Blog Update: Penny's camera was stolen during her visit, and we lost our pictures of this day. But the good news is that gave me a good excuse to go back out and retrace our journey. These photos don't begin to capture what I am sure Penny captured on her camera (she's a pro!) but I think the photojournalist in me kicked in here.
We have had a great diversity of visitors to our home since we started this journey. If you were to make a list ahead of time about who would visit you would never be able to guess the list of folks that have showed up at our door. In fact, maybe only one of the people who have visited would ever have made it on your list. That said, we had another great house guest last week.
Penny stopped in on her way to Bamburg Germany where her husband was leading a Beer Tour (again. If you look back to the Penny's guest entries in the blog you will get an idea of where she was.) Whenever someone shows up, it gives me a good excuse to be a tourist again. We spent one entire day in Paris, in particular taking an Impressionist's Tour.
The day started with a search for high speed film, which we quickly found in Bastille. Penny, like some of our other guests, is a fabulous photographer, who still uses the old fashioned film. In fact, carrying around 3200 asa film is a little tricky with all the x-ray machines these days, and the terrorist trackers get a little peeved with lead lined baggage. So, with film in pocket, we set off for the day.
The walk through Tuilleries garden was amazing because of the beautiful dahlias and brilliant yellow coreopsis and cone flowers blooming in the central gardens. The sky was a transparent blue as far as you could see, so all the colors really popped out. The garden wasn't at all crowded, and we marched right up to the Orangerie -- which didn't open for another hour. As we walked across the promenade, Penny caught her first glimpse of the huge Ferris wheel set up in the Place de la Concorde, and unknown to me, she wanted to go for a ride, but didn't speak up, so I didn't suggest it.
After lunch in the garden at a Tuilleries Café, we headed to Musée d'Orsay and she marvelled at the Monets, Manets, Van Goghs and Renoirs there, and then we headed back to Tuilleries' Orangerie for more Monet, and one of my favorites, Utrillo. Penny really liked the primitive works, but was moved by the Monets. They really are amazing.
Our next adventure was to Montmarte. Penny had never been, and wanted to see the bohemian stomping ground of the artists whose works we had just had the privilege of viewing. Montmarte was in full form, and there was lots to see. We arrived in the Metro station Abessess, and climbed the spiral staircase (despite my suggestion that we take the elevator) out of the deepest Metro stop in Paris. The merry-go-round was spinning when we arrived in the square, and there were lots of British accents all around us. We found a café to catch our breath, and chatted with two Brits who were in for the big Rugby World Cup match between Afrique de Sud and Angleterre to be played later that night at Paris's big stadium.
The coke and beer fueled our next venture - climbing up to Sacré Coeur, but instead, we took the finiculaire, and arrived without breaking a sweat. We roamed around the lovely tourist mecca at the top of the hill looking at all the vendors who do charcoal sketches of the tourists,and the watercolor and oils of the romantic notions of these little villages and street scenes in France.
After wandering around and seeing Sacré Coeur, we headed back down into the fabric district of Montmarte and found a yarn shop that was just beautiful. We then decided to head towards our meeting point for dinner. We had about two hours to kill, so I suggested that we take a bus, instead of the subway. There was one going to Trocadero, which was heading in the right direction, and I figured we could get a Metro to the restaurant from there.
We waited patiently while the bus wove through the 6 p.m. traffic making steady progress until we were hit from the rear! We all waited while the accident report was filled out, and the bus went on its merry way, taking us to Trocadero (oh we could have changed buses, but this way was much more interesting.)
Penny was delighted with the amazing view of the Eiffel Tower at Trocadero, even if it had a big screen tv for the rugby scores hanging from it. There was a "oom-pah" band playing and there had obviously been some swanky beer drinking rugby event in the plaza below us. I stalled Penny until she could be surprised to see the Eiffel Tower light up at 8 p.m. and then we headed down to the restaurant.
We met Pat at a sweet little restaurant on Rue de Laos near the ligne 6 Metro station at Con and Le Motte Picquet. The dinner was fabulous and our table sat just out of the doorway between the restaurant and the street so we could see everything going on all around us.
We headed home at about 11:30 p.m., walking to the Metro, then riding that to the parking garage where Pat had parked the car, only to sit in Rugby match traffic on the way home - but what a great day! WE were exhausted, and really looking forward to the next few days with Penny.
