Friday December 6, 2019
The French workers strike continued today and public transportation services were severely disrupted. All the Metro lines were closed except the two automated lines which are #1 and #14.
The #1 Metro cuts through the center of Paris along rue du Rivoli, so I took it to la Maison Europeenne de la Photographie – la MEP. My goal this week was to visit as many museums as I could despite la greve.
The MEP is a major center for contemporary photography which is housed in a lovely 18th century mansion. The museum is also a place for photographic restoration and conservation for the city of Paris and other museums.
There were several excellent exhibits currently on display. There were photographs about life in the Brazilian Amazon taken by Tommaso Protti who won this year’s prize for photo-journalism. There were also large photos of the Israeli/Palestinian border taken by Harley Weir who is known for fashion photography. The main exhibit was a retrospective of the photographs by Ursula Schulz-Dornburg. Her thought-provoking black and white photos were taken during decades of travel across Asia and the Near East.
It was raining lightly when I left la MEP so I walked to the Centre Pompidou several blocks away. There was a line of tourists at the entrance:
On this rainy chilly December day, it seemed that the Pompidou Center was a popular place for tourists to hang out and stay warm and dry in the huge central area of the building:
The Pompidou building is very photogenic and I missed my Nikon which I had left at home this time, but I took pictures with my cell phone:
This couple was NOT part of the exhibit:
It was still gloomy and raining outside:
There was a fabulous retrospective of the works by Christian Boltanski:
Here’s my Impressionist view of Paris from a window at the Centre Pompidou:
It was a fun day and I was able to ride the #1 Metro back to the hotel.