Look out: fragile!

This museum is seriously an artwork for those who love weird structures made out of a material you barely thought it would be used for that. Optical illusions, reflection games, interactive surfaces... and all that dangerously fragile! I'm talking about Swarovski Kristallwelten and their world-famous tiny crystals. 

Photo: The Giant and its two underground entrances to the Chambers of Wonder.

I would say the complex is divided in three parts. The picture above is what the visitor sees at a first moment. It is the entrance to the underground part of the museum, called "Chambers of Wonder" and includes the most of the artworks of the complex - some of them are from the very same Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol. Right behind the hill, there is a playground for people at all ages and a hand-shaped labyrinth. The last piece of the puzzle is the Crystal Cloud & Mirror Pond, a majestic structure made with 800.000 hand-mounted Swarovski crystals.

Before arriving to Austria, I didn't even know that Swarovski was an Austrian based company. I first saw their store in Innsbruck's downtown - quite an amazing store by the way, much bigger than any other I've ever seen, made in such a modern or even futuristic design, decorated with several crystal artworks, in one of the most luxurious and beautiful streets of the centre. The store offers not only jewelry but also optical products out of their intern brand "Swarovski Optik" and it even has a bar inside!

Photo: Crystal artwork.

From a train station to a world-known museum

This museum was definitely a big discovering for me. I honestly did not know about its existence before visiting it, and it was actually my travel buddy who mentioned it and made me feel curious about it. She said it was a former train station (Gare d'Orsay) and I love them, so with no more discussion we got in. The building has a lot of history since it was initially built for the Universal Exposition in 1900, and trains ran until 1939 when it became unsuitable for longer trains. During the II World War, this space was turned into a mailing centre and finally, after many years about to be demolished, it was listed as Historical Monument and converted into the current museum in 1986. Its strategic position creats a magical three-in-a-row together with the Louvre Museum and the National Museum of Modern Art (located at the Centre Georges Pompidou). The museum holds a large collection of artworks from well-known artists such as Monet, Gauguin or Van Gogh, besides obviously the architecture of the building itself, which is stunning.

Luckily for low-budgets, the most of French museums are free of charge for under-18 and European citizens, but also on the first Sunday of the month! You must watch out it is not Monday, it is most of museum's off day.

Photo: Giant clock-shaped window at the top floor of the museum.