Feb 22

We begin the day almost always in our Metro stop. I look across and as usual am taken with just the people and the setting, and the way they are not conscious of the setting. 

Yesterday I picked up a new book, called something like "Paris on the Second Time Around." Of course, I do not qualify, but I am impatient by nature and I was ready to see what they suggest for the people who have already visited the things you visit during your first time in Paris. Written by two young women, it suggested a great-sounding lunch place near the Madeleine, in the posh part of town. We wanted to go in that direction to check the Paris equivalent of TKTS (cheap place for theater tickets), plus this was where the Edward Munch show is, plus we wanted to go to the L'Orangerie, a gallery that was once part of the palace of the Tuileries, sort of the partner palace to the Louvre. 

The Paris TKTS was closed & besides didn't seem to have anything we'd want anyway, and the lunch place was closed, but by now we were on a tiny street we never would have been on otherwise, and we went more or less next door, into what was clearly an unadorned neighborhood place. The food was unaffected and we liked it there alot.

I'm getting better at sneaking photos of people.

The Rue de Rivoli for all of you who know Paris. I figured you'd like to see how it was today...

The kind of painting I would paint if I could paint. A girl in the park.

We are going to wait on Edward Munch, we decide, and we head over to L'Orangerie, passing through the Tuileries. It is warmer today -- no need for hats and gloves. Feels almost like Spring.

Trouble with snatching photos is you can't be too fussy with light settings. At least I caught these 2 girls in the pose I wanted. They are standing in front of Monet's water lilies. 

Outside, a famous Parisian painter checks his map...

Then Fred goes his way, and I go mine. Mine is down Rue St. Honore, just to look and see what I find...

Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris

On our first day in Paris we had passed by Notre Dame. The line was a couple of blocks long so we kept going. Today there was no line, so I went in.

Gargoyles and moon...

And then I began to walk as the sun was dimming, through the Ile de la Cite and Ile St. Louis, two tiny islands in the Seine between the Right & Left banks. These two islands were the original Paris when no other part of Paris existed. So I was curious...

The Right Bank

The rushing waters of the Seine really moved me tonight...

It's about 6:30 now, everyone rushing home...

Good night!