Day 320: Paris, Day 10--Le Centre Pompidou, Bear's Den

We began today in a very boring way: getting subs at the Subway that's like a block or so from us. They wouldn't give us fountain drinks because there was no ice. "Too hot!" said the man behind the counter. As a result, we had to pay more (??) for bottled drinks...no combos. The French, for the most part, don't really understand the concepts of either ice or air conditioning.  It's a bit frustrating. We took the sandwiches back to our room to eat them, but the maid was working on our room, so we went down to the breakfast area to dine. There was a worker down there; I thought he was going to kick us out, but I explained to him that the maid was cleaning our room. He was very nice; he asked if we were from Canada, but I replied, "Les Etats-Unis."

After eating, we were off to Le Centre Pompidou. It's a modern art museum somewhat near the Hotel de Ville. We noticed a lot of rainbow flags around the city. It turns out that the Gay Games are going on in Paris right now...and we didn't even know about it! However, I must admit that I don't quite know what they are, who participates, or what the activities are. All I know is that they started August 4, and I think they go on until August 10.

Anyway, back to the museum: there were beautiful, colorful sculptures on the outside, and the architecture of the building is very modern as well. There's what looks like a long tube on the outside for people to travel in. The line to get in was not long. The ticket prices were 14 euro per person; we also bought two-day museum passes for our last two days, when we plan to see the Orsay and Louvre again. Then we went to the 6th floor, where they had Galleries 1 and 2. Only Gallery 1 was open. A lot of furniture and pottery there, which didn't interest me much, but the paintings did, as well as the films, such as a 19th century silent film of a woman dancing; Louis Valtat's Con de Massif Fleuri dans un Jardin de Provence (which had a cat and a snake); some works by Matisse and Picasso; some provocative propaganda posters; and some furniture and a car that had been in a silent film. We picked up a couple small souvenir things, and then we went to the Modern art. There we saw more Matisse, Picasso, Leger (whom I really like), de la Serna's Europe, van Velde's Neige, the Blue works by Miro...and, my favorite, Kandinsky!!  Afterwards, we headed to the Contemporary Art, which was either feast or famine. I was incredibly impressed by this "Magasin de Ben" constructed by an artist named simply "Ben," which had words written all over it. It was done very much in a mixed-medium, collage style and quite impressive to look at. Other cool/notable works included Jitish Kallat, Baggage Claim; gender-bending photography by artists such as Jurgen Klauke and Urs Luthi; a very odd film called Painter by Paul McCarthy, which involved the protagonist diving into a bag of excrement;  Peter Buggenhout's The Blind Leading the Blind #58 (which is like a chaotic series of sculptures and projections, impossible to describe); the colorful work of Gerhard Richter; Annette Messager's Les Piques (dolls being impaled on broom handles); and the Grand Tableau Antifascite Collectif, which reminded me of Picasso's Guernica, and was apparently held by police for 25 years; as well as much of the work of Jean-Jacques Lebel. On the whole, though, I did prefer the Modern Art collection. Some of the contemporary pieces--particularly the minimalist ones--just left me cold.

When we were done, Kerry and I went to the Bear's Dean, a gay bear bar nearby. It was very crowded; in fact, "crowded" is an understatement. Over 100 men just drank and talked on the street outside the bar. The place was so small it could fit only about 10 people inside, really. The bartender was nice. Smiled at us, quickly got us rum and cokes: for 14 euros, not surprisingly. Then the fun part started: we decided to check out the "dance floor" because online it mentioned that they had one. So we start going downstairs and we notice it's pitch black. By the time we get to the bottom, we noticed a TV screen showing a porn...and about 20 guys having sex. That's pretty much all that was going on down there; I wouldn't exactly call that "dancing." It's the same thing that goes on in a gay bathhouse in the US. It wasn't really what we were looking for....so...we left. I guess Paris is waaaaaay more liberal than even I thought. It takes a lot to make me uncomfortable, and that did.

Kerry was hungry, so we decided to find something to eat. We ended up at this place called L'Alsacien, where they served Alsace-style pizza...or, as they called it, flammekueches.  Each one came with creme fraiche, cheese, and other toppings. I had one with meunster and bacon. It smelled awful at first, but it actually tasted pretty good!  The best thing is that each flammekueche was not that expensive; only about 10 euros each. So we got out of there for only 29 euros, which is super cheap compared to most of the meals we've been having.

We had a bit of a problem coming home, as Kerry's phone decided to update just as we were trying to follow the GPS directions. So we stood there on a street corner for about ten minutes before we could get going. And then, about a block away from home, we both encountered a guy whom I think was trying to pick our pockets. He got really close to me and then took off. And then he and Kerry bumped into each other, and then he tried to engage Kerry in conversation. I was just really suspicious of this; he think he was probably trying to distract Kerry to pick his pocket. But all was good and we made it back fine.

Outside the Bear's Den