My friend has never been to Paris and we decided to see the main highlights with the hop on hop off "le open tour bus" - in all not a bad experience - we did 2 routes, the green and the yellow one, because we wanted to get to Montmartre, and she had to see the Arc d' Triompf nearer, as well as the Eiffel - where the lines of people were so long that we decided to go tomorrow.
We got off at the Place de la Concorde end of the Tuilleries Gardens, where the Orangerie is situated. I love the Orangerie, a great fan of Monet, and could not let her not see that. It is great that with our Cite museum card we get the entrance to the Orangerie for free....Libre... I will definitely go again.
We got a pancake on our way there from a street vendor the first "nutella" product for me in the week that I have been here...., - it was freezing cold on the top of the bus, but we wanted to experience as much of the trip as possible, so we had to sit at the top.
The other stop would be in Montmartre, where she would like to see the Sacre Ceour, which again was an experience - the view of the city from there, and the general behaviour of the people there.
She went into the church - I waited for her and drank in the atmosphere, the dancers performing in front of the church, and listened to what the people were saying about the view and the church.
At the back of the church is Montmartre, the bohemian part at Place de Tetre, where a small lady churned her mechanical music machine, and acted the part of a French performer....
We decided to have lunch/supper - it was around 3.30 and cold so we decided to have something to eat and drink and got a seat just behind this performer.... had lots of fun with the way she was doing business.
After a hearty lunch - my first restaurant meal in Paris, we walked through the square where the artists were doing portraits of anybody willing enough to have one made..... some of them were good - but some really bad....there were also a few new takes on the street artist paintings of the eiffel, etc which I actually quite liked.
We got on the bus - trying to get back on the other routes to go with the bus to the Louvre, but to our surprise the bus stopped abruptly, the driver got out and said - "this bus is finished"..... we couldn't believe our ears..... so we walked to the nearest metro and got onto it for the Louvre....
It was around half past 6 at night and the Louvre was brilliant at night.... it was as if the pictures had more colour and the marble of the statues had more shine and warmer colour.
I saw the Louvre in daytime twice before, but thought it to be very special at night time.
I took several photo's of my very favourite, the Victory of Samothrace at the top of the stairs in the Denon wing.... a very special statue..... and bought a postcard for a friend in South Africa - he needs it for his inspiration board....
Tomorrow my friend is off to Versailles and I am going to catch up on the blog, my general email things and get my flat in order - I am so privileged to be here for longer....but I am thinking that I would like to start being creative.... within the folds of creativity here in Paris.... perhaps not a bad idea.....
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