For starters, this is the ground floor lobby of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the museum devoted to art since 1900 or thereabouts. It's large, and the smooth, concrete floor sets the tone. Does it give anyone a warm, fuzzy, welcoming feeling?

And this is part of the exterior. Perhaps having been inspired by a shirt emerging inside-out from a clothes dryer, we see here the architectural concept of placing much of the "mechanical" bits on the exterior. The result is textural in its way, so I give Renzo Piano credit for trying even though I loathe the thing.

Since we're in Paris, let's check out the area above one of the entry door sets of the Notre Dame cathedral. Note the decoration on the indentation from the outer wall to the entry door plane as well as the relief sculpturing above the doors. It contrasts the plain wall, so that surfaces play off one another. This transition zone could have been simplified, but I'm not sure if that would have been better than what we see in the photo.

This building on the rue de Rennes always intrigues me thanks to its odd, Art-Nouveau tower on one corner. The little balconies by the windows and other details provide surfaces that keep the eye interested, but not overwhelmed.

Here's another big-city building, this in Lyon. It has a "flatiron" plan and is more ornate that the rue de Rennes structure. The bold, horizontal extrusions help clarify the structure and to some degree offset the ornamentation. I don't consider this great architecture, but it's interesting and doesn't bother me so I can't condemn it either.

Elsewhere in Lyon is its opera house, shown here. It has been renovated and that shows. At least it contrasts modernist and traditional architecture in one convenient package. However, surface texturing is light in both cases.

Dropping a notch in city size, this is Rouen and its famous Gros-Horloge or clock. Yes, it's interesting. But check out the surface materials of the buildings shown in the picture. The one on the left has half-timbering and the next one seems to have wooden shingles. At the right is cut stone with the seams emphasized. The clock tower itself has a smooth, stone surface that contrasts the ornamented clock and its setting.

The clock tower in Aix-en-Provence's old town district. Aside from the very top, it lacks ornamentation. Yet there is visual interest in the tower due to variations in the materials used -- in this case, white and yellow stone.

This is a house near the harbor in Antibes on the Riviera. The surface is comprised of variously sized and colored stones along with small areas of brickwork near doors and windows.

A few blocks away is the Picasso museum. Again, the design is simple while interest is provided by the textured stonework. Windows are emphasized using cut stone rather than bricks, as was the case for the house.

More half-timbering, this time in Amboise on the Loire River. Rather than a smooth plaster, the areas between the timbers are brick, enhancing the surface texturing.

A wooden structure is the Église Ste-Catherine in the Norman port town Honfleur. Note the contrast between the relatively smooth plaster and half-timber at the bottom and the shingle work on the tower. Although this building has geometrical interest, the texturing makes it much more interesting to the eye than if the surfaces had been left clean, as in a modernist structure.

Elsewhere in Honfleur, down at the entrance to the inner harbor, is this structure which seems to be the result of additions tacked on over the centuries. The result is an interesting variety of surface textures created by the various building materials.

Even the texture of doors can add interest. Here is a metal one sporting rivets or studs near the cloister on Mont Saint-Michel.

This building on a side street of Sarlat in the Dordogne is worth noting because of its peculiar half-timbering. Instead of plaster or bricks, the timbers simply enclose the same kind of stone comprising the main wall.

As you might have noticed, roofs can add textural interest to a building. Here are some roofs and walls elsewhere in Sarlat.

Not far from Sarlat on the Dordogne River is the town of La Roque-Gageac, squeezed a litttle ways up a steep hillside. In this setting, the roofs contribute the most to visual enjoyment.

A few kilometers downriver is the town of Beynac-et-Cazenac. This view on the twisty pathway leading to the castle shows how even stonework on the streets and walls contributes to a total visual interest package. No antiseptic geometry here: it looks lived-in. How can modernism possibly compete with this?