premier jour a paris

After four years I returned to Paris, to find out that the scent in the cold air still smelled the same.

My personal mission of the trip is to visit the Pompidou, after hearing so much about it and being regret not having been there last time. So I decided to seize my time and check it out on my first day in Paris, but at the end I have only stayed for an hour.

I realized I'm not as artsy as I thought I was. I was surprised by the number of locals inside the centre and that many of them were actually discussing about/studying/taking notes of the exhibits. One third of the visitors were seniors as well. I could not imagine seeing this sight in any of the art galleries in Hong Kong, so the critics about the imbalance between Hong Kong government's ambition in building the West Kowloon and Hong Kong people's art lieracy started to make a lot of sense to me.



There are two new exhibitions in the Pompidou, Dada and Big Bang. It is funny how I like to say "dadada" and in reality "Dada" does exist in reality as an importment movement in the 20th century art history.

I found out I am actually not a big fan of contemperary art, so after a quick tour, I left the centre. As I went down the 5-story centre, I found the seond and third floor packed with people, mostly people at my age. Those two floors belong to the library. And when I got to the first floor, I even found a long queue outside on the balcony. There were around two hundred people I'd say, standing in the cold. I did check with the secuity men, they WERE waiting to get into the library. I was very much impressed.

So back to myself, a superficial being, I left the centre to the Lafayatte to shop.

Paris' truely the city of fashion and gourmet. I was overjoyed when I stepped into the food department. Anyone who knows me would know. I believe I have never seen anything like that, that variety. I ended up buying a lot of ready-to-eat food, ruining my plan to dine at Champs Elysee.

Being in Paris is like being in a live fashion show to me. I believe I have never seen anything like that either. Not even in Tokyo or Milan, needless to say Hong Kong. The sense of fashion is like inborn to all Parisians, even the most unlikely knows how to dress. The only spoiler to this picturesque city would be the American tourists who had "New Your" written across his chest, or a hat that says "Yale" on his head.


Perhaps it is because of the business nature of this trip, I have grown a new relationship with my favourite city.