Paris

There were a few highlights during my trip to Paris which are worth mentioning. Of course we visited all the obvious sites. We experienced one of our few strokes of good luck arriving at the Louvre on the first Sunday of the month which meant free entry! However this did mean constantly squeezing through hoards of people, as if gallery visiting isn't exhausting enough already! Not too bothered about the over praised Mona Lisa, i went in search of ancient artifacts and any clues to some origins of my Indian block printed textiles patterns.

I thought the patterns on this important looking man's coat showed similarities to Indian Ajrakh block printing and in colour also. Looking back at my notes, I can only make out that it is dated 2600 BC. Although I'm now not trusting my roughly scribbled translations from french, as it doesn't look this old. I will always take a proper notepad to galleries in future, and create a clear coding system for the photos

Geese seem to appear constantly in ancient artifacts, and seem to hold important symbolic meaning for the ancient civilisations that created images of them. They are also seen in the patterns on the oldest textiles in evidence found in Egypt, thought to have come from India.

Many other geometric patterns painted onto pots used similar patterns and in the similar natural colours in use today.

By the side of the vast Louvre is Le musee des arts decoratifs. A beautiful old building, it exhibited fashion, art deco and nouveau interiors, jewellery and other styles of decorative art, including a temporary exhibition of design using animal imagery - collection of very garish objects. For me the exhibitions inside were not as impressive as the building, although I did enjoy the exhibits of fashion by some of Paris' famous designers.

In complete contrast to ancient art were the eccentric, eerie sculptures on the pond overlooked by the dominating Pompidou centre. I loved just sitting and viewing these crazy objects, but if sat at night with few people around, I imagine listening to their creaking movements would have created a really eerie atmosphere.

There was something good to come out of missing our train due to the strikes. We had an extra day in Paris and hadn't yet had chance to see the Institut du monde arabe, which I had wanted to visit. We picked up one of the public velos and took our own tour along the seine. Paris architecture does amaze at almost every corner. And this was yet another fascinating building because of its uniqueness and contemporary design. I loved the continuous symmetry in the building's surface pattern that is such a big part of Arabic culture and Islam.
I loved the way geometrical and symmetrical patterns that are so often used in traditional Islamic art and architecture, were here applied to a contemporary context to create quite a striking effect.

Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take photos inside. The building inside wasn't quite as striking as it appears on the outside, although they have an extensive collection of Arabic artifacts and art. Pieces of contemporary paintings were exhibited alongside Typically we were there when they were renovating a whole gallery as well, so usually there would be a lot more to see.