Day 7

Holy smokes, I'm tired!

I'm also kicking myself (and you, Mum!) for not getting my British passport renewed. All the museums I've been shelling 8-15 euros out to this week would have let me in for free if I could prove I was a citizen of the European Union under the age of 26...

We've had incredibly productive but exhausting day. We have four-day weekends here, so Isabelle and I planned ahead so we wouldn't end up sleeping the day away. We set off at 10, following the winding Rue de Sevres to the Rue du Bac, and all the way down to the Seine. It was a gray morning, but the Tuilerie gardens still looked beautiful. Our next destination: the Musee d'Orangerie.

This was my favorite museum so far, mostly because the size was actually manageable for one visit. The had a series of giant, round rooms that displayed Monet's cycle of canvases Les Nympheas. Having seen the water garden at Giverny myself, I was definitely able to appreciate these giant panels of swirling colors more easily.

But the real gems of the museum were downstairs, where a famous art collector's collection was on display. He had some of everything! Monet, Winslow Homer, Renoir, Manet, Degas, Cezanne, Picasso... It was incredible, and it was all there-- one great work right beside the next. I can't believe they all used to hang on his dining room wall...

Our legs were starting to hurt, but we pressed on to the Musee des Arts Decoratifs-- a giant museum of objects, furniture and textiles dating from the middle ages through to the present. The permanent collections were all very cool, but there was no way we could see it all, so we focused on the visiting expositions: one on Louis Vuiton... and another on Barbar the elephant!!

I couldn't move my legs by 2 in the afternoon, and we were starving, so we stopped somewhere to eat. Perfect timing. A torrential downpour began just seconds after the bread basket arrived. We rested for a bit at the restaurant after lunch and then kept walking. The rain had let up into a drizzle, and every so often the sun peaked through, only to disappear during the next squall. Nevertheless, we wanted to fit in one more destination-- the beautiful cathedral perched on l'Ile de la Cite: Notre Dame.

We'd spent many a euro that day, so we once again skipped the metro and walked all the way back to St. John's in the rain. It's only 6 pm, but I think we're done for the day! I've got some reading to do anyway: Swann's Way, by Marcel Proust. Also, I want to make a list of all the things I want to see in Paris over the next month.