Day 13: Museum Hopping

We set the alarm to get up early, which, of course, means that we didn't leave until after Noon (big shock, I know). We had planned to spend the day at the Louvre, but since we got off to a late start, we changed our minds and decided to go to the d'Orsay Museum instead. 

We took the Metro there, but wanted to get something to eat first. Marsha really wanted to eat at a cafe with outdoor seating since we've seen them all over Paris. It seemed a risky proposition because the skies were getting a bit dark overhead. We decided to chance it and walked a little further to Le Palette, a cafe we'd seen on the Travel Channel show Delicious Destinations. They're known for their Croque Monsieurs and Croque Madams. Marsha and Madison can now attest as to why. Luckily, their outdoor seating (which seemed to be most of it) was also covered with an awning, and it only misted a little when we left.

Then it was back to the d'Orsay, where we spent most of the day. It used to be be a train station from 1900-1939. I just love the Beaux-Arts style of the building.

 

They have a great collection of Van Gogh -- the biggest we've ever seen. We'd seen a few of his works in NYC and Philly, but never this many in one place.

They have many, many impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, such as Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, Gaugain, Monet, and more. They also have a great collection of Toulouse-Lautrec.

There were some paintings I would have liked to read more about, but all of the descriptions were in French. Marsha made a list of pieces to look up back at the hotel. They also have some very interesting sculptures by Rodin and others.

We can now attest that there is a copy of Degas' Petit Dancer at every museum in the world. I think this is the fifth one we've seen.

 

Afterwards, we took a short break outside in the Tullerirs Gardens. We had some gelato while we watched a group of racers run by. It was getting late and we thought about hitting the Louvre until closing, but since it's open longer tomorrow, we went to the l'Orangerie instead.

We only had about 30 minutes before closing. In fact, they wouldn't have even let us in if we didn't have the Paris Museum Pass (thank you, Rick Steves). The l'Orangerie is small, but is known for Monet's Water Lillies collection, which is displayed in two specially designed oval-shaped rooms in which the paintings wrap around you 360 degrees. They're quite large and very impressive.

After they kicked us out, we walked over to the Place de la Concorde where we found a couple of chairs and enjoyed the cool breeze from the River Seine. The d'Orsay in particular was surprisingly hot (except for in the main hall) and that was just what we needed.

For our first dinner without reservations, we'd decided on a place I'd researched that doesn't actually take reservations. They were already getting busy with a near-hour wait, so we decided to check out some of the other cafes down the street.

We settled on the Bistro St-Dominique, which was the perfect choice. The food was excellent (I finally got to have have steak frites) and the service was fantastic. Our waiter was really personable and challenged each of us to pronounce our orders in French. Marsha wasn't ready yet to give it a try, but he said that Madison and I both did a pretty good job.

Marsha and Madison really wanted some more macarons, so we skipped dessert. I suggested that we walk to Laduree, which was only about twenty minutes away (the waiter agreed), but they didn't want to go that far. So we scoured the neighborhood and settled for a chocolate chip cookie from a local shop (had to hold out my hand again, which I hadn't done since Liverpool, and let the shopkeeper count my change when she didn't want to break my five) which was actually pretty tasty.

For the most part, the language barrier has been pretty non-existent. Between my smattering of French and the fact that most people here know some English, we've gotten along pretty well. We've definitely felt more than welcome. It's quite a magical city and we're already regretting having to leave in a couple of days.