Doing Paris

So Day 2 was about "doing Paris." We went to the Louvre, had lunch there, then the Orangery, then to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

For breakfast I bought pain au chocolats and croissants, also butter and jam. Before bringing Barb her cafe au lait and everyone else the pastries, I sat in the little cafe and had a latte with a quiche lorraine. So wonderful to just sit there, eat, and people-watch.

The Louvre was fantastic, of course. Susan explored on her own while Carol, Barb and I went around together. We saw some classics like the Mona Lisa. Barb was our guide, holding up her map periodically so we could find her when we got separated. We saw some impressionists and also Napoleon III's apartments.

We did lots of looking up and pointing.

Our faithful guide

Me by some fellow readers.

A cow on a boat.

Reminded me of Aslan.

Napoleon III's apartments

We've had some beautiful skies.

The inverted pyramid.

Susan joined us for lunch. It took some time but eventually we found - thanks to the advice we received from the information center - a lovely restaurant on the outside of the Louvre, called "Cafe Marly." The food was fantastic, and we had a nice view of the Louvre courtyard as well. I had a Kir Royal before dinner kind of as an homage to the wonderful cookbook I use, where I found this appertif. We shared a delightful Rose' called "Whispering Angels."

Lunch at the Louvre.

A Kir Royal in Paris!

Whispering Angels Rose'

Next we walked through the Tuileries Garden to the Orangerie Museum. I had never heard of either of those. The garden was pleasant and the Orangerie was impressive. Barb explained that the Orangerie is where the king kept the orange trees during the winter, then he moved them into the gardens in the warm weather. It had some very good paintings. There were also two rooms with huge, curved murals done by Monet. When I first saw them I said, "These are just done by someone in the style of Monet, right?" I was surprised to learn Monet had done them himself. He wanted some rooms that would provide a peaceful space after World War I.

The bird seems to fit right in.

A trompe l'oeil building!

Next, on to the Eiffel Tower. We took an elevator to the top and had a glass of champagne to toast our mutual birthdays. Huge crowds but we had a fun time. There's a huge football hanging in the Eiffel Tower! They're football-mad here. In the elevator Susan said something about soccer and a group of guys said, "It's football, ladies."

In the elevator

From the elevator

The Seine from the tower.

Montmartre in the sun.

Happy birthday to us!

The walk home was an adventure. A little ominous, actually. We walked toward a park we had to go through to get home and the gendarmes were lined up in a row blocking the way. Not only is the soccer/football game a cause for more security, but also there was a terrorist attack in a town a little ways out of Paris, where 2 people were killed, including a policeman. As we turned around to go back, the gendarmes seemed to be following us. That was the ominous part. They were tightening the enclosure.

Gendarmes.

We were fortunate to meet a friendly Parisian who helped us get home. Her name was Rita. She lived in New York for a while so she spoke good English. She was kind enough to walk with us all the way to her own home, very close to our apartment. We had to walk quite a roundabout way because everywhere we turned, the gendarmes were closing the way.

Our friendly, helpful guide.

We met several friendly, helpful Parisians. In the Metro as we were trying to find our way to another train, a woman asked us where we were trying to get. She actually turned around and walked us to the right place. At lunch at the Louvre, the people sitting by us asked if we would mind if they would smoke. When we said we would (Barb has an allergy), they did not. We thanked them and they said it was no problem, and Paris needs tourists, so they wanted to treat us well. Another time when we were debating whether we should or should not go down a Metro station entrance, a man stopped, smiled, and asked where we were going, then told us, yes, we should go there.

We had a late dinner at Les Papilles. (I took a break and did not take the camera along.) Les Papilles has a prix fixe menu, explained by the chef. It was delicious! Recommended by Rick Steves, whose advice we rely on a lot. We took Uber both to and from the restaurant and the poor drivers had a hard time finding the way with all the closures. On the way home we finally had to walk the last bit.

After that we enjoyed the Eiffel Tower light show, as we have done every night. We especially love it when it twinkles all over.