Day 3

We got a day behind on blogs, but yesterday began with an early morning rise from our hotel which lead to a rapid session of packing and getting ready.  After a quick coffee and croissant, it was back to the hotel room to finish packing, check out, and walk one km to the apartment.  After meeting the apartment's caretaker, Alexandra, we began separating our things out of the suitcases and into their more permanent places throughout the apartment. 

More exploring ensued as we wanted to become more familiar with the area around our apartment and we were very pleased to see not only more restaurants, but a multitude of gift shops, bakeries, a Monop' (like a mini supermarket), and more importantly, the Centre de Pompidou only about a block away.  Since this is one of the main attractions of Paris we went inside almost immediately, and were able to enjoy the special exhibitions of Calder, an American toy-maker/sculptor, and Kandinsky, an artist.  After a quick drink and a small break for our feet in the terrace surrounding the Pompidou we moved back inside and went up to the exhibitions for modern art, where we enjoyed work by Dali, Claude Monet, Picasso, and Van Gogh.  Also among the artwork was more recent, somewhat experimental, pieces of art most of which were post 1970s. 

We returned to the apartment for a small break and only stepped out for a quick bite to eat crepes from a local creperie next door to the fountain of the Pompidou.  

- Kyle

Steph's additional remarks to Kyle's blog:

Our apartment is great. We have stone/terra cotta tile floors, our own mini washer/dryer (in one! why don't we have these in the US??) which is running right now, a patio, a decent kitchen, and a much larger bathroom than I was expecting. We stocked up on groceries a bit at the Monop' (Monoprix is like a super Target, Monop' is just the food part), and for as expensive as it is to dine out in Paris, the groceries were a lot less than I was expecting. And oh, the cheese. I can't get over how good and cheap the cheese is. I need tips on how to smuggle some back home.

The Pompidou Centre is the most awesome/ridiculous building in Paris, and it's a lot of fun because it's so unique. It's enormous, and the escalator is in a glass tube that snakes up the side of the building. At the top, there's a restaurant and a spectacular view of the city. In the huge, sloped square out front, there are people drawing caricatures, various musicians (including an Asian guy with a guitar playing Oasis), living statues, and people just sitting and hanging out. The main exhibit going on now is "elles @ pompidou" focusing on modern art by women. A lot of it was weird. The upstairs gallery (years 1905-1960) was amazing though, and the other separate exhibits on Calder and Kandinsky were great. I didn't know of Calder before, but his wire sculptures were so cool!

And then we had crepes for dinner at Creperie Beaubourg. Not just the street vendor crepes, but real, legit crepes, and they were delicious. I had a ham, egg, and cheese buckwheat crepe with a small salad, and a buerre sucre (butter and sugar) crepe for dessert. I can't wait to go back for some of their more elaborate dessert crepes. :)

-Steph