Paris - 30/12/12

Today we set off after our coffee and croissant to visit the Musee D’Orsay.   We arrive at 9.30am, which is opening time, and there is already a queue.  It takes about 30 minutes to make it inside where we head straight to the new “Fashion” exhibit then onto the Impressionists……..Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Renoir, Cezanne …….. just beautiful.  Although there is more to see, Gordy wants to visit St Sulpice so we are soon on our way.

View from Musee D'Orsay

Being Sunday there is a service on at St Sulpice so it is a very reverent visit.  We step over the resident beggars on the way out and head toward Rue de Raspail.  On the map everything looks quite compact but when you start to walk you suddenly realize how just how large the blocks really are.   My retail therapy has clearly been foiled as there are some great shops along the way (including “Save the Queen”) and they are all closed! 

We retrace our steps back to ‘Ralph’s’ for lunch (although I’m sure we have walked around in circles).  This is Ralph Lauren’s restaurant and a great little haven for lunch…..and my 29E hamburger was yummy….although by now it’s about 3pm so I was a little hungry.  Off again passed market stalls toward the Louvre but nature calls so we have to quickly find somewhere to sit for a glass of wine as an excuse!  We shoot into this typically tiny Parisian café where everybody sits elbow to elbow and order wine and fromage and it’s not long before we start chatting to the couple on the next table, Charlotte, a surgeon and Soto, a solicitor.  There is soon a bottle of wine being shared followed by cognacs all round and the exchange of emails etc.  As we are leaving the restaurant I am stopped by a girl who hails from Brisbane and tells me she used to babysit my kids!  She is holidaying with her mother - I know the face, can’t remember the name.  It really is a small world.  We do the long walk back to the hotel and although Soto and Charlotte have invited us out for drinks at about 9.30pm, it’s not long before we are both catching zzzs!  

Ralph's - 173 Boulevard St Germai

Gordy at lunch and in front of St Sulpice 

    

PS It is now 3am and I am listening, once more to the sounds of Paris outside our window ..... the very loud, very annoying sounds!  If they can't change our room tomorrow I think I will ask for a refund and change hotels!  The hotel itself is fine and the location is great but the noise!!!!  Grrrr.......