billbauer

We arranged to have taxi meet us at the hotel at the very early hour of 7am for a trip to the airport. We make it to the Air France lounge, the biggest and best airport lounge that I have encountered. We make it home without incident.  The entire trip was very smoothly.  Every reservation worked.  All of the luggage arrived.  The barge trip was wonderful. Thank you, Chris & Chick, for inviting us along on your adventure.

On our last full day (Saturday) in Paris, we take the RER train out to Versailles getting an early start at the hotel breakfast and an early train to arrive well before the 10am opening time.  We are in line twenty minutes before opening and there is already a huge line.  And this is the "priority" line with the Museum pass.  It seems everyone out here has a Museum pass.  This picture doesn't do it justice.  The "line", actually lines as the line snakes back and forth at least four times.  We actually didn't do too badly taking only about an hour to get inside. And that was the good part.  Once inside the tour of the Palais is terrible.  While we hoped for views like this we instead had view like this. It took at least another hour to be shoved and pushed through extreme congestion.  It was impossible to get a real feel for the palace with the sheer number of people.  And there is only one way out.  It is sort of like a ...

It is a national holiday (Friday) in France.  It is annunciation day, or something like that.  Chick says that it has something to do with Mary.  Since France is already on holiday for the month of August, it is unclear to me how a national holiday in the middle of holiday works.  Nevertheless, many/most shops are closed today.  Most attractions are open. Bauer's and Lane's head out together on the Metro for Notre Dame where we find Catholic mass in process including full organ and vocalists. After exiting Notre Dame, we discover rain falling.  With only a ten percent chance of rain forecast, we have left umbrellas and my rain coat back at the hotel.  We quickly duck into a Cafe right across the street and have kaffee and a croissant until we look out and can see more heads than umbrellas. With sun intermixing with the clouds, we pass a Starbucks   while walking to nearby Luxembourg Gardens to view the ma...

The Bauer's and the Lane's went different directions today (Thursday).  The Lane's were up at the crack of dawn for a bus tour to Normandy. We lingered a little longer in the hotel room this morning before striking out for the Musee d'Orsay, a converted train station turned into a museum. It is a shame that cameras are not allowed to be used inside the museum.  It is a rule that was observed in the breach but I nevertheless followed the rule and took no pictures inside.  It is a beautiful building and a beautiful setting for display of art.   (Stock photo below.) The Orsay houses more contemporary art than the Louvre and contains an amazing collection of impressionists and post-impressionists.  I found it great to walk past Monet, Manet, Degas, Sisley, Renoir and Cezanne right after one another and compare their styles.  They also have a great Cafe on the top floor.  And it was a lot less crowded than the Louvre.  I loved the Musee d...

Once arriving back in Paris (Tuesday) in the early afternoon, we take advantage of the time available before our dinner reservation at the Jules Verne to stroll through the Musee Rodin where the "Thinker" statue is located.  And, no, we didn't pose in the "thinker" position although many people did at this sculpture and so many others that it was annoying. One of the things that we did early and did often in Paris was to find a sidewalk Cafe in which to sit and have a kaffee, a croissant, wine, dessert.  There is no shortage of possibilities and we took advantage.  Here we are on Tuesday having a spot of wine just outside of the Metro station before heading back to our room. One more picture from the Jules Verne. Then it is off to the world famous Louvre museum the next morning (Wednesday).  After arriving in good time, we have difficulty finding the right location to queue up with our "priority" (Paris museum pass) tickets and spend a h...