PARIS DAY 4 (LES HALLES, CENTRE POMPIDOU & AMAZING DINNER)

So the day after Christmas I got up rather early and decided that I would meet up with Greyson early in the morning and walk around Les Halles. Greyson didn’t make it because the metro wasn’t working so I ended up walking around Les Halles for about 45 minutes by myself but I didn’t mind. The Metro station Les Halles is probably one of the biggest and most buys metro stations in the city located in the 1^st  arrondissement. But what Les Halles (above the groun area) actually really use to be was a huge market where people would come and sell their goods and produce. I became interested in Les Halles after reading about Anthony Bourdain (whose French style brassiere in New York is named after it). But alas, they tore down the real Les Halles in the 70’s and built and underground market called the Forum des Halles. Though I knew the real Les Halles wasn’t going to be there it was really cool to go and walk around and be in the place that use to be so important in every day French life and cooking.

 

After walking around Les Halles for a while I decided to meet Greyson back at his hotel and then we decided that what we really wanted to do was go to the Centre Pompidou (basically a huge modern art museum in the 4^th arrondissement right by Daryl’s flat). I am actually soooo glad that we went and saw the Pompidou because it was absolutely amazing. I had been to the Louvre and the d’Orsay before and decided that I really wanted to see the modern art museum instead of the d’Orsay again (in my opinion you can never go to the Louvre to many times).           

 

The tickets to the Pompidou were not super pricey and I had a really great time. I would recommend going there to anyone who loves art (specifically modern art though). The building that is the museum itself seems to be a piece of art too! I hope some of the pictures I have taken will do it justice!

 

The first exhibit that Greyson and I went into was absolutely awesome! It was super interactive and Greyson and I and a fabulous time jumping and dancing around the interactive rooms. We took a ton of pictures inside that exhibit.

Pictures from inside the interactive exhibit at the Pompidou

Then after that exhibit you go up this really cool escalator that takes you to the top floor of the Pompidou and you can basically see all the city around for miles (including Montmarte and the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame all from one view). The top floor of the Pompidou was filled with cubist artists and  and as we waling into the exhibit I ran into Suzanne, a friend from USF who is also studying abroad (now in France) who was at the Pompidou with some of her friends, she and I made plans to meet up later in the week then Greyson and I went and saw the cubists and this really cool exhibit of Jacques Villeglé who is one of France’s major modern artists whose artwork is made up primarly of ripped posters… he use to rip them off of the poster areas in the Paris Metro but after Paris changed the poster laws he couldn’t use them in Paris anymore and had to get them from outside of Paris or in South America.

 

We then went down a floor to the other exhibits, Greyson made it through the fourth floor but was too tired to make it to make it through the third (he went down stairs to the café while I finished the third floor). The fourth was manly pieces of modern art and really cool installations and the third floor was mainly more paintings (the likes of Picasso and René Magritte [Magritte happens to be one of my favourite painters so it was really exciting to see some of his pieces]).

Pictures from the Pompidou

Architecture exhibit

Modern Furniture exhibit...

Eye exhibit (where you looked through a peephole)...

General Pompidou and Art

Picasso (the two below)

Magritte

Modern sculptures....

Some more art...

Skyline from the Pompidou

The Pompidou building

Bonjour-

I met up with Jonathan and Daryl for a bit on the fourth floor and we decided that we would meet up later and go to dinner. After a while I was pretty much done so I went down stairs to find Greyson, but there was still one exhibit I wanted to see that was on the ground floor of modern furniture and I am really glad I did because the furniture and architecture stuff was sooo cool. My little sister Rachel would have really loved it. There was also this really cool room with these strands of discs that when you looked through a peephole turned into an eye.

 

After running into Jonathan and Daryl we decided that it would be nice to go to lunch so we went to Les Philosophes which was a super cute café right across from Daryl’s flat and had a nice late lunch.

 

After these last two exhibits and walking and lunch, Greyson and I were really tired so we decided to go back to Jonathans flat and have a rest. I bought a bottle of wine and some oysters as a late afternoon snack (along with some fresh baguette) and it was soooo good. I opened all of the oysters myself with out a oyster knife but only with a butter knife, I was so proud of myself. After a long rest (we were soo tired from walking around the museum all day) we decided it was time to head over to Daryl’s flat for dinner.  

The oysters I opened!!!

Later that night we had a great dinner all together (I had some of the best steak Tartare that I have ever had) and a great bottle of wine in the cutes restaurant down the street from Daryl’s flat.

At our dinner!

Later that night Greyson and Jonathan and I went out for a bit but we were all so tired and Greyson need to pack that we decided to go home early and call it a night. It was a good after Christmas day and I really loved the museum Pompidou.

 

xoxo

Glatty