Musee d'Orsay and beyond

(Photo 1) Musee d'Orsay





(Photo 5) Sara Beth - this is better than chocolate!


(Photo 6) Hallie's bridge - Alexander III







(Photo 12) Concord


(Photo 13) Laduree - home of the yummy macaroons


(Photo 14) macaroons - our favorite is the chocolate





(Photo 16) Arc de Triomphe


(Photo 17) chocolate fondue with 6 flavors of ice cream, brownie and cookie pieces, fruit and toffee sprinkles. Yummy!





Once again we were blessed with a beautiful blue sky day. The forecast is calling for snow tomorrow but it seems to change daily so we will see. We started our day a little earlier today because the Musee d'Orsay is free on the first Sunday of the month and closed on Monday. Museums are not a first choice of the girls, but they were very patient with us as we hit the highlights and enjoyed the impressionist art wing. Hallie took in all of the statues including the Degas exhibit of his models for a ballet series that he painted. They were beautiful. Amy is a fan of Monet and Pissaro. Gaiten was very interested in the pointalism style and Sara Beth enjoyed all of it, especially the famous blue painting of Van Gogh's small room. Sara Beth's quote of the day was that seeing the art in Musee d'Orsay was better than chocolate. Her companions did not exactly feel the same way, but I think everyone enjoyed something of what they saw. We left the museum gift shop hungry and found a delightful cafe that could seat us. Sara Beth and Gaiten shared an omelet,Hallie ate a chicken and cheese sandwich and Amy ate a mozzarella and tomato pannini. Yes, you read that correctly, Amy ate tomatoes and it was very good. After that we took off on a journey to find "Hallie's bridge". We weren't exactly sure which bridge it was, but the painting that she bought at Montmartre featured this bridge with the Eiffel Tower in the background. While walking along the Seine, we found the Alexander III bridge. This bridge has golden statues on the top of it and it is very ornate and beautiful. This we deemed "Hallie's bridge". After taking a gazillion pictures of all elements of the bridge, we walked across to the right bank and down toward Concord to rue Royal. We were looking for Laduree's, a famous tea salon that was supposed to have some of the best macaroons in the city. These are not the coconut ones that we know of at home. They are a colorful meringue based cookie with a variety of fillings. We found Laduree with it's pretty green awning and stepped into a line of people waiting to buy their macaroons. It was in a very fancy neighborhood reminiscent of 5th avenue in New York City. Upon tasting our macaroons (we all got chocolate), we decided that they were delicious, kind of like eating a chewy brownie. We then boarded the metro for a trip up the Champs Elysees toward the Arc de Triomphe. After a quick bathroom stop, we noticed that many police and riot vehicles had begun to gather and line both sides of the avenue. This was unsettling, but strangely comforting because no one seemed to know what was going on and we did not feel like we should ask the policemen. We knew we were in the area of the embassies and assumed that it had something to do with the unrest in the middle east. We then shopped a little on the avenue and our suspicions were confirmed when we asked the clerk and he said that it must have something to do with a demonstration somewhere. We decided it was best that we leave the area but not before we had a little break at the Haagen Daz ice cream salon. There we stuffed ourselves with ice cream fondue and other delights. Gaiten was anxious for us to enjoy this experience which she first had last year in Paris and we were happy to find this on the avenue. We then went back to the hotel and grabbed a sandwich for later and gave ourselves time to share some of our photos with you.