(Thank you Cole Porter)
A hot summer’s day in the city, which I spent in and around Beaubourg - though I’m certain the Paris beaches on the Seine must have been heaving today.
Popped in to the Centre Pompidou late this afternoon – as the guide books reliably promised that this is the best time to avoid the queues. (Just love the museum pass, which means that residents from the Cité can pop in and out of the various museums around town and absorb digestible portions of all these amazing museums).
The Pompidou is currently showing an exhibition of the work of women artists from its permanent collection. I don’t know if it really made for a cohesive show but it was an enjoyable way to spend an hour or two this evening.
The Centre has very sensibly installed a series of very inviting banquets downstairs draped with exotic oriental tapis and
comfy-looking cushions - actually for their forum series of films and discussions – but it was an enjoyable sight to see weary gallery-goers unload their backpacks and gratefully take the weight off their feet, some stretched out in complete and unself-conscious repose.
The other funny thing is the gallery attendants in the museum are so unashamedly disinterested in anything going on in the galleries – they were chatting, reading, replacing a lost button on a cardigan, organising their handbags – I felt as if I’d accidentally intruded on them in their own homes. Which I suppose in one sense I had!
