So the second day of my trip included breakfast (happily, it's included with the room, so I don't have to go out and forage for coffee first thing in the morning). Then I decided to go to the Marmottan Museum.
http://www.marmottan.com/uk/index_uk.asp
I pondered taking transit to get there. But it was going to take 30 minutes, and according to google maps, it was going to take 40 minutes to walk. So I figured....what the heck. You would think I had learned my lesson by now. But I figured with my trusty iPhone and it's map/GPS function and a paper map, I wouldn't get lost. Think again.
Overall, it was fine. I did have a general idea the direction I needed to go. The challenge here is that the streets veer off in different directions. So you get to a corner, and there are 4 or 5 streets you can choose from. It's not like intersections at home, where it's clear where the streets go. Here they are kind of in this star pattern....so if I am following a street, I don't know which way is 'straight'. So the iPhone came in handy for that.
It was a beautiful day out, so the walk was nice. And I did get to see a different view of the Eiffel Tower. It was strange, at one point I was walking along, focused on where I was going, I came around a corner and there was the Tower. I was like...Oh yeah, I am in Paris. It's still a bit surreal to see that.
Finally got to the museum....40 minutes according to google maps, was in actual fact almost an hour. It is in a bit of (what looks like) a residential portion of the city. And it backs right on to a huge park.
The museum is a collection of Impressionist art, mostly Monet. And the cool thing is it's basically a home and the upstairs is just like a house. With furniture and the paintings on the walls. And then downstairs is where most of the Monets are.
Last time I was here, I went on a tour of Giverny, where Monet painted and lived. So now when I see the paintings of his gardens, I have a new perspective. I was there and I saw what it 'really' looks like. It's really cool to be able to see his 'impression' of it. It's a cool collection of work. A lot of 'famous' paintings that I have seen in books. And it's always more impressive to see them 'live'.
After that adventure, I was tired and hungry. So I went to the first cafe I could find and had a very leisurely lunch, with a couple glasses of wine. I then wandered back to the hotel, taking my time and enjoying the scenery.
And that was about it. It was late-ish in the afternoon when I got back. So I just chilled out a bit. And headed out for a late dinner. I was going to head out to see the Eiffel Tower at night, but it was pretty windy and chilly. So that didn't happen.
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| Paris 2010 Day 2 |
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