Centre Pompidou et Nuances of the French Language

Salut mes amis!  Yesterday I registered for classes at Paris IV.  Everything went smoothly!  I have a class on Louis XIV on Wednesday at the old Sorbonne (because it's an advanced class) and Intro to French History in the 20th Century on Thursday out in the boonies near Clingancort.  Hopefully I'll be able to find the classes! 

Waiting to register...the Sorbonne buildings on the outskirts of Paris are kind of laide (ugly)

In the afternoon, we went to the Centre Pompidou!  It is the National Museum of Modern Art.  The building itself is extremely modern.  In effect, they turned the building "inside out" so all of the infrastructure (pipes, wiring, escalators, etc) is on the outside.  This would then allow for more room for all the art on the inside.

Centre Pompidou

Now modern art is not my favorite, but I still enjoyed my visit to the museum.  There were fantastic views of Paris from all the windows and works by Matisse, Picasso, Warhol, and many others.  For every wacky/weird piece of art, there was something else that was really cool.  Although perhaps the art wasn't wacky, maybe I'm just not high-minded enough to get it.  Here's a selection of what Pompidou had to offer! 

 Ten Lizes by Andy Warhol

 Some rainbow room

There was a lot of modern furniture in the exhibits as well.

 You could walk all over this work of art!  It was meant to look like a grotto or something....pretty cool!

 Dark Blue Panel by some silly person.  Sorry I don't think this is art. Thumbs down.

I'm in a work of art!  Cool mirror. 

 I liked this painting because it reminds me of camp. :)

 This was just across from the canoe painting.  Yay camp!

Coolest chain link fence ever!!

This was my favorite!! It was a moving sculpture consisting of a fan, and a strand of cassette tape.  The fan made the tape spin around and around, but it never flew a way, just rotated in midair.  The picture doesn't do it justice. 

And now for the nuances of the French language section.  As most of you know, I am not really a morning person, unless morning comes around 10am or later.  When I woke up early yesterday to go to register for classes, I saw my host dad making coffee.  Without really thinking, I said "salut!" which is an informal greeting, kind of like "hey!"  After I thought I should have probably said "bonjour" which is more formal, but I didn't really think about it too much.  But oh boy did I head about it at dinner.  He wasn't mad at all, but we had a long discussion about respect that is built into French.  I always use "vous" with my host family, which could mean either a plural "you" (kind of like 'you guys') or a formal way of addressing someone.  Because I am young, they use "tu" with me which is singular or informal.  Over dinner we discussed the difference between tu and vous and different greetings.  When addressing friends or someone the same age as you, tu is used because it is more intimate and less formal.  For people you don't know well, or someone older, you use vous.  He said that it is very important to understand the nuances of French so that the beauty of the language can be protected.  This morning I said "bonjour!".  Lesson learned. 

 

Bisous!

Allison