Wednesday 30/7 A fine day for some fine art

We made our effort once more to get out early and beat the crowds to the galleries. We caught a metro over to the d´Orsay and there was no line (well, a few people in front of us at the ticket desk doesn´t count!).

I love that building, built into an old train station. The design inside is done so well, with clean granite surfaces and nice open spaces. We saw some impressionist stuff, photo exhibitions and various other things. I´m not really one to talk too much about art, though =P

We did see the famous pieces there, the pieces that make tourists flock in large numbers to see. We saw Picasso, Signac, Van Gogh, Pissaro, Tolousse Letrec, Monet, Manet, Whistler, amongst others. The rooms with a lot of the real touristy ones were completely packed out and it was a bit chaotic and noisy.



One thing that got to me a bit was the people taking photos of paintings. Well, firstly it´s just kind of silly. I mean, you go there to see the art; not to take a photo of it. Second, you can get far better quality versions of them all in a museum book. The thing that really annoyed me was that there were people who had the nerve to ask me to move so they could take a photo of the painting. I was standing there, admiring art, appreciating the brush strokes and use of light and colour, and here was someone telling me to move so they could get a snapshot of it...

Up the top floor there were viewing platforms that overlooked the main room. Made for great photo opportunities and gave a fantastic view of the building. Down the bottom there was a model of the building. I took some photos, that looked, with the exception of the reflection of the cabinet, like the actual thing. Em looked through one of the windows like a monstrously big tourist.

We realised we couldn't spend all day there and decided to make our move, get lunch and head to the Pompodou. We found a little café restaurant nearby and had some nice lunch there. It was a trendy little place and had a nice relaxed vibe.

We caught the metro and headed over to the Pompodou. There was only a slight bit of a line at the ticket office but it was okay overall. Bit expensive though; 9 euros each at student prices! We went in and started off at the little design store in the main entrance hall. I love those clever design things that one can buy at such places. We made our way up the series of escalators in the bubble-like enclosure outside the building. Very cool and lots of fun. As we ascended, the view of Paris got better and better.

Up the top we found our way to their current exhibit which was called Sacred Traces or some such, about religion and art. It was a combination of poignant and downright bizarre or silly.

We spent more than an hour in that exhibit. By the end it just got very silly. We made our way down to the main section of the gallery. Our browsing was quite brisk since the time was already getting on and we were quite hungry and tired. The stuff there was very modern art, if one can say that. There was a lot of random. There was a lot of bizarre. There was that great orange rhino (which now I think about it, might be related to the colourful animals we saw in Prague).

We headed off and back in the direction of the hostel. We stopped at a supermarket and a bakery to procure delicious things to have ourselves a picnic by the water near the hostel. We bought goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, a baguette, lychee liquor, chicken slices and some pre-made couscous. Yum!

We set up and sat along the water where we had walked several times before. It seemed like the complete Parisian thing to do on a warm summer evening. In fact, the water was packed out on both sides by people doing exactly what we were. Just like the French, we were. That´s how we roll...

The only annoying thing was a lot of little bugs flying above us, but they just had to be swatted away every so often. It was a really nice, tasty dinner and a great summer vibe to be had. French people even came over to ask us for the use of one of our knives. No tourists here >.> <.<

After dinner we headed back to the hostel and got showered to go out. We ended up using some of our booze we bought earlier and sat with a group of people outside. The girls knew one of them from their first room in the hostel. We didn´t end up going out. Feet were okay; maybe a bit sore, but we were generally just, well, completely knackered. We settled for going downstairs and watching Fight Club from the start through.