A short Sunday in Paris

18 March

The Sunday farmers market is in the courtyard outside our apartment. They sell fresh vege, fruits, meats and breads. We bought a brioche and brochee (large vol au vent) for dinner later, and a baguette to make lunch with.

We decided to visit Musee D'orsay in the morning, but the queues for tickets and entry were long. So we wandered down la Siene to check out the Grand Palais, a very impressive looking exhibition venue.

 

Crossed the beautiful Pont Alexander III on the way there.

It was back to D'orsay past the barges on la Seine. The entry queue is gone, but the ticketing queue is still the same length - long. As I already have a pass, and Marcus under 18, it took longer to check-in our backpack (compulsory), than to get in.

Musee D'orsay is awesome. There is nowhere you get to see Renoir, Van Gough, Monet, Manet .... all in one place. It is like walking into one of those large hardcover coffee table books for impressionist paintings. We mused over Monets paintings and his changing colour perceptions over several of his paintings. He had cataract issues you see, and finally got it fixed later in his life.

The D'orsay building itself is a beautifully restored and renovated railway station. They retained most of the clocks in the building facade.

We went down to the river again and had our lunch. Barges, tourist boats, joggers and strollers went past. A couple of arab looking girls went past and tossed a couple magazines in front of us. I was throwing away our lunch wrapping, so I picked the magazines up as well. Inside was a sheet that said donations to the mute and deaf society, and a whole bunch of names from different countries signed and monies paid. Between 5 to 20 euros each in a couple lists 30 long. Not a bad score for a mornings hustle.

We then walked towards Notre Dame and turned left at Hotel De Ville towards Georges Pompidou Centre ie Modern Art musee. Along the street, we saw lots of book dealers. Their stalls are permanantly secured to the sidewalk wall, and looked like green cabinets.

The queues at Pompidou were long, so we left it for a weekday excursion.