Dome of Galeries Lafayette

Last full day in Paris today but I'm feeling tired - not so much Cultural Overload as lack of sleep, as, although we're back at base by late evening, we're in an area of noisy street corner cafes that go on 'til early hours.

So today we had a more gentle start, took ourselves along to the Pompidou Centre to see what the fuss is about.

It's innovative, certainly, with the services all on the exterior so there are pipes and lifts on display but this means the interior is open and uncluttered - the foyer is huge with a cafe on the first floor with an open view. The coffee's good, too.

The next essential was the visit to the Galeries Lafayette, whose huge glass and steel dome by Ferdinand Chanut, for the opening of the new store in 1912, gave rise to the nickname 'Magasin Coupole', shop of the cupola. It's a lovely store but scarves at 125 euro are just a bit out of my range. (I paid 1 euro for a silk square yesterday).

After a wander round the Opera (too late for a tour) we headed back to the apartment to freshen up before dinner at the Brasier for another raclette.

Now it's time to pack and/or get an early night. Tomorrow's blip will be late as we're going straight to choir practice on arrival, after that I'll get back to looking at everyone's blips and resuming commenting.