Woke up to a gorgeous morning, no more rain in sight. We took our time with breakfast in our little studio and then took the metro to Gare Austerlitz to buy our Eurostar tickets for Calais on Saturday. Then we headed to Notre Dame cathedral. It was very packed but the organist was practicing and it was mesmerizing being there. It doesn't come close to St Peter's Basilica in Rome though.
Next we headed to a little bistro with the friendliest waitresses we have seen yet and had sandwiches and salads. Everyone has been so friendly here, nothing like people have told us about. I even gave the waitress today a tip and she gave it back and so "no, no, no".
After lunch we headed to the Louvre which is enormous!! We started looking at everything in every room and decided that it would take a month to see everything so we sat down and decided what each of us wanted to see. So, without getting lost (thank God Dan is very good at maps) we went to the Mona Lisa (which is quite anticlimactic), Venus de Milo, The Winged Victory or Nike, The Dying Slave by Michelangelo, the Code of Hammurabi, Psyche and Cupid and some gorgeous sculptures too many to list.
By this time, our feet were killing us so we left (it was closing anyway) and headed out to the Tuileries which are the gardens attached to the Louvre. The weather was beautiful and there were so many people out enjoying the day so we pulled up some chairs next to one of the fountains and took a much needed rest.
OK, enough of this rest, we have got places to go and things to see!! On to the Musee D'Orsay for some Impressionalism. It is right across the Seine from the Louvre in the old Orsay train station. First things first, we had dinner right under the giant clock in the Museum at a little cafe, then went out on the terrace for some terrific views of the city. I was very excited to see Van Gogh's Starry Starry night but unfortunately it is on loan to the MOMA in NYC. Well, no worries, we had enough to see to keep us busy until they closed at 9:45. There were paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Manet, Millet, Renoir, Whistler, Cezanne and our new favorite Camille Pissarro whose paintings are absolutely amazing - and neither one of us had never even
heard of them. My Grandfather even had an original of Jean-Francois Millet that is still in our family!! So this was a wonderful day of culture for us and what better city to see it in!!
We decided to walk back to see our friendly crepe makers downstairs from our apartment and on the way we saw hundreds of people on the Pont des Artes bridge over the Seine and it was all young people (ages 18-30) having picnics on the pedestrian only bridge. It was amazing. What a great placed for these kids to hang out. We so wanted to go get a bottle of wine and join them but don't worry, we didn't. Got a dessert crepe and headed home with a bottle of wine.
Until tomorrow - last full day in Paris!!
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