Paris

I arrived in Paris and waited for my baggage ... and waited. It turns out it only came on the first of two flights I'd taken from Izmir, so I arrived at the Russet's empty handed. Luckily I'd left some clothes and things with them last time, and the airline gave me a toiletries bag with a toothbrush etc... Most importantly I had a pair of sneakers, because on Saturday Martine took me to her local park: Parc des Sceaux. This is not your average park because it was lanscaped by the same person who did Versailles, it even has a grand canal. So Martine did Tai chi, I went for a run and then we got some groceries and had a quick lunch before I was whisked away on a tour of hidden Paris by velib and walking. We rode past the Moulin Rouge and the Louvre and went to two galleries and an old time sweets store for ice cream. The Musée Gustave Moreau came about when the artist was concerned about what would happen to all his works after his death. He decided to conserve them together by creating a museum out of his home which exists to this day, even his sketches are stored in viewing panels which line the walls. And the second museum was the Musée de la Vie Romantique which has works and keepsakes of both George Sand and Ary Scheffer who both lived on the premises at one time or another. It also has a cute little cafe where you can relax after biking all around Paris and have some lemonade. When the sun started to set we opted to get some dinner and see a movie. We saw a poster for 'l'Arbre' with Charlotte Gainsbourg which we thought would be a good French movie to see. It turns out it's an Australian film and because we saw the 'version originale' it was all in English. Tant pis!

On Sunday I went to the Marché de Puces de St Ouen, which are 3 different flea markets selling everything from books and clothes to furniture and antiques. Then I had lunch in the Jardin des Plantes (Paris's botanical gardens) and had a peek in the zoo. The biggest crowd was drawn to the Kangaroos of course! I still had time to walk past Notre Dame and the Centre Pompidou and visit the street I stayed on last time I visited Paris. Unfortunately just about everything in Paris is closed at the moment because it's August which is when everyone takes their paid vacation time. But back at Fontenay-aux-roses a feast awaited me for dinner thanks to Martine. All week we ate these tomatoes from her local market which were amazing! and we tried a deserts from Picard and some boulangeries. On Monday it poured so I went straight to the Musée de l'Orangerie to marvel at Monet's Waterlilies until the weather cleared. I even got to watch a documentary about Picasso and Matisse in their AV centre while waiting. I wanted to go to the Musée Picasso, armed with my new-found knowledge form the doco, but I arrived to discover it's closed for 2 years for works. So I continued to the Place to Vosges to check out all the Galleries.

Tuesday was the day for Musée D'Orsay, which is also having renovations but luckily they've reorganised the two remaining floors to show a selection of all their works. I snuck past the queue to the office to book a tour for later in the afternoon and then went and saw les Invalides and had some tart on Rue Cler, a commercial street market. Then I met Martine for lunch in the gardens of the Musée Albert Kahn, which is actually a French, a British and a Japanese garden, a swamp and a mini pine forest. I made it back to the Orsay just in time for my tour and then stuck around until close. I even picked up a couple of replicas to decorate the walls of my room in Lyon. Wednesday came all too quickly and I went to the Musée Rodin only to discover it too was partially closed because they were setting up a giant marquee in the gardens for a fundraiser. You could still see his Porte de l'enfer and its various components. In the afternoon I went for a New Europe walking tour of Montmartre which took us through all the back streets past Van Gogh's and Picasso's favourite haunts and the café where Amelie worked in the film, past Paris's last vineyard right up to the back steps of Sacre Coeur. After the tour our Irish guide and two Belgian girls and I opted to go to the Opéra and check out Martin Scorcese's set, which includes Jude Law. I'll admit I didn't see anyone particular famous, but I have now scene parts of a scene in Hugo Cabaret and I listened to a security guard boast about having worked on the set of Inception as well and how everyone's coming to Paris to film now.

Thursday Damien had the day off work but he was too busy with his photo shoot to give me the time of day so I sorted out my enrollment at an internet cafe and then went to the Marché Bastille for crepes. Then I waited in line for about an hour with my pre-paid ticket for the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition at the Petit Palais. It's a fantastic exhibition with hundred's of the designer's pieces on display. Towards the end of the exhibition there's a huge room filled with ball gowns and then you look closely at the back wall and realise there are dozens of models mounted against the black wall in YSL's famous le Smoking tuxedos. It was a great way to finish my stay in Paris. Of course when I got home, after a quick stop at Zara, there was cheese and fresh bread and veggies and dessert. It's no wonder I was reluctant to leave, but I packed up my bags and said goodbye to Damien who opted to stay in bed and off I went to Lyon, which is where I'm writing this from, in my new room.