After a nice breakfast with Eliane I commuted into Paris once again. I decided to start with the Pompidou Center and the Museum of Modern Art. I thought that the building was really pretty ugly and the touts outside trying to sell stuff were really annoying. I´m also not a huge moder n art person. I had heard really good things about this museum though and felt that it was time that I checked it out.
The museum was anything but disappointing. There were detailed descriptions of each painting and movement. This really helped me to understand pieces that would have been really baffling. Most I would have just written off as crap.
However, I don´t think any type of description could adequately explain to me why there was a room full of inflatable furniture. I might have some new decorating ideas though. A living room full of clear plastic air filled furniture might be in my future. Some of the sculptures were really nice. I especially liked a life sized red rhino. The thing was huge! There was another sculpture of a man and a woman hugging, the woman was also kissing another man who was standing behind. I guess it was a threes a crowd metaphor. For unknown reasons a wicker airplane had hundreds of pairs of scissors protruding out from it. From the roof deck I got a really good view of the Eiffel Tower and Mont Martre.
Upstairs 0there were several rooms with works by Henri Matisse. He´s been a new favorite of mine since I visited his house in Nice. There were also some nice Piccassos and Dalis to examine.
When I had finished pondering art I walked to St. Sulpice. I think this was in t he Da Vinci Code, but I didn´t recognize anything. I then headed down the street to the Chapel of Notre Dame de la Medaille to check out some mummies. There was a huge number of people here and I thought that there might be a service starting. Turns out there was and I didn´t get to see the dead nuns for long. I then stumbled upon the church I had been looking for yesterday in a totaly different area of the city than my guidebook had said it was in. It was closed though, so no more mummies for me today.
After a bit more of a walk I came to the Rodin Museum. This was phenomenal. There were several statues of couples that seemed to be breaking out of the rock they were carved in while embarrassing moments. It was just amazing. For some reason there were also a Van Gogh and a Monet. I don´t know why. The statues were just so amazing, I counted myself very lucky that photography was allowed. Rodin's carvings were so expressive, they seemed almost lifelike to me.
Once I was finished here I headed to the Gare de l`Est via the metro. I got a bit confused though and ended up switching lines quite a few times before finally getting there. That evening I tried to do a bit of blogging, but mostly I just chatted with Eliane. Before sleeping I watched a bit of The Holiday. Eliane had lent me her portable dvd player and she had loads of movies to choose from . I might never leave!
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