Back in London we were staying close to Euston
Station and found ourselves spending a lot of time in the Wellcome Institute
Museum and Library as they had a special weekend event entitled “Why Music: The
Key to Memory”. It was also just across the road and had a great little cafĂ© that
we spent sometime in! The place was filled with music of all descriptions
throughout the weekend and we also explored some of the medical displays.
It was a 10 minute walk to St Pancras and the
Eurostar on Sunday for a three day sojourn to Paris. We remember doing the trip
several times 12 years ago, but now it is much faster – 2¼ hours to Paris.
As we had been to Paris a couple of times
before we had specific things we wanted to do – the first day was revisiting
The Louvre, a place we found both confusing and exhausting! While it was great
to be there and among all the artworks that we only ever hear about, the thousands
of people and some issues with negotiating our way round made it also
stressful. In contrast, today we have been to the Musee d’Orsay, a much easier
and more pleasant experience!
We finished yesterday in the Tuileries Gardens
adjacent to The Louvre. A warm autumn day of 24 degrees meant people were out
and about, enjoying the gardens and occupying the chairs around the large fountain.
We had a relaxing time soaking up the sun for an hour or so.
Tomorrow it is back to London then on to
Yorkshire to explore some small villages and York itself – more to come!
Barbara
I believe The Louvre is designed to drive you
insane in its configuration. In fact I’m sure I saw more than one person who looked
like they had been there for days just trying to find the way out!
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Looking inside The Louvre - belies how many people were there! |
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A painter interpreting a painting in The Louvre gallery |
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Trying to be serious at The Louvre |
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Dwarfed by the pictures |
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The painting is called The Hands - so of course one more wouldn't hurt! And no, I wasn't touching it |
Maxims!! In the concourse on the way out (yes,
we did eventually find the right “sortie” – way out - for our purposes) was a Maxims shop. Now Maxims is of course a very popular and
well- known restaurant in Paris, which we could never afford to dine at but
give us the opportunity to go into one of their food shops and we were in like Flynn.
We moved slowly about eyeing up the possibilities for a “post Louvre pick me up”. A delightful young assistant offered us a
small freebie treat. I engaged her in conversation. She had just come back from California where
she stayed with her grandfather, and she hopes to return there to study real
estate as the money is not good for that here in Paris. Her English was very good, she asked where we
were from, and after buying a few wee goodies from her she threw in a very
generous handful of more freebie chocolates.
Small things like that, when you have paid the proverbial arm and leg
during the course of the day, just makes your day.
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Tuileries Gardens - Eiffel Tower and, more importantly, Maxim's goodies |
The Louvre, Tuilieries, and a walk along The
Seine – tres bein.
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Lawn mowers - goats, Tuileries Gardens |
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Just lucky that we are able to be here |
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Strolling by the Seine
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Musee D’Orsay was a dream today. An attractive
amazing space (used to be a Railway station.) Less crowds & cheaper than
Louvre. An amazing & attractive space to display paintings, statues,
furniture, bronzes.
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Through one of the giant clock faces in Musee d'Orsay, looking out across Paris |
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A Degas dancer |
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Inside Musee d'Orsay |
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Leonetto
Cappiello – pencil drawing |
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Pammy's effort!!! Must try harder |
We sat next to a
very pleasant older Italian couple from Roma at lunchtime, and at the end of our
meal had exchanged addresses, as you do! I even tried my hand at drawing one of
the masterpieces as it looked sooooo easy!! A bit of fun though.
It’s been a long time between visits to Paris –
12 yrs or so, and so I don’t feel I know Paris well at all. It is a city that has to work hard to charm
me, for some reason, and yet needless to say, it has done that quite nicely,
with small moments of joy, warm weather, a shabby- chic hotel (as only the
Parisians can do), tempting food, and of course a loving, patient travelling
companion to share it all with. Merci
Beaucoup Paris
Pam
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Lounge room at our Hotel France Louvre |
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Colourful meringues |
It all looks wonderful and the weather looks great. I'm in Chch at the moment as wee have a new granddaughter she is a second baby so it's all very relax. Enjoy the rest of your time in Paris. :)
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