Le Beaubourg

Today was the start of our museum phase, as Nik and I purchased 6-day Paris Museum Passes.  Kids are free at most museums.  Today's museum was the Centre George Pompidou (or Beaubourg), that houses the Musee Nationale d'Art Moderne.  On the way there we had to stop for another gorgeous church:

St-Merri, next to the Centre Beaubourg and the Fontaine de Stravinsky, is a 16th-century gothic style church, with Paris' oldest bell, dating to 1331 (we got to hear it strike noon).  Apparently Camille Saint-Saens played the organ here!

Madeleine and Henry enjoyed the art piece that one enters and experiences from the inside.  Anyone know the artist?  It's post-1960, if that helps, though that may be obvious!  The black lines delineated the contours in the piece.  It felt like being inside a glacial cave, except not cold.  Speaking of cold though, I was COLD today.  It felt more like October than August.  There were rain showers and some serious wind, with some sun in between, rather like Portland only it rained harder; high around 70F.  I am ready for some more hot humid days like we had in London...

Here is another one we all loved.  It's made of recycled materials: foil/ metal caps and other items.  All held together by copper wire, like a huge blanket.  It looks a lot like a Klimpt painting, in the color and composition.  Sorry we did not get the artist's name on any of these.  This particularly appealed to M and H who are obsessed with picking up little things off the ground.  Give them enough time and they could produce something like this from Paris street debris.

Anyway, as you can see, the kids did enjoy viewing/ experiencing the modern art, up to a point.  They had mostly had their fill before we even got to the floor with all of the early Picasso and Matisse.  We did our best to explain to them how modern art is an expression by the artist, and it may not be so obvious what the meaning is.  They really enjoyed a short art film, showing a man walking a sheep around a flag pole in a Mexico town square.  Each time around, a new sheep would enter and follow, and we'd all giggle.  This went on for a long time until there were 21 sheep, all walking in a circle.  Then the sheep took turns leaving until all of the sheep were gone.  Counting the sheep actually put me to sleep!  We learned afterwards that this piece symbolized an uprising in this square in which striking workers bleated like sheep in protest.

-E

These last two pictures were a couple of my favorite shots from the museum.  Today was a bit of a contrast from the centuries-old scenes we've been experiencing lately.  In my opinion, a proportion of modern art is visually pleasing, some is clever and for the rest, if you told me it was made by kindergartners, I'd believe you.  But I enjoyed today.

We did take a late lunch outside by the fountains.  If you guessed baguette, Orangina, cheese and sausage, you'd be correct.  Again, a quite foreign but pleasing sensation to be drinking red wine with lunch on the steps to the church, all while police officers stroll by.  I could get used to this.  

I felt today to really be straddling the line between tourist and resident.  We're strolling the streets, visiting famous museums and churches but we are also grocery shopping, cooking and washing dishes too.  I'm starting to recognize several of the men trying to entice you into their restaurants near our apartment.  Certainly Sully is being recognized as well, on his bike.  This evening, the boys hung out at the playground while Erica and Madeleine did some shopping.  Really seems as if the kids thrive on being able to run around, play and have this unstructured time, just like at home.  This is important for a trip of a month with our kids; nobody wants them to be run into the ground.  So far the balance is pretty good--everyone is happy and we're feeling satisfied to be seeing and experiencing plenty.  No kids have yet been tossed in the river.  

Speaking French has been great so far, it keeps me on my toes.  Even Madeleine bought some baguettes yesterday in French.  Henry and Sully are picking up some phrases also.  Living in a non-English speaking country for a year or two would be fantastic.  Time will tell.

We will likely head out of the city to Versailles to visit the palace and the gardens tomorrow.

-N