We’ve spent a couple of days in Paris at the Centre Pompidou — home to one of the leading collections of modern and contemporary art in Europe. Its scope and curation are rivaled only by the MoMa in New York. We made it just in time to catch the end of the museum’s “elles@centrepompidou” show — a thematic exhibition dedicated exclusively to female artists from the early 20th century to today. Iconic figures like Frida Kahlo and Diane Arbus are featured in the “Pioneers” gallery, Louise Bourgeois is listed as past of “The Activist Body,” and Tacita Dean and Louise Campbell highlight the aptly-titled “Immaterials” display.

Much of our time at the Centre Pompidou was spent just sitting outdoors in the garden admiring the architecture. The building was designed to maximize natural light, freedom of movement and flow, as evidenced by the placing of the escalators on the outside of the building as well as the transparency of the west main façade. Colour-coded ducts are also attached to the outside of the building for easy (and artistic) classification: blue for air, green for fluids, yellow for electricity cables and red for transport (elevators) and safety (fire extinguishers).

There’s much to be said for a museum whose physical architectural structure outside rivals the wonder and magnificence of its collections inside. Sometimes it’s just nice to soak it all in…