Meridith and Cary both being artistic and me being up for anything, we definitely wanted to spend a couple days in Paris at the wonderful museums. We first visited Musée de l’Orangerie, which is in the old Orange hot house of the Tuileries palace.This museum majors on impressionism and subsequent developments. Taking the dread Metro one gets off at the Concorde stop, which is on the square where the beheadings took place during the French revolution.

The highlighted works at l’Orangerie are 8 large Water Lilies paintings by Monet displayed as murals in two oval rooms. I was fascinated with the ability to paint at arms length something beautiful meant to be viewed (it seems) from 10-12′ away.

The streets and bridges in Paris are also works of art.

We visited the Hotel des Invalides, an old veterans hospital, which is now used to display an unending collection of fancy arms and armor. Napoleon’s tomb is in another building on the grounds (last picture in the gallery below).

Museum lunches in France are expensive, just like the states, but the food is fresh and delicious. We at lunch at a little Cafe in Les Invalides which was a real treat.

Beyond the Tuileries Garden’s is the Louvre Museum.

One cannot see the Louvre in a day, but thanks to Meridith, Cary and I did not get stuck reading plaques in the first wing we entered (which would be our standard mode – wanting to know all about what we are looking at). Following Meridith and her camera, we got a good overview. Open the gallery to see the captions.

Cary and Meridith also got to see the Rodin sculpture museum.

In the evenings we came back to our little neighborhood and, thanks to the handy market, we cooked and relaxed in the evening.

Don’t worry, crepes and gelato in the next installment.