Paris Blog #4: Shopping & Centre Georges Pompidou

Alas, Friday was not a very good day for pictures. It was hot (again), and I needed new shorts! I was down to pants exclusively and it's going to just be way too warm for that until Tuesday. So I started the day at a place that is very near and dear to my heart: H&M. I saw one across from Galeries Lafayette yesterday but I wasn't able to go in because I spent all my time at Lafayette! 

Luckily, they were having a sale so I picked up a great new set of shorts and 2 tops, plus some random other goodies. I'm most excited because I found a top with buttons that doesn't do the boob thing. If you are like me and have something noteworthy in the bosom area, then you know that button-up shirts can be a nightmare. Everything fits, you've got all the buttons done and then you see it - the thing. That distinct pull that looks like you're about to pop outta that thing at any second. It's a constant problem for me, especially at H&M. So when I found one that fit, I was like FUCK YEAH. I was also really excited to see the plus sized area that they had in their store. We don't have that in any of the stores in Montreal. With the weight that I've put on over the last year waiting for surgery, my trunk has certainly got a lot of junk in it, and so I sometimes have to shop in the oversize. In the EU that's definitely the case. 

So after spending like 200 dollars there (I guess "other stuff" was probably a little too ambiguous oops - I'll show you everything in my Paris roundup post... or potentially video???) I crossed the street back to Galeries Lafayette. I had seen that cashmere sweaters were on sale yesterday from the house brand and a girl needs her cashmere... but it's hella expensive in Montreal. You might as well buy angora because the price is nearly the same. I also needed to stop by Joe Malone. Okay, so I technically didn't need to but they don't have Joe Malone stuff in Montreal - not that I'm aware of if I'm wrong please correct me - and I picked up a new body cream and fragrance and yum yum. The combo of the two is going to make me smell delish!

After all that shopping (people were side-eyeing me on the Metro with my bags hardcore omg), I went over to the Centre Georges Pompidou to meet my good friend Lucile. She goes to school with me in Montreal, but she's back in France for part of the summer with her family and friends and so it was great to see her!!! It was weird not seeing her for nearly a month! We went to go see the Magiciens de la Terre retrospective, which was not a fabulous exhibit, to be honest. 

To make a long story short about this exhibition, since I realize that most readers are not Art History majors like me and probably don't care, it placed major contemporary artists of the late 80s with unknown indigenous artists from around the world who 'had not been poisoned by the European art well' basically. It paired the artists up on formal basis, ignoring the more significant connections/points being made by both 'sets' of artists. It got a lot of criticism and the exhibition we saw today was basically displaying the ephemera from the original exhibit, but it missed out on the chance to be self-reflexive and critical of what it did. The best part was a video loop that laid out the exhibition plan and showed photos of all of the artworks. There's not too much about the exhibition online because it happened in the late 80s/early 90s, so it was great to see everyone who was there and what they put together.

After that, we took a look at one of the permanent galleries. I only knew Joseph Beuys and Basquiat in the entire exhibit! After thinking about how I was so uninformed about my contemporary art, I realized that it's because my survey courses and a lot of other courses in my program stopped looking to Europe as a source of artistic inspiration and things seemed to move to Asia/the United States. So it was great to discover a lot of new artists - well new to me, anyways!

I am not sure if it was just the exhibitions on display currently (there was also a small exhibit about Piccabia and Man Ray in one of the galleries) or the museum in general, but I would probably not visit again if I came back to Paris, which is the first time that I've genuinely not been wowed by what I'm seeing in this lovely city! I think that tomorrow will be a lot better! I'm going to the Musée du Quai Branly and I'm super excited to see the Indiens des Plaines and the tattoo show (I have a non-museumpass ticket that I paid for so I have to go tomorrow or I lose my money hahaha). 

Paris Blog #3: More Location Lies...

Things I've learned: I clearly should not try to plan an itinerary for my trips because that just doesn't work. I told you I was going to see Bill Viola at the Grand Palais but nope. My friend Lucile is in town for the weekend for her birthday and I suggested that maybe we go and see that show, so I had to find other things to do today.

It turned out to be a busy, busy day. I am sore all over from the amount of walking and hell that I put my body through. 

I decided to start my day off with L'Arc de Triomphe. It's one of the attractions included on the Paris Museum Pass and I want to make sure that I break even on the pass before I leave! I think it should be pretty close. First of all, this thing was not where I thought that it was. I kind of saw a lot of arches in my Art History class and so I assumed that the arch next to The Louvre was the Arc du Triomphe because since when does a city need two commemorative archways? I was wrong. This baby is in the west end of the city. Luckily I realized that as I was on the Metro or else it would have been frustrating!

When you get out of the Metro for the Arc de Triomphe, it's not obvious that you have to go into an underground stairwell to get in. I walked around for a while trying to figure out how to avoid the death trap that is the street surrounding the Arc and then realized I had to cross underground. With that mishap out of the way, I finally got to the Arc and I guess I assumed that there would be an elevator to take people up because that's really high.

Well, there is an elevator but not for able-bodied people. So instead, you have to walk up ten flights of stairs. Ten spiralling stairwells. It was taking people on average ten minutes to climb up because we'd all have to stop. With the scorching heat (it got up to 37 Celsius today!) we were all heavily sweating by the time we reached the top and out of breath - gross, but my thighs have seriously never had such a workout. I should probably capitalize off of the fat-camp style introduction that I got to keep working on them. If you're going to do this activity, I recommend bringing some personal freshening wipes and carry your deodorant with you for sure. You'll need it. I also recommend avoiding this activity if you're like me and awaiting knee surgery. Whoops.

Despite the hardship of getting to the top of the Arc, the view at the top was totally worth it. See?

What a beautiful view of the Champs Elysées! You can also see the Eiffel Tower from a different perspective, but I didn't want to put up another picture because I put one up just yesterday of that! I am kind of a nerd for spatial perspective because we covered Paris and the way that Paris was designed for surveillance with long avenues like this one in a class, so it was cool to see how much more imposing the long boulevards are in person than in a photo, even though they are already quite impressive as is!

After spending some time on the rooftop, which was a comfortable height for me even though I am scared of heights, I had to go down the stairwell. This was much easier, but I had to stop because the winding staircase was making me dizzy! With the exertion of the morning, I decided that taking the Metro to the Musée D'Orsay was not in the cards for me. Instead of taking a taxi, I took a bide cab from the Arc to the Musée. It was about a fifteen minute ride and cost me 20 dollars. I have to admit, it's a very rickety ride because it's basically a rickshaw attached to a bike, hardly safe, but it was a great refuge from the heat and allowed me a more peaceful view of the Champs Elysées than I would have had in a car.

Again, it pays to have the Museum Pass at the Musée D'Orsay. You get to skip the long line and go through a "VIP" line where you have no wait at all with your pass. I have to say, I really enjoyed this museum a lot. There are two artists that really got me into Art History - Brian Jungen, a Canadian Indigenous artist, and Edgar Degas - and so to get to see some of Degas' artworks, particularly La Classe de Danse was overwhelming, to say the least. I ended up going to the bathroom and having a little cry after I saw it, which I know sounds silly, but if it wasn't for that painting and Brian's mask series, I probably would be doing something completely different with my life, so to see it in person is just an experience that goes beyond words.

I had lunch at the museum restaurant - shocker, I did not have another ham and emmental sandwich! Instead, I had a vegetarian risotto and a chocolate creme brulée. SO GOOD. The restaurant was gorgeous, too! From what I understand, it used to be a part of a hotel and so the entire place looked as ornate as the picture below. As you can see, I had to up my photo game to match the ornateness of the restaurant!

Warning: The restaurant is super costly. My food cost me 22 Euros! Yikes! But you only go to Paris for the first time once, right?

The temporary exhibition at the museum was about a sculptor named Carpeaux. As I mentioned, I'm not one for sculpture, especially large monumental sculpture, so I didn't particularly get much enjoyment out of it, but it was well put together and the artworks chosen by the museum to complement the sculptures were wonderful. I definitely preferred all of the paintings! I wish I could have taken some pictures, but the museum staff was breathing down everyone's necks. I did manage to snap a quick pick in the Deco arts section, though, so here you go!

Even though I was exhausted, it was still pretty early, so I decided to take advantage of the stores being open late and headed to Galeries Lafayette and the Sephora diagonally across from it. I was so surprised to see how expensive L'Oreal Paris products are in France! Mascara was eighteen Euros! I pay 10 bucks for the same thing in Canada! Foundation was eighteen pounds, it was absolutely crazy. I did, however, find a few brands that are not in the Canadian (and I presume US) Sephora stores which I was stoked about. I brought an eyeshadow palette and refill five-piece from Les Merveilleuses Ladurée, a Paris based cosmetics retailer. I also bought two items from another French brand called SAMPAR: A Daily Dose Foaming Cleanser and the "Glamour Shot Mat Perfection" mattifying concealer. It's not to be used with liquid foundation, so that's going to be interesting since I haven't used a powder or cream foundation in years (I find that I look cakey with them!) I'm going to give it a try.

Galeries Lafayette is crazy bananas. It's like a Holt Renfrew or Nordstrom in the US (I think that Nordstrom is your High-End retailer, yes?). You walk in and you're greeted by Longchamp, Dior, Louis Vuitton, etc. all as you walk in and the majority of the retailers are high-end. Even on sale, a lot of items were out of my price range. But I did finally get to buy some Agnes B. clothing! They're hard to find here without walking into Holts or Ogilvy and every time I try to get past the makeup section in Montreal, I feel like I'm hardcore getting side eyed by the sales people because I clearly don't look like I can afford to buy a one thousand dollar dress. I also got a cute top from Alice and Olivia. It was a splurge, even at 50%, but I really like it and I need some fancier clothes for upcoming events in the early school semester, so this seems like a good opportunity!

I will probably do more shopping because I have yet to max out my credit cards haha, but this week has been off to a good start. I really want to go to Zara! From what I understand, Zaras in the EU are way better than in Canada! We shall see! Let me know if you recommend any other stores in Paris!