Sometimes you find the most amazing things in the strangest of places. However, whenever you do, it makes the discovery somthing special.

A number of years ago, I was wondering around EPCOT in Florida because I had a day to spare and a childhood of images of Disneyworld to experience. EPCOT is a strange place, it’s built for far more people than visit it therefore it’s quiet and a good place to reflect.

I had no plan and few expectations when I started wandering. I came across the massive China Pavillion and wandered in. From memory, there were five of us in the massive 360° cinema, so basically it was empty.

On leaving the cinema/ride there was a small exhibition about China and, wonder of wonders, sitting in the middle of the room was row after row of the Terracotta soldiers.

Would I have travelled to China to see them? Probably not, but I have to say that they were wonderful to see and started me down a road of reading about China and it’s history.

To the person that decided to make this exhibition possible. Well done, mission accomplished!

Which brings me to Lens, the old mining town in Northern France. A few years ago the Louvre (yes the world famous museum in Paris) opened a branch office in Lens. A strange place for an investment like this but I think that was the point.

250 works were moved there and displayed in an innovative single room where the position in the room of the object depends on when the object was made. Oldest at the front and with European on the left and Asian on the right!

So we went to visit when we were travelling north and what did I find?

Well surprisingly, I found the Egyptian version of what I’d seen in Florida years before.

https://www.louvrelens.fr/work/troupe-de-serviteurs-funeraires-oushebtis/

A lovely surprise, because everything is not in one place!