PARTING GLANCES: AU REVOIR PARIS
Monday, we started out walking to the Musee National duMoyen Age, previously known as the Musee de Cluny. Our quest was to find some
coasters for a friend of ours in Madison; unfortunately those particular
coasters were out of press the last few years. We walked on past the OdeonTheatre de l’Europe, and on to the Luxembourg Gardens, a placid haven amid the
city chaos. The gardens were dotted with statues and a well-organized layout in
the Italian style.
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| Luxembourg Gardens |
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| Luxembourg Gardens |
We walked through the pretty back streets around the Pantheon down to our destination, the teahouse at the Mosquee de Paris. This
delightful shady place served us Moroccan style mint tea in a glass along with
sweet pastries. The teahouse was built in the Arabic Moroccan style with blue
and white tile work. It was a leisurely place to sip tea and watch the world go
by. We were joined by some very friendly and, seemingly, very hungry sparrows.
They were seeking, and finding our stray pastry crumbs. Even the sparrows eat
well in Paris!
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| Pantheon |
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| Mint tea and sweet pastries |
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| Happy sparrow |
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| At the Tearoom in the Mosquee de Paris |
Opposite the teahouse is a small walled garden the Jardindes Plantes. We circled up to the highest point, a small iron rotunda.
Our next stop was at the Opera Garnier on our way to the
magnificent stores of the Grand Boulevards Haussmann.
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| Opera Garnier |
We window shopped at all
the great fashion house displays in the Galleries Lafayette and ended up taking
in the view from the rooftop terrace.
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| Galleries Lafayette Stained Glass Ceiling |
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| View from Galleries Lafayette rooftop |
We then made our way home leaving the bustle of the city
behind us. We were tired but still wanted to make the effort to get some of the
cheesecake that we had seen in the Jewish District. The cheesecake reminded me
of the kind my mother used to make. I had previously only been able to find
something similar in a small, now defunct delicatessen in the East End of
London. My attempts to find something of the kind had failed even in New York.
The cheesecake tasted delicious, but not quite as good as my mother’s, of
course.
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| Cheesecake |
On the way back to our apartment we decided to go into the
lovely Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis Church, the exterior of which we had admired on
our previous sojourns in the area around Rue Rivoli.
Tuesday: our last full day in Paris and of our vacation. We
started out early to get in line before the Musee d’Orsay opened. The Museed’Orsay is an amazing gallery of primarily French art from the latter half of
the nineteenth, and into the early twentieth century. The museum houses an
extensive Impressionist exhibit which I really enjoyed viewing. Rodin, Van
Gogh, Seurat, Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Cezanne all featured strongly.
We crossed the river and relaxed for a while in the Jardindes Tuileries. The weather has been mostly in the high fifties and low sixties;
it was good to feel the sun on our backs. We have seen only a few drops of rain
the whole trip and it has been crisp and conducive to walking most of the time.
We walked down to the Place de la Concorde...
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| Place de la Concorde |
....and took the
Metro a few stops to visit Rue Cler a market street recommended by PBS’s Rick
Steves as epitomizing the heart of Paris.
We walked from there toward the Eiffel Tower to get one last
look at the old standby. Tonight we plan an easy evening to gather our thoughts
and impressions and to pack our bags ready for our return home tomorrow to
Madison.
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