| Crossing the Canal de L'Ourcq south of the Géode, a walkway leads past the Grande Salle to the Cité de la Musique (www.cite-musique.fr), in two complexes either side of the Porte-de-Pantin entrance. To the west the waves and funnels, irregular polygons and non-parallel lines of the Conservatoire de Paris, the city's music school, make abstract sense: windows in sequences like musical notation; the wavy roof, which, according to the architect, Christian de Portzamparc, is like a Gregorian chant, but could equally suggest the movement of a dancer or a conductor's baton; and the crescendo of the rising curves of the facade. The wedge-shaped complex to the east contains the public spaces, which include the excellent Musée de la Musique, the chic Café de la Musique, a music and dance information centre, and a concert hall whose ovoid dome rises like a perfect soufflé from the roof line. The harsh semi-exterior element of a girdered "arrow" pointing down to the entrance arch pretending to be another red folly hides an unexpectedly sensual interior. A glass-roofed arcade spirals round the auditorium, the combination of pale-blue walls, a subtly sloping floor and the height to the ceiling creating a sense of calm and uplift.
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