One of the big pluses of being in Europe right now is that we’ve been able to avoid all the excessive political rubbish that’s going at home. After all the ads and endless blathering, I was so very glad to leave it all behind. Of course that doesn’t mean we’ve been ignoring it. This stuff is important and I was kinda hoping a miracle would occur and Tony Abbott wouldn’t get in. Sigh. Wishful thinking. Fingers crossed the Libs don’t get control of the Senate so there’s some balance.
Anyhoo…
A storm rolled though at about 9am yesterday morning and it’s taken all the heat with it. Thank God! It’s much more pleasant here in Paris now that it’s not ridiculously hot.
Typical French breakfast! (This isn’t our breakfast, we ate our’s before I even thought of taking a photo. This is someone else’s and I hope they didn’t noticed me taking it.)
Yesterday we visited the Centre Pompidou (and got thoroughly rained on during on the way).
This might explain why we went there!
Yup, a Roy Lichtenstein exhibition was on and it was brilliant. I’d forgotten how good at sculpture he was so seeing so many of them included was great. It was fantastic to get up close to Whaam!. Drowning Girl was there too but I was more excited to see Modular Painting with Four Panels #4 (which I do think I’ve seen before). I resisted the urge to buy the complete catalogue because it had some serious heft to it and I’d have to carry it around for the next 12 days but we are coming back to Paris at the end of the trip for four days so I think another visit to Centre Pompidou is in order. They have a shop you can get into without needing to buy a ticket. 🙂
We also wandered around the other collection (only one because the other permanent collection was closed). They have some great stuff at Centre Pomidou so it’s well worth the visit. Also the views are quite spectacular.
Only one photo of the view as it was raining when we first went in and then up to the fifth floor.
I found some of the artwork to be disturbing in the permanent modern art collection but I guess that’s what the artist was going for. Great art should cause a reaction and it doesn’t have to be a good one.
And this is one of the ones I found disturbing. They filled the entire room.
But there was plenty of fun stuff too!
Stupid me didn’t take a photo of the little panel with the name of the piece and artist on it so I have no clue who did it. But it was great. Really playful and fun.
Today we went looking for the French equivalent of a farmers’ market and we found one! So much food! And a staggering amount of variety. I saw mushrooms that I’ve never seen before. Loads and loads of fruit. You could pretty much do your entire weekly food shop at this place and not need to go anywhere else (so long as you didn’t need milk). There were bakers, butchers, fishmongers, fromagerie, people selling chickens, bacon, jamon, dips, olives. Just about everything you can think of (and probably stuff that you hadn’t).
Mushrooms! No idea what variety they are but they looked amazing.
Yum! Haven’t had fresh raspberries in months.
The market we visited wasn’t that far from the Eiffel Tower so we wandered over.
Yup, the Eiffel Tower. Still there.
The queues were crazy and it looks like there’s still only one lift operating so the jury is out on whether or not we’ll go up it when we get back to Paris.
I was determined to buy shoes today but have been thoroughly thwarted. Sigh. I really want a pair of black Brako heels. They made the red shoes I wore for the wedding but I’ve had no luck finding them in Paris. So far. I shall try again when we’re back in a week or so (although I don’t like my chances).
But right now the enormous bathtub that’s in our bathroom is calling my name and I must give a it a whirl before we check out tomorrow morning.