Palais de la porte dorée

Ch and I visited the aquarium in this building today. It was built for the 1931 colonial exhibition and the façade shows France's colonized peoples working to enrich the Metropole, in this panel with cotton and silk. Other panels list the names of the colonies and the goods they produced: tea, rubber, palm oil, cocoa, etc. The colonized peoples are all happily working away - no surprise that the building became a big embarrassment less than twenty years after it was built. It certainly is an interesting monument to early 20th c. colonial ideology.

We decided that we preferred the aquarium at the Trocadéro, although if you want to see turtles and crocodiles, this is the one to go to. Sharks are the specialty of the other.

Th spent the afternoon at Paris Photo at the Grand Palais with her friends and had a great time.