Even more impressive than the Louvre in my eyes, was the modern art collection of Centre Pompidou. The inside-out building housed contemporary art from the 1900s to the present with a spectacular floor dedicated to female artists from the 20th century. We walked from gallery to gallery impressed by the selection of works and meaningful placement. I was really struck by the exhibit’s emphasis on the position of the female body in ‘public’ of the modern space. One room was framed with the following Virginia Woolf quote that stood out to me:

“Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size.” - Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

After about two hours of meaningful exploration (in the permanent collection I got to see one of my favorite Chagall’s and a great range of early Matisse) we had lunch in a square near by with a fountain teeming with modern art sculptures. Tasty buckwheat crepes and salad and then set off to the Catacombs.

We realized that they are closed on Monday at luckily, only the second of the four planned metro connections and changed our route to follow the 90 min walking tour of Monmarte in our guidebook. At our youthful rate, we completed the tour in about one hour and made a detour to the Sacred Heart church, a magnificent structure up on the hill of Montmarte. Walking by the studios of Serrat, Van Gogh and other greats we took in the scene (only slightly obstructed by tourists) and found a nice boulangrie and picked up one pastry for then and the other for later (the waiting is hard on James, I know!). Another very fun day, and we return to he cafe across the street to check email and have our Being and Time meeting. I am hardly worn out at all, I can put my energy into making dinner again this evening yumm, pasta, wine bread and cheese for a fraction of the price of eating out.