Paris: the last hurrah!

Kupka at the Pompidou Centre

Friday 26th May: Chartres to Paris

We spent the morning speeding down the A1 freeways, which we had avoided the entire trip, so we could get to the Airport which was where the car lease place was based.

If I do say so myself, I did a magnificent job of navigating through tangles of freeways and weird Google maps directions. We didn't get lost once, but I was exhausted by the time we reached our destination. The chaotic roads confirmed that it was a good decision to return the car outside Paris and not contend wiht the traffic, the one way roads, the lack of parking etc etc that defines paris streets.

It was almost sad to farewell the car as it had done very well: It was a C3 Citroen Picasso, for future reference. Not available in Australia.Perfect for two and spacious enough for three people and all of their gear, but small enough to park easily and with enough power to speed along the highways at 130 kms per hour, when we weren't doing 30 kms through a tiny village! We leased the car...it wasn't rented. If you want the details of why and how speak to Ewan.

Our apartment is the second set of large windows
from the top

We managed to get ourselves on to the SFR train and then the Metro to the Marais where the apartment I had booked was located ( AirBnB: A sunny apartment....). Flaminia, a young Masters student who lives there, rents it out when she goes away and it was perfect for us. The location was fabulous. For those of you who know the area it was almost on Rue Rambuteau about 5 minutes walk from the Pompidou and close to the Louvre, Opera, the Seine etc. The only downside was that it is on the third floor of course: not the quite the attic but close! And the steps are old wood and not very straight..but we've seen worse  and can manage any steps now.

The view from the bedroom window

So many steps!

Some of the furniture he designed was available for purchase at the Pompidou shop: just a bit too big for the suitcase though!

After we had settled in we headed for the Pompidou which is a couple of minutes walk away. On the way we checking out all of the shops in 'our' street, Rue Rambuteau, which was teeming with cafes, bars and people.

And it was hot! The weather forecast was predicting temperatures as high as the mid-30's for the next few days so it was time to drag out the summer clothes from the bottoms of our bags and use the sunscreen ( essential for queuing in the sun to get into the more popular galleries).Some very enterprising young guys sell 1 Euro bottles of water to those waiting for entry.

I love the Pompidou but it is looking a bit tired, we both agreed. It was hot and so the external walkways to move between floors were really hot and stuffy as they are made of glass/perspex, and to be honest, they needed a good clean.

Compacts he designed for a Japanese cosmetic firm

A set of stairs

But the highlight was a fabulous exhibition by an English guy called Ross Lovegrove who is a designer who plays with shapes and creates some beautiful , and often practical pieces. A staircase, chairs, compacts for makeup, a pseudo car, weird shoes and some pieces simply for the beauty of the shape.

Check out the shoes

Modigliani

There was also a 3D printing exhibition which neither of us really liked much: Ewan spent all of two minutes there - and then we headed off in different directions to view the permanent collections.  Ewan and I don't wander around galleries together because we wander at different paces, and like different art, so we set a time to rendezvous for coffee at the cafe and off we went. Unfortunately the  Contemporary exhibition space was closed as they were setting it up for the summer crowds....and that applied to lots of the galleries and Musees we visited .

But the modern gallery was fantastic and had a wide range of pieces to see: here's some random photos of pieces that caught my eye.

Picasso

Paul Klee

The view from the top of the Pompidou: abstract sculpture
 and the Eiffel Tower in the distance

It was a great start to a few days in Paris and we were glad to stagger home, find something to eat in óur' street and throw ourselves into bed

your acclimatising to the heat, and the joys of Paris, correspondent

Dianne