Today was the only one left to see whatever we still wanted to see before leaving this beautiful city tomorrow morning. We had the Museum of Modern Art on our list. It is located at the Centre de Georges Pompidou, a place I had never been.
This is the very unique outside of the center. It houses a cinema, museum and performance spaces also. the outside structure enclosed an escalator which is a bit like a ride through a hamster wheel. The view however, is amazing!
We were able to walk here from our apartment in less than 20 minutes. As many of you know, much of Paris is closed on Sundays but this museum is not so we knew it would be a good bet for the day. What we didn’t know but lucked out upon, was that the museum was hosting a David Hockney retrospective of his work throughout his long career and it was truly spectacular! He is a very interesting artist, now in his late 70’s I think who has produced art through painting in oils and acrylics, used collage, photography, pen and ink as well as other media. He even embraced technology in his art, using the iPhone and iPads also for the creation of his work.
One of his pieces in the show was a four panel work that started with black and then showed the entire creation process of a picture of 4 men at a table playing cards and drinking. It electronically showed him drawing the piece, each panel the size and shape of a very large iPhone screen. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any pictures at all in the show so you’ll just have to take my work for it. He’s worth a google if you have interest, it really was one of the best exhibitions that I’ve seen of a modern artists’ work.
The permanent collection of modern works was also quite good. It was divided into two floors, one from 1905 to 1965 and the other from 1966 to present day. They had an impressive number of Matisse works and many Monet and Picasso’s also.
This picture is of a room that was designed in the early 1970’s on a commission from the French prime minister. 
As you walked from side to side, the color you viewed the room from changed and changed the feel of the room also. It seemed to float in air due to the open webbing of the “walls” . Just a great work.
When we left, it was about 4pm and the line to get in contained perhaps a hundred people. The museum is open late and it was clear that the Parisians were taking advantage of that.
On our walk from there, we saw a political statement by Anonymous.
The signs all say “truth”. The laptop was playing french music that I could not translate so I can’t say how it related to their message. In spite of the masks, you can see how young they are, somehow it gave me some hope for the future…..youngsters who care enough about something to make a public statement feels hopeful to me.
We walked back through a shopping area with a mall in the Chatelet Les Halles area, we sat and people watched a bit, there was one of those random squirt water fountains that the children played in and a dj spinning tunes. We walked one last time through our wonderful market street Rue de Montorgueil, stopping at a shop for fresh soup and salad to take home for dinner.
Tonight we pack and in the morning go and get our rental car. We are trying to get to Dijon by tomorrow evening but we will see. I will try to write when I can but it will depend on time and internet connections. We must be in Nice by the 30th to turn in our rental car so the emphasis is on winging it between now and then. Wish us luck!
Adventures after Retirement 