It is so nice to get  many positive comments and to know friends and family are enjoying these travel blogs of mine.  I almost didn’t include the photos of the playful cakes, because I feel that I’m putting too much emphasis on pastries. Glad I did — they seem to have been a hit.   It is hard not to focus on food as it is everywhere here in Paris.  Food is obviously very important — and high quality food at that.  Although one sees some signs of what we think of as junk food creeping into the scene, for the most food is real food and well made.  It is hard to get a bad meal in Paris — though not impossible.

We took the #70 bus again… this time crossing the Seine to the Right Bank. We got off at Chatelet and walked the rest of the way to the museum but before doing so I snapped the photo below of the Palais of Justice and the prison where Marie Antoinette and many others were held during the revolution.   

Before getting to the Pompidou, I thought I’d mention a couple of things that are useful to know when coming to Paris for the first time. When you ride the metro or the buses, always keep your white ticket (which is stamped in the meter when you get on). ‘Checkers’ sometimes wait at the exits to be sure everyone paid.  You have to show them your ticket in order to get out.  

And, as many of you know — you won’t ever get l’addition (the bill) in a restaurant without asking for it.  And, the wait staff NEVER comes by to ask if everything is OK after serving you.  They assume it is — otherwise you would say something.  And, never call a waiter garςon.  Waiters and waitresses are referred to as monsieur or madame.  

See that structure below that says TOILETTES.  I’ve never used one but I’ve heard they are really good when needed.  The charge is 50 cents per use.  If you use it, don’t hold the door open to let someone else in.  BECAUSE — when you slide the door closed, the entire inside is sprayed with a cleaning agent.  If someone else sneaks in to use the facility on the same 50cents, they will be sprayed as soon as the door closes.  I don’t know how many people have had a wash down, but I think a few have.  Have a good chuckle!  I think of it everytime I see one of these.  

In the background and the photos below you see the Pompidou which is in the 4th arrondissement, the only one that has a special name —Le Marais — as far as I know.   It is on the Right Bank… 

 I’ve rarely heard a Parisian refer to the Right or Left Banks.  Instead, they refer to location by arrondissement — which is an administrative district.  (There are 20 arrondissements, with #1 in the center -the first settlement of Paris — and each successive one continuing in clockwise fashion as it came into being.  The Seine runs through the center of the city, and the arrondissements circle around it).  The arrondissement  of an address is always given when someone is telling you where a place is. 

President of France George Pompidou commissioned the structure in the early 1970s.  It houses the largest collection of modern art in Europe.  You can imagine that it was not embraced by Parisians initially, but most, I think, now appreciate its innovative design and beauty.  We rode to the top on consecutive escalators after viewing the Sheila Hicks exhibit and had lunch with views of Paris all around us.

Sheila Hicks — weaver and worker with yarn.  What a gorgeous installations.  (That’s me, not her!)

Some of her most exquisite work were the small weavings seen here on the back wall.  Unfortunately, the glare was too much such that I couldn’t photograph them.

Since a child she has carried a notebook with her to make sketches.  Here is one of them.  Below you see some of the works in another major show here at the Pompidou — Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevitch — the Russian Avant-Gard in Vitebsk.  I’m including only two here — this one of Chagall flying over his town.  

And the one below – entitled simply ‘Above the City.”  (1914-1918)

And one more that George and I both loved…. entitled: The visit of the self-portrait (1918).   So interesting to contemplate 

A view of Paris through the dirty windows of the top floor — the Sacre Coeur is in the distant on the right.  

Georges — the restaurant at the top of the Pompidou Center.