Museum Day

17 March

Our landlord Thierry was going to be away on our departure date. As the apartment needs to be inspected for the bond refund, Thierry brought Fanny round for introductions. It was arranged for 8.30 am, he came with some croissants. Fanny is 18, and Thierry said that she had recently broken up with her boyfriend, she studied English in school and would very much like to practice her spoken.

Thierry's first wife is from French Polynesia, so his 13 year old rugby playing son is half Polynesian. Photos were shown and admired. For them, NZ is a dream destination. Marcus offered his room to Thierry's son when he vacates it next year.

The croissant was delicious and we ate them all, 2 each. It is going to be hard to go back to the Countdown variety.

Without any planning at all, we strolled down to the metro and disembarked at the Invalides station. We walked along the Seine and arrived at the Eiffel. There were tourists, buses and queues everwhere. We didn't hang around, and walked to Hotel Invalides where Napoleon's Tomb and the Musee De L'Armee (correct - army) were. I bought a 2 day museum pass for 39E. Entry to all France museums is gratuit-18 ans (free for under 18s). So Marcus gets free entry to all the musees in Paris. The artifacts spanned the medieval period till the end of WW2. Napoleon's tomb is housed in a stunning domed building. Above picture is not from Han Solo's Millenium Falcon. It is the belly gun turret from a Superfortress B29 WW2 American bomber. Napoleon's tomb below.

We took the metro to the Louvre. It is truly an amazing museum with exhibits that caters for everyone, and are super awesome. Again the crowds of tourists were a real downer. As I had a pass, and Marcus only needed to mention his age, we went straight in. There are 3 wings to the Lourve: Richelieu, Sully and Denon. The Italian masters are housed in the Denon wing. This is where Mona Lisa is. The staff must be sick of being asked where it is, so they have put up a bunch of unofficial looking guide arrows to the old girl.

We then strolled through the Tuileries Gardens. This is a large park which features fountains, Eiffel Tower keychain vendors and dog walkers. When I was here in 1992, there were many telephone calling card traders and sellers. We had to dismiss a few gypsy hustlers as we walked towards the Egyptian obelisk.

Before the obelisk on the left is a delighful little art gallery which has translucent roofs so you can see the paintings in natural light. Musee De L'Orangerie. It has Monet's water lilies and stuff from Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and the very twisty Soutine. By this time, it was 3.30pm and we'd been walking around for 6 hours. So we took the metro home.

I was so impressed with the croissants, I decided we will make our own lunch tomorrow with bread from the boulangerie. Stopped at the Simply supermarche for supplies for dinner and lunch. And Marcus suggested we call it a day.