Tuesday in Paris, May 5, 2009
This is our last full day to sightsee in Paris as tomorrow we take a bus out to a the Hotel Ibis, near the Charles DeGaulle airport, because we have an early flight on Thursday.
This morning we had breakfast in our hostel with Vickie who is an artist from San Francisco. She is a few years younger than us but comes to Paris every year in the spring to stay in our hostel for 6 weeks painting scenes from this neighborhood. She tells us that she has lots of customers who buy her paintings, both people who live nearby and tourist wanting memories of their visits.
Off to the metro we went … 2 changes and many sets of stairs later we emerged from the metro tunnel to find ourselves right in close view of the Arc de Triomphe. Of course we stopped for a great photo opportunity. Another couple had stopped to take pictures so we asked if we could take one of them together, this is how we get so many of us together as people will then offer to take one for us, found out they were not only from California but actually live in Martha’s home town of Yorba Linda…. What a small world we live in.
I was surprised to find the eternal flame memorial in the center of the Arc as back in 1994, I think yesterday I said 2005 in error as that was the year we were in Italy, when we visited Paris for 1 day (at the end of a tour)…….we only saw things from a bus as they drove us around town. As I mentioned yesterday we did spend an entire afternoon at the Louvre but, that was they only thing that we actually got to go into, so it’s been great to actually get to walk in and around these famous Paris sites.
Leaving the Arc de Triomphe we walked to the Musee Jacquemart Andre. It houses a unique collection of art work collected during the marriage of a wealthy art loving 19th century Parisian couple. Having no children they left their entire estate, including this sumptuous mansion with all its artwork and furnishings intact , to the people of Paris.
On the way to Jacquemart Andre we did take time to stop in a small café along the boulevard for a true cup of Parisian coffee. We even sat down at a table and took the time to really enjoy this rare treat. …. Our budget has not included many café stops and I did want to experience this before leaving Paris. Yes, we made ourselves a budget before leaving home. It’s been a lot of fun to see where we can cut costs and yet still do everything that we want…. we both enjoy keeping track of things so like I said, we have enjoyed staying within our budget as we have traveled these past 3 months. We have been able to keep our food cost at about 7 euros each per day… to do this you shop at the markets and eat in your rooms.
After the Jacquemart Andre Museum we walked to the metro where, after 3 changes and a lot of more stairs we were within a ten minute walk to the Musee d’Orsay. This former train station barely escaped being torn down in the 1970s, when they realized that all this open space would make a great place to display a large collection of art work. We spent most of our time up on the fifth floor enjoying the works of Impressionism Artists such as Monet, Renoir, Gauguin, Cezanne, Degas, Whistler, Van Gogh, Manet and other lessor known artist…. My only regret that they did not include my favorite Flemish painter, David Teniers II…. But then I have found his art in most of the large museums that we have visited during our trip, I first found his art in the Prada Museum in Madrid and have been watching for his paintings ever since. We then went back to the first floor to find the works of Rodin and the models of the Paris Opera House before making our way to the metro for our trip back to the Latin Quarter where we are staying.
No comments:
Post a Comment