Day 17–Not Sure There Are Any Irish Here Today?

I haven’t seen any one wearing green this morning but the main clue in the IHT crossword this morning was about Erin. (Ireland, not Crawford.)

Sat at the Canal St. Martin this morning, en plein air, as we artists say, sketching. Lovely morning. On the way back, saw a young woman in shirtsleeves.

Gerry thinks we ought to do fewer activities, more hangin’ around soaking in the Parisian atmosphere. (Oddly enough, Graham and I stopped at a café this morning called L’Atmosphere, right on the canal). Anyway, sounds good to me.

Now about 40 years old, La Défense, at the western edge of Greater Paris, is a stop on our architectural journey here. It’s essentially a modern office skyscraper complex. (Brigitte, are you reading this? I know, quiz when we get home.) The key work is La Grande Arche designed by the Danish Johan-Otto von Spreckelsen, really an office building with remarkable views of the city both from the large ground platform and at the top as it’s essentially on a direct line from the obeslisk at Concorde up the Champs-Elysées through the Arc de Triomphe to the end of the Métro ligne #1. At the top, it features an exhibition area where we saw art and an interesting exhibit on the 60 years of the development of the computer. My old relic was in the exhibit; the actual one.

La Grande Arche is also one of the must-see sights in www.galinsky.com (on architecture of various cities in the world).

If we can stay awake, we are going to see Dans Paris with Julie Delpy at 10:20 tonight.