The final day

A Pablo Picasso displayed in Musée de l’Orangerie, part of our world-wide searching since 2007

On our last day in Paris, we visited Musée de l’Orangerie and marvelled at the old masters … Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Modigliani … and Pablo Picasso (the photo is just for Devens).  Our visit was on Kylie’s recommendation and well worthwhile.

As an aside, it is amazing how some try to jump the queue even when there is obviously only one line.

View this image of the Lavender in Tuileries Garden on Photosynth at http://tinyurl.com/q8wpjv3 or simply click on the image

A view across Tuileries Garden to Musée de l’Orangerie

The day was, for the first time, wet … drizzly wet and not enough to spoil it for us but Les looked a picture with summer shorts, shirt hanging out and a coat!

Le Soufflé

Again on Kylie’s recommendation, we walked across the Tuileries Garden to have  lunch at Le Soufflé.  Joy had a Cheese soufflé and Les the Beef Bourguignon followed by Caramel & Rhubarb.  Delicious!

A cab to the airport took 70 minutes in horrendous traffic (the start of their holiday season), the BA flight was late arriving and landing, a walk to our hotel, a late snack, and an early morning sleep.

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The gallery is only a selection of our photos for this blog.  There are more on our Flickr site

Another feast!

Paris – Thursday 27 June

A slow start this morning and then a visit to BNP Paribus – a long story that will have to wait.

A taxi to the 6^th Arrondisement (Saint-Germain des Prés) sometime before our lunch appointment, so time for a spot of shopping before arriving at Restaurant Helene Darroze.  This restaurant was recommended to us by the ladies at La Grande Maison.  It is Michelin starred but we haven’t determined how many.  We had emailed for a reservation and been given a lunch spot; their evening reservations are hard to get.  In addition to fine dining (La Salle à Manger), there is a tapas option in Le Salon.

We chose a ‘main’ course, and the chef selected two starters and a dessert; a cheese course came as always in France, before desert.  Joy loves that!  The food was brilliant, service was spot on and our experience was wonderful.

 

After lunch, we walked back to Madeleine via Le Soufflé (securing a lunch reservation for tomorrow; they had not replied to our email!).

The other restaurant we had tried to secure a reservation was L’Astrance in Passy.  Our position on the wait list never advanced.

A museum & a feast

Paris – Wednesday 26 June

Today we solved the mystery of the crowds at Musée d’Orsay.  The Louvre is closed on Mondays!  So today when we re-visited, the queue was less than 15 people.

We took a guided tour of the highlights for about two hours.  The guide was very pleasant and instructive.  We learned a lot.

From the balcony, there is an amazing view of the city dominated by the Opera House and Montmartre.

A taxi to the Opera House through amazing traffic.  An unguided tour was taken and that included the balconies and inside the theatre.

We walked back to the hotel.

And then our third visit to L’atelier de Joel Rubuchon Saint-Germain where we again experienced and thoroughly enjoyed the degustation menu (see it on the website).

 

A long walk

Paris – Tuesday 25 June

This morning after a late breakfast, we headed to Musée d’Orsay. Unfortunately the queue was gigantic and slow moving.  We resolved to book tickets, (but have been unable to find the right on-line purchase).

So we continued on to the Champs Elysee and the Arc de Triomphe, then back to the hotel.  A total distance since departure this morning of 8.5Km.  We had not been this way before on foot.

Apart from vacating an outdoor ice cream café due to smoking, all went well.

In the evening, we managed to get a reservation at Le Petit Marche.  This little restaurant was recommended to us (by Peter Sullivan in 2009) based on the quality of its fresh produce as well as traditional style.  They would have seated 60 and turned over a number of tables.  Great food and service with some Asian influences.