Centre Pompidou, 1

After St. Germain-en-Laye, we still had enough energy to visit the Pompidou. We are only mild fans of contemporary art, and our modest expectations were nearly met. The permanent "modern" collection remains our favorite part of this museum. (Except they never have the right Roualts on display). Here are a few items we liked.

The Pompidou Centre from Place Pompidou

A bit of a parody whose title I didn't get

Georgia O'Keefe

You've heard of the Cubists; this is one of the lesser-known Cylinderistes

Alfred Courmes' Sebastien, 1934

Otto Dix, Portrait of the Journalist Silvia von Harden, 1926

Picasso Harlequin, 1901

Pierre Boucher, Volubilis, Maroc, 1937; photo-shopped?

Victor Brauner, Hitler, 1934

Speaks volumes to me

A stunning very large format photo, Ahmed Mater, North Gate, Mecca, 2012

St. Germain-en-Laye: le musee d'Archeologie nationale, 2

Continuing our tour of the National Archeological Museum at St. Germain-en-Laye...

Nice metal weapons and such, and molds

But it is the Celtic gold work that is a knock-out...various
torcs...

Thus

Closer up

Golden cone, half a meter high

More fine gold work

Gallic helmet

More gold

Glass bracelets

Gallic coins

Gallo-Roman floor mosaic

Detail

Gallo-Roman glass

St. Germain-en-Laye: le musee d'Archeologie nationale, 1

We first visited the National Museum of Archaeology in 1989. France has many archaeological museums, dispersed throughout the country and generally associated with specific sites, standing stones, dolmens, caves and their art, and so on. There are many such sites in the UK, and Ireland, excellent ones, and some also in Spain and Portugal. But it is difficult to imagine a place with a greater concentration and diversity of paleolithic and neolithic sites than France. The National Museum at St. Germain-en-Laye is a kind of national compendium, covering the paleolithic up to Gaul and the Romans. It is has one surpassing treasure, IMHO, and we'll get to that below.

Older paleolithic tools and a couple of Neantherthal skulls

Figurines...30,000 year old artifacts...

Female figurines...obviously influenced by
Rubens

And the surpassing treasure...the Dame a la capuche...carved
from mammoth  ivory, found in the Grotto de Pape a
Brassempouy; Gravettian, about 25,000 years old, give or
take...the Mona Lisa of the paleolithic, one might say,
although I think that gives way too much credit to the
Giaconda

Another view

Closer up artsy view (from a poster at the
musee)

More fine carving

Ditto

Ditto again

And again

And a large relief, similar to many we have seen in the south
west of France

And now, presto, fast-forward a dozen millennia or so, and
we are in the neolithic period, looking at beautiful ceremonial
hand axes, of jade, from Brittany; I still hope to find one on
Carnac plage...

Jade bracelets and necklaces

Neolithic pottery

And carved standing stone, also from Brittany

And now, shazzam! we are in the iron age, Gauls and Celts
and such

St. Germain-en-Laye: le chateau

Kim and Dave departed Monday morning. Noting we had only four days left of our visit in Paris, we studied our to-do/see list, prioritized, and took the RER out to St. Germain-en-Laye and the royal chateau there, which houses the National Archaeology Museum. It's been many months since we had a good paleolithic or neolithic experience. The chateau was built in the 12th-13th centuries, mainly by Louis IX. Perhaps the most remarkable part, and the only part remaining of the high Medieval castle not scourged by the Black Prince, is its chapel, by Pierre de Montreuil, which pre-figures the latter's Saint-Chapelle in Paris. One look at it and you figure it was the same architect and the same purpose as Saint-Chapelle. The Crown of Thorns was delivered here and resided here until Saint-Chapelle could be completed. The windows at St. Germain-en-Laye are gone, but it's still a rayonnant wonder. The rest of the castle was rebuilt in the 1360s. Oh yes, the chateau at St. Germain-en-Laye was an official haven for Jacobites in the late 17th century, and James II is buried in the town. Alas, we did not see much of St. Germain-en-Laye, the town, which looked very appealing.