Yesterday was the last full day in Paris for W & S. They came over to 8317 with a baguette and a couple of pain au raisin, and we had our breakfast and planned the day. A long walk, since there's a transportation strike, with a destination of the Orangerie to see the Monets, was plan one. We walked along the Seine, stopping to look at the plant shops, seeing a bunch of garden gnomes in "cages," looking at buildings, before entering the Louvre area near the Pyramides. We strolled down the center of the
Tuilleries with the large Ferris wheel ahead of us. In my photo, you can barely make out the bottom of it in the distance, so here's a close up that Chuck took.
It didn't take as long as we thought so the Orangerie was still closed when we arrived. We decided to push on to the Grand Palais, crossing the VERY busy Place de la Concorde (because of the transportation strike, there are many more cars in the city) and continuing along the Seine walk.
We saw some crows and stopped to watch a very interesting thing. The crow
standing in the water in this foto, was carrying a little paper cup, stopping to put it down and eat from it, then carried it into the water. It then drank water and continued to take bits of food from the cup.
Another interesting thing happened. Just as we were about to cross to the Petit Palais, a young woman stopped us by calling out something and stooping to pick something up from the ground. she showed us a gold ring. She said she was from Kosovo, doesn't wear jewelry, can't take the ring back or sell it, and gave it to us saying "You take it." We started away and she followed us and said that she needed money for lunch. S and Chuck each gave her 2 € and she handed them the ring (it's marked 18K.) We have no idea where she got it or what the real story is, but it gave us an experience.
As we crossed the Place de la Concorde, we decided to stop in the Jeu de Paume, if it was still open. Lucky us, they were open until 7 p.m. and I still felt like I could do more, even though I was beginning to feel tired. (Aaagh, the head cold!) The Edward Steichen show was so good. It was the first retrospective in Europe, since his death in 1973. There were over 450 prints in the show. Amazingly early works from the late 1800s, when he was just a kid, through to his time at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. We remembered seeing his famous portraits of people like Greta Garbo and Marlena Dietrich, but hadn't realized he did a lot of advertising photos. Also, He started the photography office of the military, doing aerial photos during WWII. Of course, I couldn't take photos in the exhibit, but I couldn't resist a reflection in the window. This is a view out the back of the museum looking towards the Louvre. By the way, You'd probably recognize his work if you saw it. When we finished with the exhibit, we stepped out into the night, it had gotten dark while we were in the museum, and oh it was magical looking out onto the Place de la concorde. Doesn't the Ferris wheel look magical? With this sense of awe and satisfaction at seeing all of the wonderful art work, we descended into the Metro for a quick ride "home." oh yeah, and it was free. The turnstiles were open. I guess because of The Strike!
