Kodiak Haakansons: Pompidou Center and zoo day...

From the Pompidou Center- It's Marc Chagall and his wife Bella in front of the Eiffel Tower!

The girls fooling around in the building elevator...

We stayed up so late the night before that none of us actually got out of bed until well after 9, but eventually (of course, and unwillingly) we did. By 11:00 we were on the metro on the way to the Pompidou Center (Paris' modern art center) but by the time we made our way to the actual center we were already hungry again. A greek meal later, we finally made it into the museum. The Pompidou Center is an absolutely amazing building that was completely cutting edge in its time (the late 70s) because it turned architecture on its head by turning this building literally inside out. All the 'guts' are stripped and exposed- green pipes are plumbing, blue ducts are for climate control, electrical wires and people moving devices (escalators) are yellow, circulation elements and safety devices are red. Since all of the structural elements are exposed, it makes the walls completely movable, so the interior of the museum can change its face/ floor plan when needed.

We enjoyed a Mondrian temporary exhibit, then went on to their amazing permanent collection... the strange and somewhat disturbing modern art floor (where we often had to pretend that we saw something amazing to get the kids to not look in a particularly disturbing room) and the wonderful floor dealing with 1905-1950, with some wonderful Picasso, Chagall and Matisse pieces, amongst many others. We stopped in the strange temporary exhibit of Arman, the 70s performance artist, and went to the kids play area on the way out that was filled with Arman-themed activities (sorting random crazy objects, stamping silly symbols and stacking different sized plastic tubs).

Afterwards we decided that we didn't have enough time to go home before our Mozart rock opera show so we walked to the seine, to Notre Dame Cathedral (and to a crepe shop neighboring it), and to a little restaurant in the Latin quarter where we relaxed for a 2 hour dinner of mediocre frog legs and duck l'orange. We took another little walk and jumped on the metro to go to the Paris Palais des Sports for our show. We walked off the metro into a massive crowd of people and ticket scalpers and made our way to our seats in a massive sold out auditorium. The lights went down and elaborately dressed Baroque characters came out and broke into French song (imcomprehensible to me- Sven understood at least the basics). Then the character of Mozart came out- dressed in skin-tight leather pants and a bright-colored velvet coat and then ladies in the audience screamed! Apparently this actor (or character- not sure which) is somewhat of a superstar here in Paris, as we found out at the end when teenagers ran to the foot of the stage with their cameras.

The show was elaborate, the costumes over-the top and the songs were catchy. Songs often started out with a Mozart 'riff' but then quickly transitioned into an AC/DC type song... good stuff. Bella was dancing like crazy in her seat and even made the frowning, depressed man sitting next to her (drug here by his wife) smile- the only time the whole night he changed expression. We thoroughly enjoyed it and didn't get home until midnight.

The Pompidou Center

Avoiding the chunks of snow falling from the rooftops...

Picasso's girl jumping rope

One of the strangest Picassos I've seen- girl peeing.

From the top of the Pompidou Center

the play area

Stamping strange symbols

sorting and stacking

These frog legs are not so good.

Friday- Somehow (I don't know how) we made it out of the house by 11 and walked the ten minutes to the zoo to meet our friend Paz, an PhD student who works at the Quai Branly museum, and her two little boys Lucas and Martin. Unfortunately, the two inches of snow a couple of days ago led to the zoo being closed (a shame- it's a great zoo and also the oldest zoo in Europe). However, the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle next door was open so we went in there instead. The natural history museum made quite a stir when it was opened a few years back, since it was in a historic building from the late 1800s that was converted into building displaying information on animal life, ecology and a wonderful ancient high-ceilinged room room filled with stuffed extinct or endangered animals- and oddly enough, also a huge clock that belonged to Marie Antoinette. We loved the museum, all got very sad in the endangered animal room, had a fun picnic in the cafeteria, spent a long time looking at butterflies and bugs, explored the amazing dinosaur exhibit... and we only lost Paz's son once!

Afterwards we went home for a bit of rest and around 7 went to a cocktail party at Nelcia's house with various other interesting anthrophologists (and snacks) from around the world. We had a grand time visiting with people but left around 9:00 to go pick up my Scottish college flatmate and her little one-year old daughter (Naomi and Nadja) from the metro stop after their Edinbugh flight. We giggled like crazy that night and had a wonderful time re-connecting again.