Queen Sofia Museum and other treats

Thursday May 12, 2011                                       Day 316

We breakfasted at a street café which served fresh-squeezed orange juice. It was good, but room temperature, so I approached the waitress and asked her for some ice, which she obligingly put into the juice. It was delicious.

Our first stop was the Queen Sofia Museum, where we saw some wonderful exhibits. There was Guernica, which was Picasso’s protest against the bombing of the town by the same name. We also saw several Dali paintings, which were mystical and enigmatic.

Joan Miro's Pájaro lunar, or Moon Parrot, in the garden outside the Museum

There was a temporary exhibit at the museum by a Japanese artist named Yayoi Kusama. Part of the exhibit was a wonderful magical mirror experience examining infinity, which consisted of a room filled with mirrors and small hanging lights of different colors. The lights blinked on and off via a computer control, and sometimes the viewer could see to infinity with red lights, sometimes with varicolored lights, sometimes with green or blue lights. It was quite fascinating and, along with her other works, gave rise to more discussion about what art is. There were her red monster tails in one room, which were truly a delight. Then there was the old suitcase onto which she fastened pasta and painted the entire work with gold paint; and the coat onto which she fastened plastic flowers and painted the whole thing a drab brown. Is this art? Why? Because the artist says it is? By the way, the exhibit indicated that the artist entered a mental institution several years ago and does most of her work from there.

See below for a close-up - hundreds of airmail stickers! Is this art??

Detail of picture above

After the museum, we ate a lunch of shrimp poorboys in street café. They were fried shrimp with the tails left on them, served on dry bread, totally naked. We would have enjoyed some mayonnaise or tomatoes or pickles with them.

After lunch, we went to the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were truly splendid. 

We had a mediocre dinner at tea shop, mostly because we wanted to eat early. It was the first time since I came to Europe that I have had iceburg lettuce. I do not think it exists in France. Thank you, France!!!

When we went out this morning, Roger put our computers into the room safe, using the same combination he always uses. When we got back, we were unable to open the safe. He tried again and again, and even used an alternate combination, thinking perhaps he had used that one instead. No luck. We finally had to call the desk, who sent up a maintenance man to override our combination and get the safe open.