November 7, 2006: Out and About

We jumped out of bed bright and early this morning (at 8!) so we could shower, eat, and get to the Musee d’Orsay early. Orsay used to be a train station; they were going to tear it down until someone decided it would make an awesome museum. We made the decision to split up and meet back up after a couple hours, which we did and then we went up to the little café and bought some water and ate our fruit. Then we split up again for a couple hours—near the café was the Impressionism area, which includes my favorite artists. It was wonderful, but not nearly enough time. I think Renoir is still my favorite, but it was nice to see some Monet paintings that didn’t involve water lilies. There were also some sculptures that I liked. Of course, all the various pictures I took here, I didn’t note the names of the pieces nor the artists who created them, so I guess I’ll just have to go back!

After we met back up, we decided to walk to the Rodin Museum. It was interesting but it made me want to watch “Camille Claudel” again—I know many of the works that he took credit for were actually done by her. I got a nice shot of Le Penseur (the Thinker) and some other pieces. They were cleaning (removing pigeon poop, perhaps?) The Burghers, which I got a couple shots of. How often do you get a chance to see something like that? I can’t describe the sculptures I liked—they were awesome.

Then we took the Metro to Montmartre (the Pigalle station—home of purse snatchers and pickpockets galore!). Anne told me that we should be okay as it’s not the height of tourist season, but I still kept my bag close. We stopped for paté sandwiches (YUM!) and then found Sacré Coeur and the famous stairs. We took the funicular up to the Sacré Coeur and then walked down the stairs (much easier than going up, I’m sure!) But we got some cool pictures of the stairs. It was very pretty.

On the way home, we stopped at our little cyber café that we had found, and then we had dinner at a little Italian restaurant on our street—I had a truly excellent lasagna, and we got flirted with—a very nice, cute Frenchman who initially scared the crap out of us when he opened (with a roar, I think) the plastic flap of the enclosed patio area. He apologized profusely, of course, and at some point asked if we were Swedish (Anne realized it was because we were seated outside, where it was a bit chilly, but the patio had heaters). His friend told us that he had never spoken to Americans before. They seemed excited to hear we were Americans, and from Texas at that! (George Bush's home, they pointed out ;) After dinner it was home to pack--it was our last night in the apartment!