Paris – Day 5

Today was going to include a visit to the Centre Georges Pompidou – a modern art museum.  To be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of some forms of modern art.  That doesn’t mean I don’t like it at all.  If I see a Picasso painting where the arm of a figure is where the leg might normally be and eyes are on opposite sides of the head, I might have a tough time understanding the mind that creates something like this, but it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment I get from seeing it.

But, there are some forms that I just don’t find appealing, confirming the fact that ‘art is in the eye of the beholder’ - nothing new there. 

While I didn’t have high expectations of the collections inside (although Picasso and Matisse pieces were represented), I was very interested in seeing the Pompidou Centre itself.  It’s like the building was designed inside out.  To have a building so modern amongst those that have been standing for hundreds of years…the dichotomy was worth the visit.

 

This is one of the art pieces on display (red-tone boards of varying length leaning up against 3 of the walls in the room).

We ended up rushing through the final few rooms, using the excuse of needing another jambon et fromage sandwich…right now!  (Actually, we won’t need to eat any cheese or bread for the next year.  We ate our quota in one week.  But…mmmmmm.  I wonder if they’ll serve cheese on the flight home.)

We walked through  Les Halles area and even caught a couple of young kids playing ping pong outdoors.

  

Since this was New Year’s Eve, many museums and historical sites would be closing early for the evening.  As it turns out, we had hoped to see Ste Chapelle church, but it will have to wait until next visit as we missed the cut-off by just a few minutes (we can blame it on jambon et fromage!…I am blaming weight gain on it, why not this too!). 

We’ve been to Notre Dame on a couple of occasions, including the tour of the towers, but we had never been to the crypt.  So, that was our next stop.  It really wasn’t a crypt, but rather an archeological dig that reflects the life of the people over many years – how they were able to heat their homes, the layout of the area in front of Notre Dame and along the Seine, and some insight into the day-to-day activities of the time.

That would be final ‘tour’ in Paris…New Year’s is almost here.