Well, all good things must come to an end...and this fabulous trip is no exception. The day started with my regular walk to Bo & Mie bakery, just 1 block from our apartment. Their croissants are out of this world. Just look at these beauties! We never tried the raspberry one...next time!! We apparently are more traditionalists...we prefer the "croissant au beurre" and the "pain au chocolate".
This was our last full day in Paris. Gary was feeling guilty that we hadn't gone to enough museums on this trip I think...so he and I headed off to the Petit Palace, which neither of us had visited before. We headed off on the Metro, which I just love so much. I like the hot metal smell of the tracks, the whoosh sound when the train pull in, the efficiency of the way the whole Metro system is laid out, how easy it is to use, the variety of people you see on the Metro trains...and if you are lucky, you might get to hear a busker deep in the tunnels of the Metro where the acoustics are amazing. I had just thought yesterday that we hadn't heard any musicians in any of our Metro rides on this trip, so was thrilled when we heard a lone trumpet player way down the hallway/tunnel. Happily we dropped a a few euros in his cap and he nodded appreciatively and didn't miss a beat!
The Petit Palace really was lovely...small and free...and a perfect little dose of "museum"! It was built (along with the Eiffel Tower and the Grand Palais) for the World's Exposition in 1900. The roof is almost entirely glass and the walls have huge floor to ceiling windows so the natural light is amazing! There were no lights on in the main sculpture hall and it was just gloriously filled with natural light! The mosaic floors were art in themselves!
Adam and Eve holding Able after being killed by his brother Cain.
Paris is crazy about Sarah Bernhardt!
I loved this piece...a very tall stack of books with a little boy perched at the top. It reminded me of my sweet, voracious reader, Henry!
When we had headed out in the morning, we had agreed to all meet up on the 6th floor of Galleries Lafayette at 12:30 for a bit of souvenir shopping and lunch. This is one of the "grands magasins", one of the most famous department stores in Paris. It's steel and stained glass dome is gorgeous, and a real Paris "must-see"! The 6th floor houses a very nice souvenir shop (not the tacky trinkets you can find on the street, much nicer Paris mementos. We all did a bit of shopping, and then had lunch at the "cafeteria/food court" (for lack of a better word!). The food is all cooked to order, is very tasty, and the view can't be beat!
The Kiss is a beautiful sculpture - I just wanted to reach out and touch that smooth marble! We were all fascinated by the large hands and feet in all of Rodin's sculptures.
This is a smaller sized early rendition of The Thinker.
This is the clear lucite "walking platform"...people line up for the chance to walk out into the center of the dome! (no takers in our group)
And this was the view from our lunch table...gloomy grey skies and it was still beautiful!
Bellies full of food, we were ready to hit one more museum...one that Gary and I had been to 25 years ago, but the rest of our group had not seen before. The Rodin museum is a beautiful little museum in the home of August Rodin. When Rodin died, he left his entire collection of sculptures, along with paintings by van Gough, Monet, and Renoir from his personal collection, along with his home, on the condition that they turn the home into a museum dedicated to his works. It's such a beautiful setting in which to see his art. The gardens surrounding the house are simple and just so beautifully manicured (complete with bunnies hopping all around!). Rodin's most significant creations, The Thinker, The Kiss and The Gates of Hell are on display, along with many others. Inside there are lots pre-cursers to these finished pieces, showing the creative evolution of many of his sculptures.
The Gates of Hell are so agonizing...I know I never want to go there!
This is the backside of the beautiful house
The garden in back...so tranquil and relaxing!
The gardens are just filled with sculptures. And it's such a nice way to see the art - you can walk all around it and it's all at your eye level!
Time to head back home. As we walked to the Metro, we turned the corner and walked past Les Invalides where Napoleon is buried, and caught another glimpse of The Iron Lady!
We had decided that for our last dinner in Paris, we would head back to another one of our favorite restaurants from a previous visit...La Marine! This lively restaurant is located on the hip Canal St. Martin.
We discovered this one 2 years ago when we came to France with John and Babette, and it is another one we found on The Fork app. We enjoyed it so much on that trip that we actually dined there twice. The setting is so fun...as the night goes on, more and more young people come and sit along the canal bank with their bottles of wine and maybe a pizza or a picnic and just chill and talk - it's amazing to see. Inside, the restaurant is a classic bistro, but just a tiny bit elevated. For this meal, we were seated at a lovely copper topped table...the only downside is that it was right across from the noisy bar! The upside is also that we were right across from the bar...the heartbeat of the restaurant! Gary and I started out on the side of the table that faced the bar but then switched with Ron and Lenore so they could watch the show at the bar and the ballet that the super busy waiters seem to do as they rush back and forth at lightning speed, never crashing into each other. Our waiter, after dropping plates off at one end of the restaurant, would hustle back to the center of the restaurant, wrap his arm around a post/column (shown in the photo below) and catapult himself off at a 90 degree angle and head into the kitchen for another pick-up! It was something to witness! I know Ron and Lenore enjoyed the "floor show"! The food was excellent (I had beef cheeks braised in red wine, Ron had a fillet (which he announced as the best piece of beef he had eaten in France!), Gary had a huge pork chop topped with hazelnuts and blistered shishito peppers, and I honestly don't remember what anyone else had! (safe to say that Lenore probably had something involving chocolate for dessert though!). One of the funniest parts of the meal was when John and Babette ordered escargots for their starter...2 of the shells appeared to be empty and when they mentioned that to the waiter he announced "They are hiding...but I will find them!". He got a toothpick and after a lot of work was able to get one out, but had to acknowledge that the remaining shell was, in fact, empty! A few minutes later he appeared with one lone escargot on a plate.
The beautiful Canal St. Martin, with it's green iron-work bridges and locals gathering on the canal banks!
We walked outside to wait for our Uber after dinner. It was fun to see the young people gathering on the canal banks, but equally fun was watching some type of police actions where the bridge in front of the restaurant was roped off and there were several cops operating a drone...up high, then quickly down low, then back up again! There didn't seem to be a great sense of urgency so I think it might have been a training exercise of some type....fun to witness, nonetheless!
Back at the apartment, 4 of us fell into bed, while John and Babette scurried around and packed...they had a 7am taxi pickup the next morning and a long flight back to Nashville. We will be sad to see them leave, it has been so great to have all 6 of us together for the past 3 weeks.
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