10 September 2016 – Paris
Day 4. Headed north and a bit east to the Picasso Museum – a lingering irritability about Rodin making us somewhat hesitant, especially knowing two floors of the museum are currently closed to prepare for a new exhibition. We needn’t have worried. The basement featured an exhibit by Spanish artist Miquel Barceló (one of his fragments of plaster pictured) that quite restored us to good humor; every turn brought some unexpected, slightly disorienting vista to view.
The remaining collection on show, undeservedly amplified by exclamation marks (¡Picasso!), did not surprise, though it did manage to charm – particularly the room of goats (for which, the curators assure us, the painter had a ‘predilection’).
On the way to the museum, we stopped in the 15th–17th century church of St-Gervais-et-St-Protais, whose 20th century stained glass had a wholly inappropriate use of sans serif, as well as the 17th century church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis – which gave the unfortunate impression of being entirely tromp l’œil.
Also, remind me, when I have a 17th-century building to call my own, of these drainpipes.