Two weeks before I was due to take a five day break in Paris, synchronicity pointed me in the direction of BBC 4’s Edwardian season, which included a view of the world of Albert Kahn, a nineteenth century businessman and philanthropist. He realised at the turn of the twentieth century that the monumental changes being wrought by the industrial revolution would alter the world forever, and was anxious to find a way of mapping the world as it was before ancient cultures and landscapes began to be eroded.

His response was to hire a team of exponents of the still young art of photography, dispatching them to all corners of the globe to create what would become a huge archive of autochromes, a system of colour photography developed by the Lumière brothers. By doing so he hoped to promote a greater understanding of cultural diversity by building the archive of images at his Paris home and hosting internationalist gatherings. The project continued for almost thirty years, only halted by the Wall Street crash which unfortunately left Kahn unable to continue to finance it.

In 1986 a museum opened on the site of Kahn’s South West Paris home and the Archive of the Planet, as Kahn had named his project, was finally accessible to the public. It’s taken me twenty years to even become aware of it, let alone visit it, so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to do so during my short break.

The museum is literally just around the corner from Pont de Saint Cloud metro station and the modest entry fee takes you into a modern, air conditioned building which is dimly lit in order to make the most of the display of autochrome images.

The curators of the museum make an annual selection from the archive which comprises 72,000 images and 600,000 feet of film. The selections are based mainly on location, the current one focussing on North Africa with a number of images in particular from Morocco and Algiers.

The autochromes are mounted in backlit panels with brief descriptions in French alongside. There is a suitably themed rest area and atmospheric music plays gently in the background to complete the experience. There are also several computer booths where you can explore an interactive plan of the museum and adjacent gardens while listening to commentaries, again in French, through headphones.

Having viewed the autochromes, I ventured through some gently sliding automatic doors into the gardens. Kahn’s internationalist project often meant that he had visitors from around the world to discuss understanding and co-operation between nations; he decided to turn the grounds of his Paris home into a horticultural experience to match his multi-cultural inclinations.

Within the 4 hectare walled area there are three distinct ‘mini-forests’ intersected by prairie land and rocky terrain, a large, sloping Japanese garden which on one side includes Japanese style houses, a grassy English meadow garden, a formal French garden and a rose garden of no particular denomination. There is also a ‘Palmarium’ which includes a café as well as the usual more exotic species of plant life. On the western side you can see Kahn’s house hiding behind some trees and bushes, but as yet it is not open to visitors.

The gardens are without doubt quite spectacular and will take you a lot longer to view than the display of autochromes if you decide to explore them fully. While gardeners will no doubt revel in the variety and colour of the specimens displayed, it helps to keep in mind that this was an important part of Kahn’s project to demonstrate his vision of a world without boundaries.

The gardens are immensely enjoyable even if you have no particular interest in gardening. The photographs are fascinating (and well worth viewing for their own sake) but left me with the inevitable feeling that I’d love to be able to somehow access the whole archive and choose my own viewing experience as well as the one that had been selected for me. Perhaps this is where the museum can move on given the computer technology that has developed so much since it opened in the eighties. Albert Kahn was able to fund state of the art autochrome photography to realise his ‘Archive of the Planet’. I’m sure that he’d endorse today’s state of the art technology to enable everyone to view it much more fully, just as they can his gardens.

The Albert Kahn Museum and its gardens, 14 Rue du Port in Boulogne-Billancourt, (telephone 01.55.19.28.00 or fax 01.46.03.86.59, e-mail museealbertkahn@cg92.fr ), are open year round, Tuesday to Sunday from 11 A.M. to 6 P.M. (7 P.M. from May 1st to September 30th), except for two weeks at Christmas.

The azaleas in the Japanese garden are spectacular from late April through early May, and the English, French and rose gardens are in bloom from June to September.
The park's hilly terrain discourages the use of wheelchairs and push chairs, but the museum has full access.

To see one of the formal Japanese tea ceremonies taking place twice a week from April to October, you must reserve by telephone.



Getting There
There is no public parking available at the Kahn Museum or nearby. From Paris, you can board Metro Line 10 and get off at the Boulogne-Pont de St.-Cloud terminus. Or board a No. 52 bus or 72 bus and get off at the Boulogne Rhin-et-Danube stop. The last return bus leaves at 8:40 P.M.
You can catch the No. 72 bus at Chatelet (on Sundays, at Place de la Concorde); the No. 52 bus stops at Place de la Concorde. The trip takes about a half hour by metro from the center of Paris, longer by bus.