This weekend I went to Paris with some friends. I wasn’t expecting a big difference in architecture from Milan, but I was surprised by the design in both the architecture and objects. The buildings didn’t have any paint and were all a plain white, which I thought was interesting because it made the buildings feel a lot older than how the buildings are in Italy.
When we went to the Museum of Decorative Arts (MAD) across from the Louvre, I also realized how distinct French design is (or at least was). The name “decorative” was pretty literal, everything from the 18th and 19th century was heavily ornamented with floral-like forms, similar to the liberty style buildings in Milan.
The gardens in front of the Louvre, as well as the Louvre itself were beautiful. I wasn’t expecting to be amazed by any of the touristy things in Paris, namely the Eiffel Tower, but it was probably one of my favorite parts. It was a lot taller than I was expecting, and there were many details in the metalwork that reflected the French design we saw in the MAD exhibit earlier that day.
