More Wanderings and Two Great Museums, Part Two of our Paris/London Vacation

Inside the D'Orsay

We made the curious decision to walk from our digs to the Musee d’Orsay on Thursday, a trek that took us somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 minutes. A few wrong turns here and there added to our travel time. There was some sunshine and some rain and some cold and some warmth and some clouds and some blue skies accompanying us. We’d started the day at our favorite cafe. The day after enjoying a delicious omelette, I tried the scrambled eggs and am compelled to say I’ve never had better. This fueled the walk to come.

Paris is lousy with tourists these days as many parts of the world are enjoying Spring Break. The tourists have thus brought with them their progeny, many of these young people were dragged to the d’Orsay where they fit right in with some of the school groups who were also brought to the museum, like it or not.

An art museum is a wonderful place for someone like me but a terrible place to bring a ten-year old boy or for that matter most anyone under eighteen. Then again some younger adults are not too keen on museums (then again now one is forcing them to go). 

So the hordes of people crowding the d’Orsay were a definite downside to our visit albeit the only one. The d’Orsay is a fabulous museum, surely one of the best in the world and my personal favorite.

I marveled at the Rodins, the Renoirs, the Manets, the Gauguins, van Goghs, the Toulouse-Lautrec’s and so much more. 

After the long walk and having stood admiring paintings and sculptures, the missus and I found ourselves exhausted and in need of refreshments. We queued in a long life for the cafe and were propelled to seventh heaven when at last seated. I had a hot chocolate (Viennese) and ice cream, overloading on sugar but also getting a rush that gave me second and third winds. Our exploration of great art continued.

Eventually we’d seen plenty and bid this marvelous place adieu. Wisely we took the metro home.

Yesterday it was the Louvre. This time we took the metro (after another visit to our favorite cafe and some scrumptious French toast) but luck was not with us. The metro stop by the museum was closed so we had to get off at the next one, some distance away. We then used my unerring sense of direction to walk in the wrong direction. It took what seemed like years to right ourselves and find the museum. 

The crowds were overwhelming, but so was the great art. We soaked in as much as we could then left in search of a repast. We found a charming restaurant and dined like kings. Finding the metro and our way home proved easy.

We’ve spent a lot of our time, lost, frustrated, cold, wet and hungry and I’ve found myself wondering when the vacation is going to start. But I realized this IS the trip. And we’re enjoying it. After all we’re together, we’re in Paris and we’re being exposed to great art, fabulous architecture, a wonderful variety of people. We’ve gotten far away from our daily grinds and regular creature comforts. This is surely the perfect re-charge for our human batteries. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.