Paris
Paris
Water lilies, anyone?
A short walk across the Tuileries gardens, and we are at the Musée de l’Orangerie where Claude Monet’s famed Water Lilies get most of the attention, even though works by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Rousseau, Alfred Sisley, Chaim Soutine, and Maurice Utrillo, have plenty to say for themselves. […]
Paris
Touring the Louvre
The Louvre is walking distance from our AirBnB, so we strike out early. We’ve laid down a baseline of pain au chocolat, yogurt, and muesli, so we’re in good shape calorie-wise. Crossing the bridge, we see a photographer shooting two dancers. It’s another mystery, so we stop to watch. Because we’ve got the magic Paris […]
Paris
Same day, different destination: Île de la Cité
Before moving on, we decide to restore ourselves with a bit of lunch. Everyone else is eating outside, but we opt for the quieter space inside. Our waiter is pleasant, and we order sandwiches on crusty bread that scratches the roofs of our mouths, washing them down with beer, wine, and Orangina. Jane has the […]
Paris
Paris boat tour by night
When a person is in Paris for the first time ever, and a person has purchased a thing called The Paris Pass, which gives one unlimited access to far too many things to see and do, and a person has walked 18,000 steps in one day but is still not willing to give up, clearly […]
Paris
First real stop: the Musee d’Orsay
Since we are staying only inches away from the Musee d’Orsay on the left bank of the Seine, we decide to make it our very first serious museum stop. If you are looking for the largest collection of Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist art in the world, this is it — Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, […]
Paris
Welcome to Paris
After a long crossing of The Pond through the night, and a near miss by Charlie and Jane — whose Icelandair flight was delayed long enough to make their connection kind of a nail-biter — we checked in to our Air BnB and crashed for the night. Ten hours later, we were ready to see […]