Le Centre de Georges Pompidou

I have officially changed my mind about Le Centre de Georges Pompidou - it doesn't belong here. It's cool, but with the way all the architecture in Paris looks, I really don't think it should be in the middle of all of those beautiful old buildings. They should pick it up and move it to this arrondissement - it would look okay next to the National Library, I suppose. But at least the National Library is a beautiful modern building that ties in with Paris architecture - it's a rectangle, there are four towers that are supposed to look like open books, and there's a garden in the middle (a lot of buildings here have courtyards inside). So, even though it's really tall and reflective, it at least kind of fits in. The Pompidou Center looks like a mess.

Today was a nice day without anything to do. I practiced my flute, had lunch with Alexandra (pad thai, very French), had some more Berthillon ice cream, called some horseback riding places in French for Alexandra, saw the Pompidou Center, then taught Olivier some English. The Berthillon ice cream was even better today - and the lady who served it gave me the funniest look when Alexandra ordered the salted caramel. She recognizes me now, and thinks it's really funny how I come in so often. The last time I was there, this American wanted coffee ice cream, and she said they didn't have any, so he asked if they had something like coffee, and she didn't quite understand. So, I told him no, but that the caramel was delicious, so he ordered that. I had been speaking French when he walked in, so when I switched to English, he was amazed how good my English was - it was pretty funny! Anyway, teaching English is such easy money! 20 euros for speaking English for an hour and a half? I speak English every single day of my life - no one's ever paid me for it before. He might as well pay me for breathing or eating. But it's fun and interesting to help someone learn English, and also to see what parts of English are problems for the French. Apparently I speak pretty fast and my accent is different from what he's used to, because he's spent a lot of time in London. So, it was a learning experience for me too - but in the same way that everything here is a sort of inadvertent learning experience. I can't wait to teach some more!