Rhode Island’s Musée Patamécanique is one very unique tour experience - that is, if you can find it. The Musée Patamécanique is a very small, hidden museum that is constantly changing its location within the city limits of Bristol. Tours are only available by booking an appointment and visitors learn of the museum’s location by word-of-mouth because Musée Patamécanique does not advertise anywhere besides its website. Once would-be visitors learn of the museum and somehow make contact with the owner, they are greeted by a guide at an agreed upon location in Bristol. Visitors are given headphones and a map and are left to explore on their own. The self-guided tour can lead outside and back inside and anywhere within the six-block area of downtown Bristol.

The museum features random items, such as “earolin”, a 24-inch tall hologram of an ear playing a violin, an olfactory clock that conveys time with different scents, and a machine for recording the dreams of bees, among other things. In general, most of the items are linked to the Theater of the Absurd, Wunderkammern, and illusion. The Musée Patamécanique’s owner, Neil Salley, runs his museum to give guests a “means to rediscover the real world.”