Florence

I’m back after some very nice weeks shared between Provence / Camargue and Tuscany.

Most of the time was spent in Tuscany at a small place called San Donato, half way between Florence and Siena, where we had leased a house together with kids, their partners and grandkids. I have no intention to make any long stories about the different visited places. Last year, I made some rather full posts about my Provence / Camargue holidays and I will not repeat it.

I have already visited Tuscany a few times and did not make any real sightseeing or museum exploration this time. The essential thing was to relax and spend time with family. Especially the swimming pool was in the centre of our activites. I thought however that I must give you some “proofs” of our presence in Tuscany, today starting with a few Florence landmarks. There will be two or three more posts about Tuscany before I return to my normal Paris reporting, but I will now essentially spend my blogging time on checking what you all have “produced”. After almost one month’s absence, I guess there is a lot to be read and seen.

I will be back on Monday and wish you in the meantime a very nice weekend!

I'm off - for a while

For the next four weeks I will share my time between Provence / Camargue and Tuscany. In the meantime I will not be blogging.

Below you can find my last post – for the moment.

I hope to “see” you all again by the end of August! Take care!

Centre Pompidou

The architecture of Centre Pompidou (or Beaubourg, as it’s often called locally) is more or less appreciated. You may have understood that I’m rather fond of old buildings, but I like very much also this one. Of course you should also go inside and visit the Modern Art Museum with Europe’s biggest collection of modern art – some 60.000 works from the 20th and 21st centuries. There is also an important library, a cinema, bookshops, a restaurant... and a lot of other more or less hidden activities. The Centre receives some 6-7 million visitors per year, more or less on the same level as the Eiffel Tower.

The Centre opened in 1977 and was designed by Renzo Piano, Richard and Sue Rogers, Edmund Happold and Peter Rice. What is particular is of course that the supporting structure, escalators etc. are all outside, making the interior totally free.

 

 If you go to the backside, where it’s more visible, you get a more clear impression of a small particularity – the different colours used for different ducts; blue for air, green for fluids, yellow for electricity cables and red for movement and flow. A special issue with the modern buildings is of course the need to keep them fresh-looking. Already after 20 years, the Centre had to be closed for about two years (1997-99) for renovating.