I briefly mentioned the Pompidou Centre (Paris' primary modern art museum) in my earlier "bird" post (there were pigeons!). I first saw the building online when I stumbled across it using Google street view, looking for something in the Marais (probably the cat cafe), and I couldn't believe such a thing existed in Paris. I don't have any good photos of the front, which is quite colorful; Google images is a good place to look. Here is part of the escalator on the back, through which one enters:
You can get some great views from inside the escalator and from the landings on top (although photos can be tricky because you're taking them through plexiglass or some such substance). The photo below shows the Conciergerie, left foreground, which is on the Ile de la Cite (now government buildings and courthouses, I believe, but it once held the prisoners of the revolutionaries, including Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI); Saint Sulpice, in the center; and the unmistakable Tour Montparnasse.
Here are Notre-Dame and the under-wraps dome of the Pantheon. (The latter was quite close to our apartment.)
I generally don't care for graffiti, but I couldn't resist the grinning cat. I later saw this same (or a similar) image on buildings elsewhere in the city. (Funny little octopi were also ubiquitous.)
Just next to the museum is Place Igor Stravinsky, with this fountain full of whimsical sculptures. (I think they could be used in the dictionary entry for "whimsical".)
No, I don't have any photos of the artwork in the museum. I find a lot of modern art interesting but not necessarily photogenic. (I did take a video of one installation which was best viewed while one was in motion, but I'm not going to post that.)
Another distinctive museum is the Musee du Quai de Branly, which I mentioned in my Tour Eiffel post (where it can be seen from above). One of the temporary exhibits featured tattoo art from around the world. There is some mild nudity in these shots, but I think we can handle it:
And here is a modern Maori gentleman with traditional facial tattoos:
Many of the main exhibits are in very large rooms with subdued lighting, except for the lighting of the pieces on display. (There is no problem finding your way around, however.) In these photos of masks from Greenland and Alaska, respectively, you can see other pieces in the background:
The Branly was recommended to me by my landlady, and I'm glad I went. The following museum I just happened to spot from the window of the bus as I was riding down Boulevard Saint Germain:
I went back later to check it out. It was in a nice building a little ways back from the street:
I won't post pictures of them, but, just as a sampling, I saw manuscripts (or portions thereof) by Charlotte Bronte (not Jane Eyre), Rimbaud, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Marie Curie; letters signed by Napoleon, Monet, Magritte, Hemingway, Zola, Sand, Mann, Tolstoy, Wilde, and Einstein; a sketch book by Chagall, a different sort of sketch book by Edison, and musical scores by Mozart, Debussy, and Schumann, among others. They also had a copy of the "Declaration des droits de l'homme en societe" drafted during the revolution.
I will post this drawing by St. Exupery of le Petit Prince! Such a wonderful book, and one of the first I read in French. (My only problem with it is that the female gender doesn't come across so well. In this drawing-- which isn't in the book--he is complaining that "she is never there when you call", etc.)
On another floor, the museum had a thoughtful exhibit on writings by soldiers in wartime. (The centennial of WWI was much in evidence in the city, especially in the form of a series of photographs of battle scenes, as they appear today, on display on the fences around the Jardin du Luxembourg.)
One more museum I'd like to include is the Musee de la Vie Romantique, in the 9th arrondisement, a little ways south of Montmartre. Its beautiful setting and tea garden earn it a (deserved) spot in "Quiet Corners of Paris". Much of it is devoted to George Sand, who lived in the area and attended salons there when it was a private home.
The memorabilia included plaster casts of her arm and Frederic Chopin's hand:
Since we were was near Montmartre, I will add this non-museum item. Ellen and I climbed up to Sacre-Coeur the back way, taking a circular route through the neighborhood, rather than the customary route up the front steps. It started to rain not long after I took this photo:
...and this can serve as a segue to the next post (or two), which will cover other non-museum sites that I visited during my stay.
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