Quai Branly Museum

Just 100 meters from the Eiffel Tower, the Quai Branly Museum draws crowds to its treasure trove of ethnic art. Opened in 2006, the Jean Nouvel-designed complex contains four buildings, with the main one sitting on stilts and adorned with a protruding jumble of 30 colorful cubes. Abundant plant life thrives not only on-site, but on the building itself. Bamboo replaces louvered windows and vegetation fully covers exterior walls with 15,000 plants from 150 different species. A large Native American totem pole anchors the vast interior atrium, which gives way to a myriad of 5,450 displayed pieces of primitive art from Africa, Oceania, Asia, and the Americas.