So many painting we have seen in books!

Saturday

Walked up to the Musee D’orsay. The D’orsay is an old train station built for the Exhibition the same year that the Tour Eiffel was built. It later stopped being used for trains and even later fell into disuse entirely. It was rescued in the later part of the 1900’s and restored and turned into an art gallery for modern French painting and sculpture, Monet, Manet, Degas, Rodin etc.

I have never seen so many paintings that I recognized, having studied them in lighting class or in the art classes I took as options. Joyce saw even more from her art history classes. We were both quite moved by so many great works. It was a bit tighter space as some were in a temporary space while refurbishment was going on. We got to see Monet’s water lilies, Degas dancers, Toulouse’s cabaret girls. Rodin did a number of 3D studies on women holding a foot up, putting on stockings, doing an arabesque etc. and it was eye opening to see them all together in one giant display case.

We popped for a Taxi ride to the Galleries Lafayette. Joyce thought I would like the architecture and she was right. There is this amazing central atrium right up the middle of all stories, topped with a deco style stained glass dome. It really has to be seen to be believed! All around the atrium, high end bars and cafes punctuate the  designer boutique fashions!  Gentlemen sip Moet as the wives and girlfriends (hopefully not together) shop for La Perle.

Taxi ride to a shop that has been making uniforms for 100 years to see about some special gifts. We both forgot that 14 was ‘quatorze’ for a minute so I said ‘Dix et Quatre’ the driver laughed for two blocks saying that our French was not that bad.  The shop has not gone totally chef wear and modern so we didn’t see anything we liked.  We strolled through the Maris back home to St Gemain De Pres via the St Michael Fountaine. Too tired to go out so we foraged in the neighbourhood the most amazing cherry tomatoes with taste for days… no, for weeks. A hot chicken from a street deally in front of a butcher store. Fresh meat inside and cooked outside very sensible. We got a few things from the Carrefour (Woollies) including a bottle of wine. We went home and finally found some English news on channel 166.

It is almost too much to handle. So much to do, and the overwhelming sense is that it is best to walk from one place to another, open to the unexpected events and sites along the route.