I set out on my own Friday morning because Elisabeth was sick and Tim and John were going to stay with her. We had a bus tour scheduled for 1:15 and I wanted to make a good a use of my days in Paris as possible.
I set out to find the market that was supposed to be at Abbesses which is one subway stop north of us in Montmartre but didn't find it. But I did enjoy the walk around the section, despite all the stairs and uphills, as it was just coming alive. I also saw some stores I hope I can find again tomorrow with Elisabeth on her shopping day.
So now I needed to hop the metro and get to the Invalides
Dome and the Musee d'Orsay. We had gotten 2 day Museum passes and since the
Dome was covered, I wanted to go back and see it, particularly the other side of the glass with the cross. It was quite beautiful inside
but while it may have started out as a church, it is actually a mausoleum
today. In addition to Napoleon, there are many other important military figures
buried there as well as a tribute monument to those who died in the "Great
War".
As I approached the Musee d’Orsay, there was a mime on the
corner. He was quite entertaining and I wanted to get a picture of him but
there were 2 people locking bikes up and the guys butt was right in the middle
of the picture! I have never seen 2 people take so long to chain bikes! I
waited. The mime got my issue and he was so funny in his silent comments about
it. I dug a 2 euro piece out of my pocket for his box and got a very gallant
kiss on the hand for it. I was finally able to line up a picture with no green
tail in it, to get my shot and headed to the museum. The couple was STILL
chaining the bikes!
Musee d’Orsay was wonderful and I wish I could have spent
all day there. This is my second time but it is never enough. I headed straight
for the 5th etage (6th floor as we know it) to the
Impressionists but when you reach the top, there is a platform where you can
have a panorama view of the museum. It has a ground floor with a walkway of
sculptures and rooms off the main corridor. But then it is open to the glass
roof. The other floors are built around it.
They have the Impressionists so that you walk through the
stages, starting with around 1865 and each room gets later, finishing with the
time around 1900. I quickly realized that my French was not going to hold up
and went back to get an audio set which really made a difference. The
impressionists also included sculptures by Rodin and Degas.
This finished in the café and you could go out on the
terrace to see the view of Paris facing across the river. There are also 2
giant clocks on the 5th etage of the museum. I couldn’t get a
picture of one without a million people in the way but the other is in the café.
My camera lost all the surroundings but if you look through the dial, you will
see Sacre Ceour.
There was a special exhibit on the rest of the floor which was
called A Passion for France: The Marlene and Spencer Hays Collection. This is
actually a collection of a couple from Nashville, TN which is hung in their
home but they loaned much of it to the d’Orsay for this exhibit. It is filled
with works from the late 18th and early 19th centuries
including the Nabis artists, a group I was unfamiliar with. It was an wonderful
exhibit for me.
Unfortunately, it was time to leave and meet up with the
tour. They were to pick Tim and the kids up at the apartment and I was to meet
them at the Eiffel Tour. I was really worried about being late so while I
walked, I did it quickly and beat them there. So I sat and read, and read, and
read. Then it felt like it started to rain, so I put up my umbrella but soon realized
it was only raining on me! Got up, moved, only to have the police come and move
us out. I settled down 4 times only to be moved further each time. I finally
headed across the street to the far corner. Saw the bomb squad arrive.
They finally picked me up and we then did a boat ride on the
Scene, nice ride, lame tour. To make matters worse, we had a group of Arabs surrounding
us who showed no interest in what we were seeing but had lots of kids they didn’t
control. I told Tim the next trip would have to be a booze cruise so we didn’t
have kids on it.
Off the boat and apparently the Eiffel Tower was
opened again, so off we went to there. The tickets were only took you to the 2nd
floor, not to the top and the guide said that it would take us an hour to get
up and see things from that point, which would put us at 5:50 of a tour that
was supposed to end at 6:15, did we want him to come back to give us a lift
somewhere? This is for a tour that was supposed to show us Montmartre, Notre
Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, the Eiffel Tower and more! We said no to the pickup. I
was fine with the 2nd floor (that’s the wide area you see half way
up). The others went to the top and celbrated with champagne.
So we finished up at the Eiffel Tower and headed to dinner.
We found a café on the right bank a bit east of the Eiffel
Tower and ate outside. It seems dogs are welcome in outside cafes because we
had 2 visitors, one from the lady on our right and we thought from the couple
on our left who were from Cincinnati. But it turns out that the little white
dog was from the people all the way down at the end of the row, he just wanted
to visit everyone, probably everyone with food.
On our way to the Arc de Triomphe, Elisabeth got her
chocolate crepe. We also walked past the Palais de Chaillot with its incredible
spraying fountains. I am sure they are a huge hit on really hot days.
I took some pictures of the Arc and of the tomb of the
unknown soldier from WWI before facing way too many stairs. But the view, and
particularly the sunset were definitely worth it.
I would have loved to share pictures of the Eiffel Tower and Sacre-Ceour lit up on the night sky but my pictures all came out black. Mike wasn't along to change my settings since I am sure that is what it was...some day I will learn to operate this camera!
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