Centre Pompidou and Cabaret Sauvage

Today, after coffee and croissant at Le Preau, we ambled through the Marais to the Centre Pompidou. This is the Paris musee of national d'art moderne. The musee's collection is built around the work of leading artists of the 20th century and covers the period 1905 to the 1960s, with contemporary exhibitions and collections covering the 1960s to the current day.

The musee is a really interesting structure. Outside there is a zig-zagging enclosed elevator leading to the top floor from which you get the most amazing views of Paris; inside there is a huge open foyer giving access to the sub-ground and upper levels where the exhibitions and musee are located. The librairie (bookshop) is a wonderland of books from current and past exhibitions, from exhibitions at other galleries around the world and books generally about film, photography, architecture and art.

We visited contemporary exhibitions by Saadane Afif, "Anthologie de l'humour noir" - which featured a lycrical work by Tacita Dean whose exhibition we saw at ACCA in Melbourne not so long ago - and Gabriel Orozco; a retrospective of work by French-born artist Arman; and the musee's presentation "elles@centrepompidou", which is a collection of work by women artists examining the possibility of a history of art through women's work. The exhibitions were diverse, even within themselves, and we laughed, became sombre, walked in, under and within the installations, immersed ourselves in the video exhibits - and were drained! Contemporary art can be so obscure, so confronting; it's exhausting but there's much that stays in your mind.

Home for a short rest and then off to Cabaret Sauvage to see Brandon Flowers, leader charismatique (as he's described on the French posters) of the band The Killers. It was a great show and the venue was fabulous - like the Spiegel Tent, but bigger. The inside was all mirrors, red velvet, raised wooden floors and a great view of the stage from wherever you were. The tent itself opened out onto a wooden deck and there was an outside bar and areas to sit and stand outside prior to the show. The venue is located at Parc de Villette, on the outskirts of Paris, so an easy metro ride both ways. I was a bit worried about catching the metro late at night but the show finished at 10 pm and we were well home before the wee hours - a great night!