A cruise through the Pompidou

“The aura given out by a person or object is as much a part as their flesh. The effect that they make in space is as bound up with them as might be their color or smell. The effect in space of two different human individuals can be different as the effect of a candle and an electric light bulb…”
—Lucien Freud

The Lucien Freud exhibition ends at the Pompidou on Monday, so I busted my bum to get there today. I didn’t know much about the British painter except that both Mel and Jerem had raved about the exhibition and I knew I would like his fierce brushstrokes. I was happy to see it: jarring and intense, it shows that art doesn’t have to be pretty to be appreciated.

But mostly I wanted an excuse to visit the Pompidou.

To go up, up, up, the tubular escalator, watching the tourists watching the mime below get smaller and smaller.




And then take in the view. The Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur…


…plus l’Eglise Sainte-Eustache with La Defense off in the distance.

And then to come outside with the bright blue skies of a fine summer day in front of me.