knew I wasn't going to make it to the end. I had to get off the Simplon Express PDQ. The folks behind me were not pleased. It was tight in there.

 I returned next morning at opening time. 25+ ticket holders were in front of me. Being French, they stopped to read every word of the display cases outside the trains. 

Hooray! I ran onto the train. I had it to myself for a while. Fabulous! 

The tables are laid out to illustrate different celebrities who rode the train or wrote about it

Agatha Christie met her husband aboard and wrote 3 novels 📚 inspired by it (Murder on the Orient Express).

Or Graham Green (Stamboul Train).

Films are playing...here a James Bond movie, From Russia with Love.

And murder most foul is illustrated. Some sleeping compartments even emit heavy snoring to make our experience more realistic.

Every detail of the original fabrications is seen to.
 

With gorgeous Art Deco wall decorations

Really a fun exhibition.

The space inside the Institute is happily more spacious with interactive maps.

Old movie posters
 

And travel posters
 

Reek of travel in the 30s ambiance.
 

Plenty of travel photos though I didn't see any sketchbooks or journals.

At the end of the exhibit you can restore and relax with Mediterranean sweets topped up with tea in specially designed tins from Dammen. This is a don't miss exhibit in my opinion.