26 January ’06, Thursday. Yes, I know who suggested it, and yes I am the one who wants to go because I’m wiped out… This all started when I suggested that we walk from the bus stop, on up the Avenue des Champs Elysees to the internet café we’ve been using. From there we continued under the Arc de Triumph, down to The Grand Palais.
Now we had heard that the Palais was open to the public after going through a 12 year refurbishing. Well, if it was open, we couldn’t find the way in, but across the street was the Petite Palais and it looked like it had just re-opened (and the lines were coming out of the door and down the exterior and cold as hell stairway.)
At this point, we quickly made a decision that we were going to pass and continue our walk towards the Place de La Concorde and the Tuileries, across the Seine and into the Musee D’Orsay. Not that this was a long walk for us, and not that a frigid wind was blowing into our faces, it came down to the fact that we were going to walk the many halls and staircases of the museum on top of all that…that was why I was crying… I know Louise suggested that we catch the metro to the D’Orsay, but I just hadn’t thought it through. We joined a small group tour going through the museum and then we went out on our own. I guess with lunch and all the viewing of the art at the D’Orsay, we were there about 4 hours. It’s amazing but, you could spend 4 or 5 times that to see it properly. When I heard that there was a large display of “period” furniture, I put that into my “don’t bother with that” category, but fortunately we walked into it… Now I would put this as a “don’t miss” collection…it was wonderful. At this point, I was sitting down, crying, and trying to get some attention…it worked. I was just about grabbed by the scruff of the neck and led out of the building. Fortune was on my side, as we found that down the stairs of the museum was the way to the train. I paid for the tickets with a smile and we were on our way back to “Bumble Bee”. Yes, it was a great museum, and yes, I had to promise to save my walking for the next museum…Tomorrow…Delft, Netherlands (Holland).