Culture Break

We went up to Paris last Wednesday to stay with our neighbours at their Paris home. They had been pestering us as to when we would go up to stay with them, so....we took the opportunity to go before the seeds start germinating. (You can see the priorities in this house.)

Thursday we all went to the Pompidou Centre, in particular to see an exhibition of the work of France's most celebrated modern artist, Paul Soulages, who we'd never heard of!

His work now consists solely of paintings in black...just black! He investigates the effect of the light falling on the textured black surfaces of his canvases. Our jury gave it the 'thumbs down'!

As for the Pompidou Centre....

....why would you rip down a complete square of old buildings in the centre of Paris to build an old factory, when you could have used any old 'brown-field' site???

On Friday it was a case of 'from the sublime to the ridiculous'. We went to Fontainebleau, an historic residence of the French kings.

I knew a little of the history of Fontainebleau during the 16th century and the time of the start of the French Renaissance, but I hadn't realised that Napoleon and then Louise-Napoleon III had used the palace. Well worth a visit!

So, it was nice couple of days of recharging the batteries.....back to the grind now.