Paris day 4

Thursday, April 10, 2008, 1830

This morning I woke up and Luke was not here. I saw Rick on the bed and Luke’s shoes gone. I figured he was off doing his a.m. calisthenics. Close, he was off to McDonalds to get a French breakfast! He came back with quite the armload. The petit dejuner contained 1 small croissant, 1 chocolate pastry, and 1 raisin pastry. Also 2 bacon egg and cheese muffins, and 3 sandwiches made of savory pancakes with ham bits and swiss cheese between. It was all quite tasty. We had coffee and the same thing happened to me. I didn’t want to leave the apartment. I laid down again- just like yesterday and Luke took a shower and I delayed the departure time. I don’t know why, but it is almost like the coffee is making me sleepy rather than keeping me awake.

We finally headed off to the Marmotton museum, which is mostly devoted to Monet. We enjoyed this off the beaten path non busy museum. This one was €8 and not covered by musem pass. It was in an old home as have been many of the museums we had been through. We headed to the basement where there were sweeping rooms devoted to Monet’s early work and series of paintings. We saw several versions of the Japanese bridges and water lilies of nympheas as they are said in French. We saw portraits and landscapes. We also saw some of his “friends” contemporary artist confidants. I found that there was a lot of Sissley that I liked and his work was done in the scratchy style of Monet but of way different subject matter.

As we exited this museum, we stopped in this neighborhood park and had a snack out of our bag and watched the people and doggies. We walked towards a metro stop and had the Orangerie museum next on our list.

We exited the metro and were at the gate of the Tullerie gardens, that is like a few miles away from the Eiffel tower. It was very nice. We walked a bit through that and went to the entrance of the Orangerie. This museum’s main deal is the showing of Monet’s 55 x 6 ft foot water lilies (1 canvas). The total exhibit was about 1900 square feet of his lily paintings. Also we saw some Picasso and Matisse, Renoir, Cezanne. We fortunately went quickly.
We stopped at E. Dehillerin and I was taken a back from the size and amount of stuff packed in that little shop. The display windows were really put together well. We saw giant copper pans, rows and rows of different sized knives, spoons, Slipats, spatulas etc. One thing we didn’t see was a hard cheese slicer. Luke said he wasn’t necessarily impressed, but I am glad we went.
We stopped at a mall on the way. Luke wanted some food so we stopped at a Quick. We had a cheap chicken sandwich and Long Chicken and fries and a pop for €9.55. We left for the metro.

We went to the grocery store, bought soy sauce for fried rice, coffee choco biscuits, 2 pans of Little Debbie Tiramisu. We also got a large jar of nutella (generic) for €1.30.

So here we are to present time. Luke made dinner and we enjoyed it. Luke wants me to hurry so we can perhaps go to see the Eiffel tower tonight.

Today was sunny! You should have seen all the Parisians out and sunbathing. We saw a little Kaiser dog with a foam soccer ball in his mouth, his human brother and sister chasing him and he wouldn’t let them catch him.

We got more Euro change from Rodger. It is kind of nice to have exact change and not have to be handed change back- and worrying if it is correct.

I must say I would do more shopping if I didn’t feel so intimidated.
OK, that is enough for tonight. Ljf