A SPECTACULAR last day in Paris and more...

No photos today but it was extraordinary. We took Mark's advice (please thank him for us, Linda!) and went to the Musee D'Orsay on our last day.

M.A.G.N.I.F.I.C.E.N.T

It wasn't terribly crowded and was utterly MIND-BLOWING. We saw SO MUCH today that we're still spinning. They had at least 20 or so Van Gogh's including Starry Night Over the Rhone and his Portrait of an Artist. We saw Gauguin's Self Portrait and perhaps 200 other impressionist masterpieces of Cezanne, Monet, Manet, Renoir and so many others. Each was beautifully displayed in large, open areas with only a few people examining each piece. There were 100's of incredible sculptures including dozens by Rhodin. BEAUTIFUL!

Musee D'Orsay was a dream come true for us both. We saw perhaps 100 pieces we've only seen in books before and 100's more that we had never seen. INCREDIBLE! (I can't stop using caps and exclamation points for this museum!)

The building itself was magical- a former railway station converted into a world-class gallery/museum.

Among the many treasures there is a restaurant with open balconies overlooking Paris with a painted ceiling dating from 1900 that seemed as if it might rival the works of Michelangelo! We got a seat just in a few feet from the window and had a magnificent lunch of sole and risotto, white wine and two amazing desserts. And it was even affordable! Loved the food. Loved our waiter. Loved the cool breeze blowing in on us. WONDERFUL!

We made our way back to the hotel via Taxi to grab our luggage (left with the concierge after checkout) and then another cab to Gare du Nord railway station to catch the EuroStar back to London; fast, comfortable, efficient and affordable!

Then another quick cab ride from St. Pancras to Paddington station and then get this...

Somehow in booking the Oxford to London tickets several weeks ago I managed to book today's return tickets for 8:50 AM instead of 8:50 (20:50) PM- even though I know perfectly well the trains operate on military time. I discovered it a few days before we left and stopped by the local Kingham station to inquire about changing the ticket but was told it was non-exchangeable but to ask the train 'guard' before boarding and he might look kindly on us if I explained my error.

So we caught a Taxi in London rush-hour from St Pancras to Paddington, hopped off and grabbed a baguette sandwich, not knowing when the next London to Oxford train might run. As we rounded the corner moving quickly the sign said the next train left in.... ONE MINUTE! YIKES!!

We zoomed toward the platform and realized the train was still there even though it was now 3 or 4 minutes behind schedule. The 'guard' was going down the coaches locking all the doors for departure as we rolled up and I showed him our tickets and quickly explained our mistake. He gave me a huge WINK and nodded toward FIRST CLASS coach beside him- the last remaining coach to be locked for departure. I said, "First Class???" and he just nodded and winked again.

We had wondered for a month what First Class was like because it's far more expensive than coach. Now we know! 3 seats per row (2 + 1) instead of five (3 + 2) and all in huge, wide, soft leather with each seat having it's own table for work. LOVELY! LOL!!

The guy came back through the car after we were seated, eating our sandwich (brie, ham and cranberries on toasted baguette) and reading our complimentary London Times and again gave us a HUGE wink!

The perfect ending to an unforgettable trip. We grabbed our car in Oxford and made the 45 minute drive back to Kingham and discovered I hadn't forgotten how to drive on the left yet!

Tomorrow is packing day, but we're going to go back to the predatory bird center and watch a few more demonstrations in the afternoon after catching one last breakfast at our favore tea room in the morning at Stow-on-the-Wold. Then we'll finish up packing and load the car in preparation for an EARLY drive into London on Thursday morning to catch a flight home after returning the rental car.

Again- THANK YOU MARK for encouraging us to go back to Musee D'Orsay; it really was the highlight of the trip!!

As our trip nears a close...

A few observations that haven't made it into the blog yet. First about music...

It's been interesting to me that throughout our time in Europe we've heard certain recurring musical themes. The most striking thing has been the frequency with which we hear Big Band music of the 40's as well as American musical standards from the 30's, 40's and 50's. In virtually ever tea shop, pub and restaurant you hear Glenn Miller, Ella Fitzgerald, early Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and more. I don't know if it's a nostalgia thing from World War II or??? The first time we heard it we chalked it up to the quaintness of a small pub whose eccentric owner favored American 40's music. But no- everywhere we went this has been the music that's played; from the most exclusive to the most unassuming places. Curious!

Even here in Paris we've heard a lot of the same- though not as frequently as in England. Here, we're hearing more American jazz from the 50's and onward. Every song is in English and the cabbies in particular seem addicted to American jazz. We've had one who tried to 'sing along' with American jazz classics- even though he couldn't speak English. He just sort of performed what American jazz singers call 'scat singing' with an occasional French phrase thrown in. Another cabby played air guitar while he drove- well actually more air bass with slap/funk right hand and his left hand out the car window on the long neck of his 'bass' guitar . LOL!

And while we're on the subject of cabbies. We thought English cabbies were crazy. It turns out they're absolutely sane in comparison with their French counterparts! Both charge pedestrians at every opportunity- horn blaring and daring pedestrians not to dive for cover. Both season their driving with honking horn the way you might season your fried chicken with salt. Both nations' cabbies are utterly FLUENT in 'horn' and can use it up to 5 or 6 times PER CITY BLOCK!!! It can variously mean 'hey' to a fellow cabby, or 'you're an idiot' to most any motorist, or 'get out of my way or prepare to die' to any pedestrian who DARES to step off the curb. In both cities, the cabbies dart into the smallest opening with no concerns that another vehicle is going to move over; in fact they rather DARE another vehicle to move over! And woe be to any vehicle who is in the middle of changing lanes as the cabby will swerve around and blast past them. It's not uncommon to have two cabbies cut another vehicle off on both sides simultaneously, leaving the hapless motorist trapped between lanes in no man's land and with only 1"-2" between his vehicle and the cabbies on both sides with 3 vehicles now somehow 'sharing' two lanes.

But in France the cabbies have developed a substantially higher art form. U-turns across 10 lanes of oncoming traffic are considered normal and hand gestures and honking horns defy anyone to question their right to do so. Sudden darting moves are quite normal, moving for instance from the 3rd lane and slashing between two vehicles in the second lane with only 1" to spare and then diving into the first lane before cutting back in front of the lead vehicle in the second lane again- all in the space of 30' and two seconds. It's hair-raising and you have to just kind of close your eyes and cinch down your seat belt. There is a continuous monologue in French going on the whole time- undoubtedly a litany of complaints about other motorists that's liberally seasoned with swearing, hand gestures and horn honks. C.R.A.Z.Y. LOL!

"Personal space" in particular, and "space" in general is something quite foreign to Europeans it seems. Walk past any small cafe and you'll see the principle in action. A small storefront no more than 20' wide which would (in America) accommodate 3 tables and chairs may easily have two rows of 15 chairs each with each row having 6 or 7 small 18' tables. The chairs are literally touching one another and all face the street so that it's like theater seating with tiny tables in front of every pair of chairs upon which you can set your wine and bread. People sit with shoulder's physically touching as they dine.

The same is true of both driving and parking. If your vehicle is 6' wide, then any opening in traffic of 6' 2" is PLENTY wide enough to force yourself into. And somehow parking works the same way. Whether you're driving a Bentley or a Fiat 500 you squeeze into any parking space that offers 2" on either end beyond the length of your vehicle. We've seen 100's of cars parallel parked with bumpers literally TOUCHING the vehicle in front or behind and any space that has 8" of space on either end is a rare sight indeed. I have absolutely NO IDEA how they get in and out of these spaces. It's as if the cars were lifted in by helicopter and lowered into their space. A city block that might accommodate 8 cars parked parallel in America may well have 16-20 here- in part because tiny vehicles are more common, but in part because there are never more than 6" between any two vehicles somehow.

What began with observing the narrow 'jousting lanes' for driving in the Cotswolds and the diminutive 'stores' throughout England has turned into something more permeating- space is at a premium!

Parisians made plenty of allowance for beautiful green space and parks and many of their roads are quite wide- but other than that space here is dear and people use every square inch of it. Enjoying a bottle of wine, a loaf of bread and a piece of cheese along the Seine with your lover always involves 'sharing' it with 1000 other couples all sitting or lying within inches of one another for as far as the eye can see. Being 'alone' refers to whose lips touch the wine bottle rather than having physical 'space' around you.

And prices. Prices in Europe are staggering in comparison with prices in most of America. And while this tendency is exaggerated in places like Paris and London, it seemed to be true in the smallest rural areas of England as well. I've mentioned before that in England gas is $10+ per gallon. (I have no idea what it costs in Paris as I have not seen a single gas station. Hmm... I wonder where they are here? Certainly the real estate where we're staying is too dear to waste on a gas station!) A venti cup of coffee at Starbucks here is about $5 euro- or nearly $7 at the current exchange being offered. In rural London and Paris we've seen very few restaurant entrees offered for less than about $25-$40US and many are double that. And portions are SMALL!

I would say it's normal (from what we've seen) to figure on US$100 minimum for almost any meal for two if you have each have a small entree and a glass of wine and coffee. (I'm sure a McDonalds would be less by far- but still probably 2-3 times what you'd pay for the same thing in America.) And you could easily spend 2 or 3 times that in most places if order a more expensive entree, an appetizer and dessert. An appetizer that might be $7 in an upscale American restaurant is $18 here, a $16 entree would be $42 here and a $6 dessert might be $15 here. And of course in the UK most merchandise purchased has a 20% VAT tax on top of that.

So there you are: Frank Sinatra in the background, $10 gas, $7 cups of coffee, 'imaginary' parking space and sitting with shoulders touching the person next to you over your $150 dinner! LOL! Overall it's given us a love for the beauty and history that is Europe- and a new-found appreciation for the wide open spaces and affordable prices of America!

An Anniversary Evening in Paris...

Exhausted from the Louvre, we took a nap this afternoon, then made our way out to walk around and just take some photos of the area before dinner. This is just a common, ordinary lamp post in front of our hotel. NOTHING is 'common' or 'ordinary' in Paris!

The view down a side street we've walked several times this week...

A business you're not likely to see in the United States anytime soon.

One of the scores of exclusive, high end stores; this one happens to have a Bentley Continental parked out front.

The George V Four Seasons hotel had an enormous crowd gathered out front waiting for some celebrity to emerge. Jane might have stayed for Johnny Depp but in truth we probably wouldn't have recognized whoever eventually came out. I believe this is where much of "French Kiss" was filmed.

Yet another Lamborghini parked out front of the hotel. I've seen a BUNCH of them this month!

The quaint little French Bistro where we had lunch this afternoon...

And the Lebanese restaurant where we ate yesterday. Notice how CLOSELY the cars park. It's like that everywhere. A parking space is GOLD around here. Same in London!

A beautifully restored old Mini Cooper sitting out front another Paris Cafe.

A stunning Citroen Convertible sitting on the Citroen Dealership Floor. This dealership wasn't like anything you've ever seen. It had EIGHT FLOORS of vehicles including a slowly revolving display seemingly suspended in air and all open from bottom to top. The bottom three had famous or historic Citroens (like this one) and the top five floors had new cars. I have NO IDEA how the cars got there. It looked like they would have had to disassemble them, hoist them onto each floating, revolving floor and then reassemble them?!?!

I mentioned that beneath the hotel lobby is an enormous Sephora. We've discovered that EVERYTHING in Paris is theater- including retail stores. While there are street performers everywhere in Paris, the retail stores put on 'shows' every several hours. We saw an Abercrombie & Fitch 'show' with some of their male models (Kinda CREEPY actually!) a block away and twice today Sephora cranks up the music and 8 or 10 employees spill out onto the sidewalk complete with their make-up brushes still in their aprons, etc. They began dancing and interacting with people walking on the street. This guy jumped in and began dancing as the employees and the crowd clapped to the music...

Then this guy joined in the break dancing action...

Several of the employees who had already danced watched and clapped. The woman on the left is holding the hat and sunglasses of a pedestrian who joined in the action...

Now a pedestrian is 'choreographing' an impromptu dance routine with several Sephora employees as the crowd grows ever larger. The performance seems to go on for about 15 minutes every couple of hours.

The store itself is ENORMOUS. This doesn't really show how far BACK the store goes- at least 200' or more.

The whole time we've been in Paris Jane has been scouring menus for Sole Meuniere. This was the first dish Julia Childs ever ate when she came to Paris- and it awakened her to what great cooking ought to be and set her on the course of becoming a French chef. We found it tonight and Jane enjoyed it for dinner. It WAS amazing! Here's a great link about Julia and the recipe...

http://www.katherinemartinelli.com/blog/2011/classic-sole-meuniere/

I've loved all the cool cars in both London and Paris. After dinner we headed out onto the Paris streets again. Here's an old Citroen 2CV Deux Chevaux putting along.

At about 9:45 or so the Eiffel tower lights up- AMAZING! We took the cab over to enjoy it.

 Couples are sitting EVERYWHERE along the Seine day and night...

Amazing, right?

Here's a Tuk-Tuk cab. We couldn't resist taking one back to the hotel at 10:30... (Sorry it's out of focus) More to follow.

The statues were illuminated as well, and at 10:00 the entire tower began to TWINKLE with 10,000 brilliant white flashing (strobing?) lights. I videotaped it but there really wasn't a way to photograph it.

 Ready to head home at the end of a beautiful 41st anniversary day in Paris...

The Tuk Tuk driver took a different route back to the hotel which took us through the *INSANE* circle at the Arch D'Triomphe with it's dozen or so streets all converging from every angle in a chaotic ballet of 10,000 moving vehicles. It was BEAUTIFUL all lit up at night but I didn't have the camera turned on or ready to go. Lovely, as the Brits would say!

To the Louvre... sorta

It's a long story. Imagine taking 100,000 strangers speaking 100 different languages. Now imagine squeezing them all into a building that's 90 degrees inside and has 10,000 steps and you begin to get a picture of the Louvre. Honestly- I wouldn't wish the experience on my worst enemy! I can't even IMAGINE what it would be like in full-tourist season in the summer. We went and were absolutely and utterly burnt out, overheated and exhausted in less than one hour and really hadn't seen much of anything. Our old knees, hips and ankles were aching and we were half deaf from the continuous roar of humanity in a stone building. Here's the beautiful glass pyramid entrance area...

And one of about a dozen buildings that make up the Louvre...

I was delighted by the many ceilings we saw and photographed several because... well... because pointing the camera straight up was about the ONLY direction you could point it without aiming at the back of 100 tourists...

Another ceiling...

And another...

And still another...

We walked for a solid 30 minutes up perhaps 600 stairs in shoulder to shoulder crowds to see the Mona Lisa. See that tiny speck on the far wall? That's the Mona Lisa and unless you had a LOT of patience, this is about as close as you're going to get to her. There had to be 500+ people crammed 40-50 deep around the painting- all trying to hold a camera above everyone else's head to take a photo.

We slipped down the edge of the room behind the crowd, thereby getting within about 50'-75' of the painting and holding the camera up arms-length over my head and fully zoomed I was able to take this photo to prove we were in the same room with the painting...

Another magnificent ceiling...

A few grab shots of famous paintings...

Some sculpture we passed by on our way to find the exit...

Once outside we walked the length of the Tuileries garden which was beautiful, though it too was PACKED with people...

LOTS of sculptures in the garden... well over 100 I'm sure...

Several large fountains are found in the Tuileries...

Emerging from the garden you can see the Eiffel tower a mile or so away...

We stopped for another crepe- this time citron sucra; a tablespoon of so of table sugar soaked with lemon juice. Very tasty!

Here's ONE travel option...

And here's another, built by Lamborghini. Lamborghinis are a common sight here. WOW!

So we made our way on to another museum: Musee del l'Orangerie which had a magnificent display of the impressionists, was air conditioned and had at most 400-500 people inside. Aaaahhh... MUCH BETTER!

We came home hot and exhausted after ONLY FOUR HOURS of fighting the crowds. Paris is a beautiful city- almost too beautiful for words. But the crowds of tourists make it almost unbearable to get around in. We've also noticed (as predicted) that while the English consistently went out of their way to be polite AND kind AND engaging, the French seem to all be 'polite' but aloof and certainly never what you would describe as kind!