FRIDAY IN PARIS

...So we put in some loads of laundry Thursday evening, grabbed a quick bite at a nearby bistro (boeufstec, salad and pomme frites pour moi and a croque madame - jambon, frommage et un oeuf on toated, crunchy pain - pour Madame Turbow), and then picked up a few items for breakfast, because the hotel only serves a buffet for 18€ per person. This Marriott is not as guest friendly as our previous hotels. The wireless Internet service is a PITA, and the petit dejeuner (a French tradition at hotels, B&Bs...) is not even an option.

At Andrea's request, I called American Airlines to inquire about an earlier departure. The fees involved for that change and cancelling our Normandie hotel reservations may not outweigh by much any cost savings gained from going home early.

Of course, the real reason Andrea wants to go home early is 1) she misses Cricket and Vixen fiercely and desperately, and 2) She is "nervousing" about Russia and the plannning that is still involved.

Friday, we ate our little breakfast on our balcony overlooking Leon Blum park. We bought a carnet of 10 Metro tickets, and took the "subway" to the Louvre. 

What else can you say? The museum is awesome! It is numbing AND overwhelming! We spent 9.5 hours there, and while Andrea thinks we saw all the paintings, I feel we only scratched the surface of what the place offers. They kicked us out at 10:00 pm upon closing as we attempted to infiltrate the ancient works of the Mideast. 

A few highlights: an exhibit on "Les Belles Heures," hand-made calendar for the Duc du Barry in the very early 1400s with fabulous, intricate illustrations for each day by the Limbourg brothers; a special exhibit about Da Vinci's final master piece, "St. Ann," which also included Da Vinci's, "Madonna of the Rocks;" the French Romantic painters; medieval objets d'art; the Maximilien Hunting tapestries; Angelina's for coffee and pastry; French paintings, and the Northern painters.

All day long, I asked myself (and Andrea) how so much could be accumulated in one place, and who would have the chutzpah to build a palace for themselves many city blocks long with gardens as extensive as Chicago's Grant and Lincoln parks combined while their people wallowed in ignorance and poverty?

KINGS and QUEENS! That is who. Obviously, I say that as a person of modest means born in the latter half of the 20th Century. And certainly, had those French kings and queens not done so, I would have nothng to marvel at now (nor would I have had anything to strive for as a teen when I first visited the Louvre in 1975.)

Regardless of politics, the Louvre is quite remarkable and a wonderful experience. Andrea was in art history heaven, going from room to room, exclaiming "I teach that!" or "That's bigger than I thought it would be." 

Our loose plan for Saturday is to visit Notre Dame and St. Chapelle, and then walk the Champs Elysee. As the first Sunday of the month, national museum admission is free, so we will hand pick a few to visit, such as my personal favorite, the Rodin Museum, and Museum d'Orsay and Decorative Arts for Andrea. Monday is Roland Garros. If we stay in France, we will probably buy a two-day museum pass for Tuesday and Wednesday, one of which will be for Versailles. I have never been to the castle at Fountainbleu, so that is also a possibility, and of course, there are the many different areas and neighborhoods of Paris to simply walk.

I will let you know how it actually goes down in a few days, but do not expect any photos. Sorry.