france - days 13 + 14

Our last day in Paris was going to be chock full. We started off with a guided tour of the Musee d'Orsay, an old train station that had been converted into a superb museum. Now home to a fabulous collection of post-1830 French art, I was looking forward to seeing the Impressionist paintings, and more from Monet. Unfortunately, there was a large retrospective exhibit of Monet's work at another site, and the Orsay had lent out all but 3 of their Monets.

The large clock of the train station stands high above the museum's 3 floors of exhibits:


I was happy to get that shot before I saw the sign saying photos were prohibited. Regardless, it was a delightful visit and almost satisfied my need to see more from the Impressionists. Now if only those Monets had been there...
After the morning tour, we were on our own. We had tickets to the Louvre, the world's #1 ranked museum, which was right across the river. We crossed on a nearby bridge


and had this view of river boats on the other side:


We took a pedestrian tunnel under the nearby road and came up to find ourselves in the Jardin des Tuileries, the gardens surrounding the Louvre. There were lots of people in the gardens, jogging the trails, having picnics on the lawn and sitting in the many chairs provided throughout the park. We took advantage of the chairs and had a nice rest in the bright, warm sunlight. What a view!
Our prepaid tickets got us in a back door, so we only saw the I.M. Pei-designed glass pyramid from a distance.
One of my most vivid memories of that first trip to Paris was climbing up a huge staircase to see the Winged Victory. This time we approached her from a different direction, but I had to go down the stairs and look back up at her. As Yogi Berra would say, "it was deja vu all over again."

Another change at the Louvre is that Mona Lisa now has her own room and is positioned behind bullet-proof glass. The room was crowded with tourists and everyone had to raise their arms to get a photo (which is allowed in the Louvre - go figure) of Mona. One of our fellow travelers raised her arms to take a shot, with her bag hanging from her arm. She discovered her wallet was missing 10 minutes later and called her bank in Philadelphia immediately. The perps had already charged over $200 in perfume and had tried to get cash from an ATM (no PIN = no cash) when she called. A lesson learned...

We took a Paris city bus back to the Left Bank, but it stopped short of our destination and the driver turned to the passengers and said something very quickly. My French wasn't good enough to get it all, but the rest of the passengers exited the bus, so we did, too. Thank goodness we had taken that walking tour of the St. Germain des Pres area the day before. I knew where we were and was able to get us back to the hotel without too much trouble. It seems that the police had blocked the bus route for yet another demonstration, which we had to walk through to get "home."
For our last evening of the trip, we took a chartered boat ride down the Seine, enjoying a delicious meal and reliving the highlights of the trip with our fellow travelers. Along the way we saw Notre-Dame bathed in lights


and then came upon the Eiffel Tower lit up as well. Breathtaking.


On the dot of 9pm, the lights on the tower began to twinkle. It was a magical sight and the perfect ending to a wonderful trip.


Day 14 was an easy ride to Charles de Gaulle airport, where our plane (fully fueled) was waiting. We left early and arrived early in Toronto, where we caught a quick cab back to Lisa's studio to retrieve our car and lots of new Lisa Ridout joolz. There was no wait at all at the border and soon we were back home in our house on the hill.
Au revoir, France. Je t'aime, and I'll be back soon. I think I may have to schedule in an R&D trip to Paris every year. It was truly inspiring and I hope you enjoyed the ride along with me.