A THOROUGHLY MODERN SUNDAY IN PARIS……..

We are so NOT modern!

Our plan for today was a visit the Centre Georges Pompidou-- a museum of modern art.  As many times as we've visited Paris, this would be our first visit to this museum.

We Metro'd over from our Montmartre neighborhood, and after a couple of line changes we popped like a couple of whack-a-moles--right in front of the museum.

Luckily, the line wasn't long, as we didn't buy tickets in advance.  We paid our 13E admission, checked our coats, and set off to explore!

We walked through the "tubes" on the outside up to the top level of the museum, where there is a great view over Paris.

 Eiffel Tower as seen from the Pompidou:

The Tour St. Jacques, built in the 1500's.  It was funded by the butchers of nearby Les Halles market, and was dedicated to St. James the Great.  It welcomed pilgrims setting out on the Santiago Trail Pilgrimage, which ends in Santiago, northwest Spain.

Closeup of the top of the Tower of St. Jacques:

Our neighborhood, as seen from top of Centre Pompidou:

(Our apartment is downhill from Sacre Couer, to the left)

After admiring the view from the roof of the Pompidou, we went down one floor and started with a temporary exhibit by Jeff Koons.

Hmmmmm--This is art?

I could have donated a few of our "over the hill" upright vacuums to Jeff:

This was interesting…..

Michael Jackson and friend!

Probably Koons' most famous piece, Balloon Dog.  I actually liked it….

2 pieces in his series, Gazing Ball--strange:

Interesting mailbox:

After (ahem!) enjoying the Jeff Koons exhibit, we passed by the museum restaurant entrance--love the red trees!

The interior of the restaurant was very modern, of course:

We went down a couple of floors and started our visit to the permanent collection.  There were some lovely pieces:

Great colors and movement in this one:

There is an entire series on wars of the world, this chair was one of the pieces:

I liked this room with chalkboard walls--kids can make their own art!  It was fun watching them:

This was one of my favorite pieces in the museum--very serene:

And finally, there was the just plain strange!


Again--this is art???

This piece, in my opinion, was the strangest of the lot.   It's dozens of colored shoelaces and a few shoe insoles carefully draped and placed on a laundry dryer on wheels.  Hmmmmmmm…...

After about two hours in the Pompidou, I came away perplexed and feeling as if I'm just not quite sophisticated, educated and/or knowledgeable enough to understand and appreciate this "art".

A little part of me thinks some of these artists are sitting back, laughing and thinking to themselves:  "They bought it!  They think I'm brilliant!  And I think I'm brilliant, too!"

But that's just my opinion……….

Our visit did have a very bright spot, though.  There's a temporary exhibit featuring the work of the brilliant American architect, Frank Geary.  His work is very organic, with flowing, graceful curvy lines.  He is an absolute genius.

As an example, here's a Geary designed building that we've seen in Las Vegas.   It's the Cleveland Clinic Center for Brain Health:

We really enjoyed looking at Geary's work and the several architectural models of his buildings from around the world.  There were also his original conceptual drawings,  photos, text and videos to further explain his creative process.   Fascinating!

As we left the Pompidou I noticed these beautiful buildings across the way:

Man, I'd not be a happy camper if I had to look at this building from my windows

The Georges Pompidou Centre, exterior view:

As you can tell, I'm not a fan of the Pompidou!  Sorry…….

But, there was yet another bright spot at the Pompidou, the Stravinsky Fountain, a whimsical, delightful fountain in the courtyard.

And there's some great street art right across the way,  just for my friend Pat E:

After leaving the Pompidou we wandered a few blocks, looking for a nice place for lunch.  It was cold and windy--and something hot sounded great.

We found a nice restaurant a few blocks away from "tourist central" Pompidou,  enjoyed a nice late lunch of hot onion soup, and a cheese platter.  That blue cheese was heavenly!  A carafe of red wine, too, of course!

I never get tired of the view from restaurants in Paris:

By the time we finished lunch, it was almost 4 pm, and we decided we'd call it a day.  We are truly being "Lazy in Paris", and I love the relaxed pace we've set on this visit.

We Metro'd back to our apartment in Montmartre, where we are snuggled in for a nice evening at home.

Goodnight from lovely Paris.