The Pompizoo at the Pompidou Centre

The Pompizoo at the Pompidou Centre

LIZ SAYS: The Pompidou Centre is a great circus. Even if you never go inside, the place has a life and community of its own. Besides being surrounded by cafes, there are artists, performers and scammers all doing their thing to the pulse of the fountains and water sculpture. I would not be surprised to find it had its own micro-climate.
At the moment, the little Pompizoo hosts:
The largest stencil (spray can) art, by Jeff Aerosol, on a wall facing the center;
An artist making huge chalk drawings, a different one everyday, yesterday it was Harry Potter;
The girls who walk around with notebooks pretending they can't talk asking for signatures and then donations while their boyfriends or brothers hang around in the background;
Two guys doing some sort of slow motion soccer ball dance on the bare concrete, ouch!
A couple sawing away on an instrument that looks like a lute, they clearly can't really play, but, hey, whatever brings in the centines,
And, of course, endless hundreds of tourists snapping photos and glancing at the vendors blankets of twisted wire sculptures and tin can trinkets.
It's worth the cost of the overpriced drinks at the cafes, just to sit an watch the action and suss out the characters.