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Foyer of Pompidou Centre

The Pompidou Centre contrasts very nicely with the Louvre. It is brash, loud, bright with a somewhat different clientele. It is open later – on Saturday’s the gallery at the top (where until next month the Matisse paintings can be found) is open until 2300). We managed only to get to the 3rd floor which houses the permanent painting collection up to the mid-1970s. There one finds a wealth of Picasso, Ernst, Miro, Kandinsky and even Pollock.It is vast, with each theme explored in small versatile cubicles. There are lots of little alleys each displaying surprises and examples of the moving image from the period, too. Statues adorn the many terraces (unfortunately so do the smokers).

Terrace, Pompidou Centre

The staff are also extremely knowledgeable and friendly. For example, when viewing the delightful piece by Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Le Chat, we learned about his brother and their involvement in WWI.

Duchamp_Villon

Louvre entrance area

One objective for this trip was to go to the Louvre. My two previous trips have either been too busy or the weather has seemed to be too nice to go inside. This time in we went on a Friday, mid-afternoon. The Louvre is open until 2130 on Fridays, so by mid afternoon it is a little quieter, but only a little. The main entrance area under the Pyramid is heaving.

The Denon Wing houses the Italian and Spanish paintings from the 15th and 16th Centuries. This includes the Mona Lisa and many other masterpieces. It is a tough wing to explore. The paintings are sometimes 3 high and the lighting hardly ideal especially if one’s eyesight is as poor as mine becomes.

The Mona Lisa is appropriately displayed in the middle of a large room. There are a lot of people trying to get to see her, made all the more difficult by the fact that the painting is so small. In Leonardo terms, we should be grateful that he finished the painting and it survives. The other Leonardo painting in the Louvre – The Lady from the Court in Milan, La Belle Ferronnaire – had no visitors when we passed by. Though it may be that it was actually done by an apprentice. Equally beguiling, from my own untrained eye.

Constable's Weymouth Bay

The gallery containing the Italian and Spanish art is long, very long. Right at the bottom, unexpectedly, one finds a small English enclave. There are two Constables nestling there. I took a picture of Weymouth Bay whilst no one was looking.

Paris in the Spring has a lot to recommend it. I’m staying in Montparnasse, a district to the south of the Seine. It is full of boutiques, cafes and theatres. The cemetery is packed full of the dead famous and not so famous but rich. The grave of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir is suitably spartan. Visitors here leave behind their metro ticket held down with a small pebble.

The grave of Serge Gainsbourg is an altogether more riotous affair. There are lots of trinkets left on the stone or hanging from some suitably disreputable bushes growing at the rear. The inevitable portraits of the man are there also.

This is not an overtly religious place, though the majority of the gravestones, sarcophagi and sculptures have some religious symbol. These hands, for example, are beautifully sculptured, though they clasp a cross. The occupant is Robert Thibier.

Lacoste

The other notable that we witnessed, was Bernard Lacoste whose stone is relatively simple, with a little bit of greenery. A photo of the man adorns the headstone, as well as the company logo, the instantly recognisable crocodile. Nice bit of marketing.

A full list of the famous housed is available at the entrance to the cemetery.