We saw Sainte Chapelle in the morning and Frank Gehry's Fondation Louis Vuitton building in the evening.
Neither building has anything to do with shelter from the elements! They are about power, wealth and status, poetry and spirituality, and skill and daring and large egos - and they are both exciting to see.
Both buildings are outrageous in their own ways, in their audacity and extravagance. I think that's what we respond to...
I want to know more. It was built in only seven years, it was built to house holy relics brought from Constantinople as it then was, many ordinary people were living miserable lives in Paris in 1248, it employed skilled often itinerant engineers and craftsmen some of whom worked all over Europe. Literally awesome!
Awesome could also describe Frank Gehry's Fondation Louis Vuitton, which is a gallery and concert hall.
In a (rather grudging) review in The Guardian Oliver Wainwright said that Frank Gehry 'doesn't know when to stop'. The same may well have been said of Louis 1X.
Here are Heather and I reflected on the skin of this extraordinary building. It was open until 9pm, not busy and there was a beautiful sunset.
Tomorrow LOTS of photos of this building....