Sunday, November 6 - Paris

Today is sadly the last day of the trip.  Our cultural destination of the day is the Cartier Foundation to see an exhibition called Mathematics:  A Beautiful Elsewhere.    Perhaps the highlight of the show was a film downstairs featuring a dozen or so mathematicians, each speaking about why he or she chose mathematics as their lifelong pursuit.  Chose is probably the wrong word because each spoke as if there was no choice; each was driven toward mathematics because of the elegance and simplicity of the "language" that mathematicians speak and the constant discoveries they make.   Their excitement was palpable and I envied them their ability to think and reason in a way I will never experience.  To quote from the website:

Mathematics: A Beautiful Elsewhere is a unique exhibition created by the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain with the aim of offering visitors, to use the mathematician Alexandre Grothendieck’s expression, “a sudden change of scenery.” The Fondation Cartier has opened its doors to the community of mathematicians and invited a number of artists to accompany them. They are the artisans and thinkers, the explorers and builders of this exhibition.

A large number of mathematicians and scientists contributed to the creation of this exhibition, and eight of them acted as its overseers: SIR MICHAEL ATIYAH, JEAN-PIERRE BOURGUIGNON, ALAIN CONNES, NICOLE EL KAROUI, MISHA GROMOV, GIANCARLO LUCCHINI, CÉDRIC VILLANI and DON ZAGIER. Representing a wide range of geographical backgrounds and mathematical disciplines, they work in areas such as number theory, algebraic geometry, differential geometry, topology, partial differential equations, probability, mathematics applied to biology…

They were accompanied by nine artists chosen for their exceptional ability to listen, as well as for their great sense of curiosity and wonder. All of these artists have exhibited at the Fondation Cartier in the past: JEAN-MICHEL ALBEROLA, RAYMOND DEPARDON AND CLAUDINE NOUGARET, TAKESHI KITANO, DAVID LYNCH, BEATRIZ MILHAZES, PATTI SMITH, HIROSHI SUGIMOTO and TADANORI YOKOO, as well as Pierre Buffin and his crew (BUF). They worked together to transform the abstract thinking of mathematics into a stimulating experience for the mind and the senses, an experience accessible to everyone.

We took the metro back to the Marais and had lunch outside under the heat lamps at Les Philosophes (28, rue Vieille du Temple).  Spent the rest of the outside wandering through the Marias trying to get our fill before returning home to pack up our gear.