Monday 16th September - Paris

This morning we needed a sleep in, and so were off to a slower start. We headed off to the Arc de Triomphe about 10:00. It was the same combination of metro trains as last night, just a different finishing point. This is another on the Museum Pass - jump the queue. More stairs - I am going to be so fit by the time we get home! There were a couple of rooms inside with displays, then it was up to the 'platform roof'. Great views - we are starting to get blase about views over Paris! If you look closely down the Champs Elysees, you can just make out the Louvre at the far end - you can see it, can't you?! There are, in fact, 12 roads that converge at the Arc, and it was interesting to watch the traffic below! note the rooftop garden on the building at one intersection.

Back under the road (what pedestrian would dare try to cross it!), and we set off to walk down the Champs Élysées. It was quite a long walk, but there is a lot to look at on the way, and the weather was looking good at that stage. There were so many people walking this avenue, it was crazy, as you looked down the hill, it looked like a sea of people on the footpaths. The Champs Élysées finishes at the Place de la Concorde, in front of the Tuilieres Gardens, in front of the Louvre. It took 4 lots of pedestrian lights to get across the Place (no underground pedestrian pass this time), I am sure this is one of those sites you see in the movies with cars going everywhere!

Just inside the Jardines Tuileries there is a large pond, we sat there to check our bearings (again, you can see the Louvre in the distance, can't you!?) and noticed that there were some rather nasty looking black clouds headed our way. Luckily, we were just near the Orangerie, which was our next destination anyway. This building, like the one in Montreux, originally housed orange trees during the colder months, but has served several purposes over the years. It has been a museum since 1921 (Museum Pass - jump the queue).

The main exhibit in this museum is a series of large decorative panels by Monet, subject of course is water lilies. Two full rooms are dedicated to these large panels, and I loved them! This was by far the best art I have seen so far. Ancient masters are one thing, but most of their paintings are religion based (either that or naked people!), and they are very dark. The colours in these paintings were beautiful. Thanks to the lovely Maria (my art teacher at home), I knew some things to look for ......... words fail me, I loved it. Sadly you aren't allowed to take photos.

We came out of the Monet rooms to find it was raining, but we were going on to the other section anyway. Here there were works by: Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and several other artist who were not familiar to me. But Monet was definitely the best. This little museum should be on everyone's to do list, and definitely before the Pompidou Centre.

Back to the real world, and the rain had stopped. We plotted a course back to the apartment, walking through the old streets of St Germain des Pres. It would appear that our lodgings are at the more interesting end of things as we didn't find anywhere to grab a snack for lunch along the way. So we went to the supermarket again and had lunch at the apartment. Then it was time to rest and recuperate, finish yesterday's blog, and check photos.

Venturing out later in the afternoon, we explored the area around our apartment, including St Germain des Pres and St Sulpice churches, Luxembourg Gardens (it dared to start raining again here, but didn't last long), the Pantheon (from the outside - it was just closing for the day), a campus of the Sorbonne (across the road from the Pantheon), and finally the Odeon Theatre (again closing, outside inspection only). Everywhere you turn in this area, there is another beautiful cobblestoned street lined with typical old French buildings with wrought iron balconies and sometimes with window boxes, another cafe/ restaurant with its canvas awning and tables and chairs on the footpath ...........Paris is a delight.

We had a couple of options on our list for dinner. The first one, La Cuisine de Phillipe, was near the Luxembourg Gardens, but my dairy free requirements looked like that may be a problem with the menu displayed, and it was 20 minutes till opening time when we could have asked if lactose free possible. So we walked back to The Two Oliviers - this looked okay, but the weather was threatening, and we didn't want to be stuck several blocks from home in the rain. So, we opted for a restaurant just down the road from the apartment. We were caught in the rain getting back there, but decided to push on, it had just gone 7pm, so the restaurant should be open. Tired, damp, ready for dinner, two other options blocks away - restaurant closed Monday nights!!! Back to the apartment to reconsider - there are 2 restaurants within 2 doors of us, so it was sushi or Italian - Italian won, and it was good.

We have not taken as many pictures today, we are simply surrounded by photo opportunities ........... we give up!!