Casa Azul- the name fits! (Frida Kahlo Museum)

Member Name: Starlight81

Product:	Frida Kahlo Museum
Date:	31/08/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting, with a peaceful garden

Disadvantages: Quite hard to find

This was one of the things I most wanted to see whilst in Mexico City, mainly after watching the film about the artist, and it didn't disappoint.

It's easy enough to get to- only about a 25-minute ride on the metro from the centre of the city. It's more difficult to find the house itself once you've got off the metro, but then maybe that's just me, as I've never been great with directions! Also, you would think it'd be easy to spot a bright blue house on an average street, but since nearly all the houses in the area are painted a bright colour, this proves harder than you might imagine!

Entry is very good value. An adult pays 55 pesos, which is about £2.50, but if you're student then you only pay 20 (£1)- it's quite unusual that non-national students also get a discount, but I used my student card here, so it seems to apply to foreigners too in this particular museum.

As you pass the entrance, you follow a circuit around from one side of the house to the other, ending up back in the garden. The first section of the house is dedicated to Frida Kahlo's artwork. Although this is not the most comprehensive collection of her work in the city, it is interesting to see it in its natural environment, so to speak. The artwork is interspersed with brief biographical information about the two artists, as well as a series of quotations from Kahlo about Rivera. Most of the information is provided in English as well as Spanish, so it is easily accessible to non-Spanish speakers like myself!

The second part of the house is set up in the way it probably would have looked when Frida and Diego lived there, and it really does look enticingly homely. Everything is very bright and typically Mexican looking, and Frida's bed is decorated with woven blankets and multi-coloured cushions, which were so cosy looking as to make me feel like moving to Mexico immediately. There are also a couple of the corsets Frida had to wear on display, which are interesting to see.

Back outside, the garden achieves a zen-like peace and calm rarely seen outside of Japan. I spotted a hummingbird in one of the trees, and you can take a stroll around looking at some photos of the couple and their pet dog dotted along the paths. There's also a shop of slightly expensive souvenirs, as you might expect, and a well-placed café where you can buy tea, coffee and cakes and sit outside in the garden with them if you wish, which we did. Inside the garden, it is hard to believe that there is a fairly busy and noisy road just on the other side of the wall.

This is definitely well worth a visit, although I wouldn't have thought you'd need to dedicate more than an hour or two to it, including a leisurely garden tea break. Be warned- it's not open on a Monday. You can visit Tuesday to Sunday between 10am and 6pm, but you can't take photos inside the house. Also, there are guided tours available for $350 (£17.50) but you have to book in advance for these.

Summary: Don't miss this if you visit Mexico