Paris - Reorientation for Some
There was a fair amount of disorientation/reorientation today for those of us who returned from London last night. After having a weekend to get reaccustomed to English speaking folks it was a bit rattling for some (myself especially) to go back to hearing mainly French. Ah Paris! It was nice though to return to our lovely apartment on the Rue Dupuis and see our friends Ryan and Bill again. They were somewhat refreshed after having had a whole weekend without us to just chill and do as they pleased.
On the agenda for today was the Centre Pompidou - the National Museum for Modern Art. Steve and Bill and I went after getting a sluggish start in the morning. Ryan and Peter didn't feel like coming with us which was okay. The Pompidou is only a short distance from the apartment and the weather was typical for our stay - partly to mostly cloudy and warm. I decided it was time to be LOUD and wore my orange jeans and bright yellow dress shirt. There was a fairly long line to get in (due to security checks) but it moved along quickly.
The Pompidou is a very large building designed to have as much of its supporting and mechanical structure on the outside of the building as is possible. Apparently the French still hate it. We kind of liked the building though. It's very unique and functional.
After wading through the morass of lines and security and more lines for ticket purchases we made our way upstairs to the fifth level to view the permanent collection. The gallery spaces are fairly large and spacious but kind of stark. There are so many little narrow side galleries that it became rather exhausting just trying to find and see everything. Oddly enough - this was my least favorite museum. You would think that I would've loved it because I'm such a fan of Modern Art, but in truth I thought it paled in comparison to the Museum of Modern Art in New York: a glorious maze of well designed space overflowing with an almost gluttonous collection of masterworks of the early to mid 20th century. I digress... :-)
After we escaped the Pompidou, thoroughly exhausted I must say, we sent Bill off with our spoils from the museum: two fabulous books on Surrealism that I had put on my Christmas list last year and several acquisitions of Steve's. Steve and I then went grocery shopping for the Chicken Korma dinner that I was to make.
I loved the little supermarket where we shopped (the Monoprix) and got kind of stuck in the chocolate aisle :-) . We grabbed all the stuff we needed and headed home for a rest before I started dinner.
Dinner was really a lovely affair. Everyone was there and they all loved the food. We had Chicken Korma (my favorite Indian dish made with a very spicy curry sauce with lots of onions, yogurt, cream, and cashews), green beans, fresh bread, and lots of lovely red table wine. Yum yum yum!
After dinner we stayed up till 1AM playing cards (Wizards: a game similar to Spades) and drinking wine. All in all it was a lovely day.
On the agenda for today was the Centre Pompidou - the National Museum for Modern Art. Steve and Bill and I went after getting a sluggish start in the morning. Ryan and Peter didn't feel like coming with us which was okay. The Pompidou is only a short distance from the apartment and the weather was typical for our stay - partly to mostly cloudy and warm. I decided it was time to be LOUD and wore my orange jeans and bright yellow dress shirt. There was a fairly long line to get in (due to security checks) but it moved along quickly.
The Pompidou is a very large building designed to have as much of its supporting and mechanical structure on the outside of the building as is possible. Apparently the French still hate it. We kind of liked the building though. It's very unique and functional.
After wading through the morass of lines and security and more lines for ticket purchases we made our way upstairs to the fifth level to view the permanent collection. The gallery spaces are fairly large and spacious but kind of stark. There are so many little narrow side galleries that it became rather exhausting just trying to find and see everything. Oddly enough - this was my least favorite museum. You would think that I would've loved it because I'm such a fan of Modern Art, but in truth I thought it paled in comparison to the Museum of Modern Art in New York: a glorious maze of well designed space overflowing with an almost gluttonous collection of masterworks of the early to mid 20th century. I digress... :-)
After we escaped the Pompidou, thoroughly exhausted I must say, we sent Bill off with our spoils from the museum: two fabulous books on Surrealism that I had put on my Christmas list last year and several acquisitions of Steve's. Steve and I then went grocery shopping for the Chicken Korma dinner that I was to make.
I loved the little supermarket where we shopped (the Monoprix) and got kind of stuck in the chocolate aisle :-) . We grabbed all the stuff we needed and headed home for a rest before I started dinner.
Dinner was really a lovely affair. Everyone was there and they all loved the food. We had Chicken Korma (my favorite Indian dish made with a very spicy curry sauce with lots of onions, yogurt, cream, and cashews), green beans, fresh bread, and lots of lovely red table wine. Yum yum yum!
After dinner we stayed up till 1AM playing cards (Wizards: a game similar to Spades) and drinking wine. All in all it was a lovely day.
Comments