When we open the doors to rue Cler, we are always greeted by beautiful flowers:
First stop was the Orangerie
situated in the Tuileries Gardens. The Orangerie, or an orangerie, was
originally a greenhouse for growing orange trees for the Tuileries Palace. Now, the museum holds eight large panels of
Claude Monet’s lily pond paintings. I
have been drawn to Monet’s lily pond paintings since I was a child in St Louis,
Missouri. The St. Louis Art Museum has a
large panel that I would be sure to visit each time we went for field
trips—along with rushing with my classmates to see the gasp mummy’s exposed toe in the Egyptian exhibit!
Also on display at the Orangerie are paintings donated from
the private collection of Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume. There is a wall full of Renoirs, in addition
to a few Impressionist works. The
collection includes works from Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Sisley, Mondigliani,
Soutaine, and Utrillo.
Renoir
Monet
Sisley
Picasso
Utrillo
Among my favorite are those of Marie Laurencin, and before
we get to those, my camera battery dies.
Of course, I did not have my backup camera, so the miracle of the
smartphone became my means of recording sights.
I also get in trouble for photographing Rodin’s sculpture
Thought which is part of a special exhibit—not like I haven’t photographed it
before and not like doing so again is going to hurt the marble!
Once outside again, Sherri and I cross Place de la Concorde,
remarking on the obelisk and the plaque marking the site of the guillotine
during the French Revolution.
As we
crossed to begin a walk up the Champs Elysees, we did contemplate taking a
pedicab but decided the operators were a little too sketchy, especially once we
saw the petition scam artists hanging about with the drivers. As a young woman with a clipboard began to
approach us, I saw someone waving her off, and several people moved to another
area.
A street market cluttered the sidewalk, and I had a new
Wallace Fountain sighting. We watched a
line of people waiting to be let in to some well-guarded place and discovered
later that they were going to see the gardens at the President of France’s
residence.
We stopped for lunch pretty much at the first place we saw
called Unisex. Very weird but very good
drinks. I had a Sazerac and Sherri had a
Pims Cup.
We wandered up the street and crossed to look at the displays
at Louis Vitton. Interestingly, only so
many people are allowed in the store at a time.
We also came across a shop that is having a going
out-of-business sale. To say that the
store was jam-packed is an understatement, but we went in anyway, and Sherri
found a nice light jacket I could wear for teaching at 50% off!
Since it is late afternoon, we start back to the apartment
to check on Jane. Before the métro
reaches our final destination, I pull Sherri off the train, and we head for the
BateauBus for a tour of Paris by the river.
Sherri wasn’t really ready to go back to the apartment, so I said what
the heck.
Crossing Pont Alexandre, this little girl was having a bit of a fit. She ends up running across the bridge well ahead of her parents. Very scarey, but we saw that they finally caught her.
The BateauBus is a hop-on hop-off way to sightsee, but
instead of bus or métro, you take a boat on the river Seine. We got on at Pont Alexandre III and would
eventually get off at La Tour Eiffel.
The woman at the ticket booth said you can only stay one for two hours,
but it was three hours before we took the whole trip plus an extra stop. The back of the boat is a good spot for
picture-taking, so Sherri staked out her spot, and I sat inside, unfortunately
next to a couple of out-of-control young boys.
The second half of the trip, I joined Sherri at the back of the boat. We noticed that several of the bridges are
now being infested with love-locks now that the Pont des Arts has had most all
of the locks removed. These locks are really not attractive and do damage. It does not help to see that souvenir shops
and the bookquistes keep selling them.
Toward the end of our excursion, I texted Jane to see how
she was doing. She was feeling better,
so we planned to meet at Le Petit Cler
for dinner. It took Sherri and I longer
than expected, so Jane was already well into her meal when we got there, and we
had to wait for a vacant table. Our
waiter did a double-take when he saw us because he recognized us from two days
before. This little café is very
popular, and a lot of people were gathering to see a soccer match on the
television.
After dinner, we ascended the stairs to the apartment.
Jour 8—Le lift ne
marche pas.
