April in Paris – 2.

Ah yes, my wander round Paris; I almost forgot… Here’s the second installment of tales from my brief trip.

First of all, for those who don’t know, we have an office in Paris, on the outskirts of La Défense – Paris’s futuristic business district that’s also perfect for Jean Michel Jarre concerts. And a visit… well, that means a photo-shoot:

And later – a wander around…

First… the Louvre.

The Louvre Pyramid is the main entrance to the museum. It’s a modern construction right in the middle of a complex of historical buildings. Curiously, when the authorities announced its construction, ohhh how much cursing they heard from the good citizens of Paris! It’s frightening to think what would happen if a similar thing were suggested for Moscow or St. Petersburg. If someone stuck a triangle like that in the Kremlin – it’d be torn to shreds. An awful thing from any angle! Or maybe I’m just old-fashioned and can’t handle originality?… The tourists don’t seem to mind – snapping away merrily in all sorts of poses – yes, including the “look, I’m carrying this pyramid between my thumb and finger!” :)

Avant-garde – retro clash!

The inevitable

Anyway, I’m just joking. Despite the completely different styles somehow the final effect is rather impressive, in a quirky kind of way. Majestic even! (For some reason it reminded me of the dish “foie gras in chocolate”, served in a Parisian fusion restaurant I know of… but that’s a completely different story.)

After the Louvre – two birds with one stone – just behind the museum in the direction of the Champs Elysees, there’s a super eatery I had lunch at, with some bizarre wallpaper across the road from it:

We all have to make sacrifices for our art as they say, and I was a victim of the modern art in the Pompidou Center.

If you ever come here, first of all go up onto the roof – there’s a superb view over the city!

Where else but Paris?

Okay – now for the museum itself.

Some of the things on display are completely… odd (to me anyway). Uninteresting daubs, ugly agglomerations of something on something, optical effects attacking the human psyche… but then suddenly, unexpectedly, some modern monstrosity takes your fancy! You come across something that was designed with you in mind. It’s interesting how different exhibits affect people in different ways, but we all find something that we react to eventually.

Art?

This poor lad looks like he fell into Tolbachik

Ideas for the home; something for everyone!

And here we have some lava from Tolbachik no less

Oops! The 3-D printer’s had an ink leak

Epileptics – be careful:

“Why exactly did I burn my umbrella at Tolbachik?”, was my thought when rain started tapping on the windows of the museum. It’d come in handy now for the rest of my walk. But luckily this place is surrounded by loads of souvenir shops where you can suitably equip yourself against the prevailing climatic conditions.

The rest of the photos are here.