Siri in Paris: NO MONET, BUT SOME VAN GOGH

A BLUSTERY DAY

2010

I leave the house early with a mission to visit a little Dachshund, Tweed, owned by a very old lady, who works (?) at the hotel where Julia stayed not so long ago. I reach the place on rue Cambon around 10,30, and the receptionist, first a bit incredulous, but then understanding, says, “Je suis desolé (there it is again!) , but Madame has not arrived yet.” So I must accept this and move up the very pleasant street full of designer shops, until I reach the Galeries Lafayette, where I have an additional mission to buy presents. Meanwhile Oswaldo is meeting a philosopher and calls me later to let me know he’s home again, with a baguette and two sandwiches from Paul - a very nice bakery in the neighborhood. I have a little adventure with the Metro tickets, it seems when you buy 10 tickets, only 6 or 7 will actually work, causing considerable stress at the turnstiles. As a plus, however, I get to listen to very varied music walking in those long underground tunnels. Today I pass a young woman singing wistfully of unrequited love, a song made famous by Juliette Greco, a man who looks like Chavez and plays really excellent Spanish guitar, and finally a jolly group of guys playing ‘If I were a rich man’ with about 8 instruments. I eventually reach our apartment, where we have our lunch. We both feel we must do something this afternoon and decide on the great Monet show at the Grand Palais. We arrive full of purpose and find a huge line of people waiting in the now rather cold and windy weather. So we give up and head for the D’Orsay instead, down Champs Elysées, across Place de la Concorde, through part of the Tuileries, past a weird installation in the pond involving many silvery spheres floating in the water with two Brits in rubber wading overalls trying to get the balls under control

. The resident ducks, whose pond has now been taken over by weird shiny things, are flying away in disgust and indignation. They fly awkwardly like toucans. Across the river the d’Orsay is also quite full and the Impressionists have been moved from their former naturally lit position on the 5th floor, to a windowless crowded gallery on the ground floor. Still, the paintings are wonderful, Van Gogh, Gauguin, even a couple of Monet, although most have been lent to the Grand Palais, and some famous and spectacular Manet’s. After an ice cream break and a second look at the Degas and Cezanne, we decide to walk home on rue de la Université, again passing many interesting shops and countless cafés, patisseries, and boulangers - how come everybody is so thin - how do they manage?. We are exhausted from 3 weeks of walking and doing things every day and our legs are aching. We get home, take off our shoes and settle down to reading quietly, eventually fixing dinner in the comfort of our Grand Suite. Tomorrow is our last day. We’ll have to be all packed before we go to sleep, because the taxi will pick us up at 7am on Friday morning