28th April 2000 Paris
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2000
1
2
81
Trip End
Aug 09, 2000
Paris,
France
Sunday, February 16, 2003
A slow start to Friday saw us head off to the Louvre, only to find that at 11.00 am, there was a queue hundreds of meters long. We decided to come back early one morning and instead walked all the gardens and little back streets of the district. Visited the Tuilleries gardens where we ate lunch next to the duck pond amidst beautiful spring flowering trees and gardens of stunning tulips. Also visited the gardens of the Palais Royale - a beautiful oasis surrounded by the palace that is now apartments with a forest of TV antennae along the roofline.
The Monet Water Lilies collection at L'Orangerie is closed for two years for renovation-the collection is travelling overseas-very disappointed. Our last hope is the collection established by his son, which we hope to visit early next week. By this stage the rain was intensifying and the wind had whipped up, so what better thing to do but walk the length of the Champs Elyses and climb (and Cheryl does mean CLIMB!) to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Worth it for the view. Must be stunning on a sunny day (which it looks like today, Saturday, is going to be), but on this occasion all I filmed was a windswept, cloudy drizzly city.
We returned home on the Metro, with plans for dining out. We stopped at a local supermarket where Cheryl desperately sought out her favourite "rice crackers" with no success. Bought some biscuits, cheeses and dips, plus some strawberries (the size of cricket balls) and grapes, and returned to our room for a rest. Cheryl woke me up at 8.00, whereupon, I climbed under the blankets, and we slept and dozed through till 8.00 am this morning. It is now 10.00, and we will head off for St Chapelle and Notre Dame etc. shortly.
