I hadn't really thought much one way or the other about the Pompidou Center (or Centre Georges Pompidou) as a potential place to take my out-of-town guest on his recent one-day visit to Paris. I mean, I knew about the Pompidou by reputation of course, but most people when they come here for a short stay order the "usual" from the Paris Tourist Menu: an Eiffel Tower down, the Louvre sunny side up, a trip down the Seine "on a raft", Notre Dame à la mode, and if they're not too full, an extra helping of some Left-bank cafés or a side order of Galeries Lafayette.
But my friend is Dutch, has lived in France, and has been to Paris numerous times. My initial relief at knowing I would not have to do the same old thing (and as great as those attractions are, it does get old when you end up doing it with each new visitor and you're trying to act excited about it for their sakes) was quickly replaced by: "OK, so NOW what do we do?" as I tried to come up with something we'd both enjoy doing and hadn't done before, but where we could hang out and talk if we wanted, as I knew he wanted some advice on writing a book. See, this friend has been a long-time client of mine, but despite knowing one another for something like six years, we'd never actually MET, and spending a day together in person is quite different from spending 30 or 45 minutes together on a phone call a few times a month, talking about business development or the latest coaching trends. So I needed to come up with one really good thing we could do for part of the day, leaving the rest of the day open for walking through whatever part of Paris he might want to visit. Because above all, one of the joys of being in Paris is just wandering.
Somehow, the Pompidou popped into my consciousness as a candidate. I didn't know my friend's tastes in art but figured that the great thing about modern art is, it doesn't matter if you love it or hate it, it always makes for interesting conversation because you do tend to see some truly bizarre stuff. Turns out neither of us had seen the Pompidou, so it would be a novelty for both of us - check! And the final enticement: I'd heard about this great rooftop restaurant they have, with some really good views over the city -- the perfect place for a special celebratory lunch. Decision made.
After picking up my friend at Gare du Nord and exchanging "Can you believe we're finally meeting?" hugs, we made our way over to the museum. The weather, which had been iffy when I had gotten up that morning, had smiled on us, and we had these incredible blue skies with fluffy white clouds as a backdrop. We got off the bus at the foot of the museum at the rear of the building, which for any other museum would be rather dull; instead we were greeted by the towering blue and green pipes and the giant white air ducts that are part of this structure's infamous "inside out" approach to engineering. The Pompidou lets it all hang out, that's for sure, and it certainly makes for one of the most interesting buildings I've ever seen.
After entering and checking my friend's backpack (the guards made him do that although we saw other people with backpacks later... since when does a Dutch orthodontist look like a potential troublemaker?), we took the tubular glass escalator up to the top floor to check out the view. It was everything the guidebooks promised, even as seen through slightly dingy-looking plexiglass. We got some amazing 180-degree views of the city from Notre Dame and the Pantheon on our left, sweeping all the way around to Sacre Coeur on our right - and all with sunshine to show everything off in its best light. I've often felt the Eiffel Tower is actually NOT the best view in Paris, because Paris is the kind of city that looks better a bit more close up so you can appreciate the architecture and the light. This view from the Pompidou confirmed that for me.
Next, a tour of the Samuel Beckett exhibit which closed on the 25th. I can't say I know much anything about Beckett's work (I'm not even sure I've ever read Waiting for Godot) and the exhibit was not my cup of tea, per se. But I did get an enormous kick out of seeing some sort of avant garde art film of a man and two women, a ménage à trois with each one stuck in a giant clay pot with only their heads showing, and covered (both them and the pots) in slime, gook and grunge while they babbled on about something or other. The reason I got a kick out of it was that the male actor was none other than... Alan Rickman, a.k.a. Professor SNAPE from the Harry Potter movies, who has also starred in Love Actually, Sense and Sensibility, and was the demented Sheriff of Nottingham against Kevin Costner's Robin Hood. And the female actors were Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliet Stevenson. It was Rickman's VOICE that caught my attention... I'm thinking: "I KNOW that voice; why do I know that voice?" and it was just unexpected to see him in that particular film clip compared to how I'm used to seeing him on screen.
After the Beckett thing, we were ready for lunch. Taking a seat on the outdoor terrasse, we had a view of Notre Dame from our metal table and chairs with the decoration of an ultra long-stemmed red rose that wasn't holding up well in that climate. I quickly realized why the tables and chairs were so heavy... the wind up there can be brisk, and the waiters had to walk around to the tables and lay the empty wine glasses on their sides to prevent them blowing over and smashing. But the sun was rather warm so the breeze actually felt great. The menu was quite good but quite pricey (I still can't get over the serving of caviar for a paltry 150 Euros - fortunately I'm not crazy about caviar), though they did offer some more reasonable fare. What you see here are our entrées (starters) -- his, the carpaccio and mine, the yummy fresh French melon which I'd heard about in Peter Mayle's books but never sampled. It was hands-down the best I'd ever tasted. The rest of our meal was also good -- for the plat (main course) we both ordered a penne pasta with a spicy tomato sauce -- and the service was excellent, as was the wine. My friend even commented on how the waiters were some of the few he'd ever seen in Paris who did NOT seem to stick their noses up at having to speak English to tourists (even though we spoke French with him). We skipped dessert (but splurged on a little Berthillon ice cream later on). Two thumbs-up from us on the restaurant, a lovely place to eat especially for a special occasion.
After that, we hit one of the gallery floors, which happened to be full of many, many unusual and quirky sculptural pieces plus a few paintings and photo exhibits (I always gravitate to the photography... big surprise there!) I've recently been posting a lot of the photos I took that day so I won't go through them again, but suffice to say it's never dull looking at modern art because even if you hate it, you can really amuse yourself by making fun of it.
Having said that, I have to say I found a lot to appreciate about the Pompidou, at least what I've seen of it so far. We ran out of time and there were at least two other floors we never had time to explore that day, and my friend wanted to get out and see more of the city. But we were both glad we made the time to see the space, the lunch was superb, the views were fabulous, and to top it off they don't mind at all if you take photos as long as you don't use a flash, unlike some of the more stick-in-the-mud museums in town which shall remain nameless (but not faceless).
So, if you're in town, or coming to town, why not do something different instead of the "usual"? See the Pompidou, and form your own opinions. If nothing else you can say you saw the museum that created some of the biggest controversy in Paris when it was built... not unlike the Louvre's I.M. Pei Pyramid and the Eiffel Tower itself.
Centre Georges Pompidou: http://www.centrepompidou.fr Open daily except Tuesdays.
