Building of the week - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

The return of this segment which may no longer be strictly weekly because I am now busy on Saturdays without internet access and I can't guarantee that I'll have time during the week to think of something!

 Centre Georges Pompidou

1971-1977

4th arr, Paris

Gnoudesavanes wanted to visit the Musee d'Orsay back in September, but I suggested the Pompidou because it was a lot closer to my hotel (I was kinda tired) and I've also been to the d'Orsay three times before. 

On our visit, Gnoudesavanes filled me in on a bit of the history that he knew about the building. The building was planned by its namesake Georges Pompidou, President of France 1969-74. It's believed he wanted to leave his stamp on the city with the creation of this somewhat controversial building. By exposing various functional aspects of the building (pipes, electrical wires etc) which are colour coded to boot, we couldn't decide if the building was interesting or ugly.

What's really nice about the building are the glass-enclosed escalators which go up to the fourth floor galleries that allow a gorgeous view over the city.

We observed that the houses in the square would be worth several million euros. We also observed that if you were an owner of the house in the early 70s when the building went up, you probably wouldn't be very pleased at it ruining the view. 

There's also a museum of modern/contemporary art. It kinda confirmed to both of us that we don't like modern/contemporary art. 

But it does have some lovely reflection pool galleries, which are almost worth the entry fee!