Paris, 5 (Wednesday)
A RAINY DAY. One day of rain makes me feel even more lucky for having such amazing weather all week. I went out this morning, in the rain, to pick up some pastries for our breakfast, and when we set out for the Centre Pompidou a bit later, it was still raining. Walking around with wet shoes, with wet coats and wet umbrellas, and then waiting in the rain for the museum to open, was not good. But once we got into the museum and checked all our bags and wet clothes in the coat check, it was better.
We all loved the Centre Pompidou. It was a nice change from the more traditional paintings we'd seen at the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay, and L&G were really taken with a lot of the wackier modern art. Their favorite was a broken-apart piano sculpture, and a piece made up of thousands of strands of ear buds. We made it through both floors of the main galleries, and then stopped in the bookshop, where I bought two Sophie Calle catalogs--one I'd never heard of before, and one for the exhibition I was planning to see later in the day.
It had stopped raining by the time we left the museum, so walking around the Marais was much more pleasant. We had lunch at L'As Du Fallafel, a packed Israeli falafel restaurant on Rue de Rosiers, the main street of the Jewish quarter. We ordered a big plate of ten different appetizers, a dish of hummus, and two huge lamb schwarma pita sandwiches. We expected the girls to stick to pita and hummus, but to our surprise they devoured all the falafel balls on the appetizer platter. We ordered ten more, and they ate those too. It was all delicious.
Fortified, we walked to the Perrotin gallery so I could see a Sophie Calle exhibition while Andrew took the girls out for some dessert. The exhibition did not disappoint. I have many of her catalogs and have seen two of her exhibitions in New York, but getting to see one in her home city was pretty amazing. The exhibition was in two parts--a photography piece, with photographs hidden by embroidered veils that read "Parce que..." and explained the reason she'd taken the photograph; you read the veil and then lifted it to see the photograph. The second part was called "Souris Calle," and it was a series of 40 commissioned songs Sophie Calle had requested musician friends to create in honor of her beloved dead cat, Souris. It was as strange and obsessive as it sounds.
I rejoined Andrew and the kids after that, and we went to the Picasso Museum. We got audio tours for the girls again. By this point we'd walked about a hundred miles and were ready for a stop at home.
After resting our feet (briefly), we walked to Cafe de Buci, in our neighborhood, for dinner. We got a table outside. L&G had their dolls (of course). Greta had a croque monsieur, and Lucia had quiche Lorraine. Andrew and I both had roast chicken. We all shared two creme brûlées.
It was a great day. And so uncrowded--we strolled right into both the Centre Pompidou and the Picasso Museum. We used our Paris Museum Pass for both, but we really didn't need the pass at all this trip. November is a lovely time to be here.
We all loved the Centre Pompidou. It was a nice change from the more traditional paintings we'd seen at the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay, and L&G were really taken with a lot of the wackier modern art. Their favorite was a broken-apart piano sculpture, and a piece made up of thousands of strands of ear buds. We made it through both floors of the main galleries, and then stopped in the bookshop, where I bought two Sophie Calle catalogs--one I'd never heard of before, and one for the exhibition I was planning to see later in the day.
It had stopped raining by the time we left the museum, so walking around the Marais was much more pleasant. We had lunch at L'As Du Fallafel, a packed Israeli falafel restaurant on Rue de Rosiers, the main street of the Jewish quarter. We ordered a big plate of ten different appetizers, a dish of hummus, and two huge lamb schwarma pita sandwiches. We expected the girls to stick to pita and hummus, but to our surprise they devoured all the falafel balls on the appetizer platter. We ordered ten more, and they ate those too. It was all delicious.
Fortified, we walked to the Perrotin gallery so I could see a Sophie Calle exhibition while Andrew took the girls out for some dessert. The exhibition did not disappoint. I have many of her catalogs and have seen two of her exhibitions in New York, but getting to see one in her home city was pretty amazing. The exhibition was in two parts--a photography piece, with photographs hidden by embroidered veils that read "Parce que..." and explained the reason she'd taken the photograph; you read the veil and then lifted it to see the photograph. The second part was called "Souris Calle," and it was a series of 40 commissioned songs Sophie Calle had requested musician friends to create in honor of her beloved dead cat, Souris. It was as strange and obsessive as it sounds.
I rejoined Andrew and the kids after that, and we went to the Picasso Museum. We got audio tours for the girls again. By this point we'd walked about a hundred miles and were ready for a stop at home.
After resting our feet (briefly), we walked to Cafe de Buci, in our neighborhood, for dinner. We got a table outside. L&G had their dolls (of course). Greta had a croque monsieur, and Lucia had quiche Lorraine. Andrew and I both had roast chicken. We all shared two creme brûlées.
It was a great day. And so uncrowded--we strolled right into both the Centre Pompidou and the Picasso Museum. We used our Paris Museum Pass for both, but we really didn't need the pass at all this trip. November is a lovely time to be here.
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