Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

After a stop for a late breakfast/brunch we made our way to the Centre Georges Pompidou, commonly known as the Pompidou Centre. The Pompidou Centre is Europe's largest modern art museum whose exterior and interior are almost equally absurd and surreal.

The exterior uses an “inside out” design with large pipes on the building’s facade, and the inside consists of some quite conceptual outside-the-box modern art. The inside-out exterior moved the building’s functional appliances out of the main space and into the open air so that the galleries inside could have more room to work with. To spice things up even more, the building’s appliances were colour-coded: blue for heating and cooling, green for plumbing pipes, yellow for electrical wiring, and red for the escalator (which, of course, is located on the exterior of the building too).

The works of art on display inside certainly match the exterior of the building although there are some pieces that make me wonder who decides what is classed as art that is worth displaying. While I found some pieces quite bizarre I did enjoy seeing works by Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Vassily Kandinsky. Brad enjoyed finding the more risque pieces.

And the added bonus was the views of Paris as a backdrop to the sculptures on display on the outside patios. It was a cool place to spend an hour or two.Read more