Paris – the tourist trail

Right, I still need to write a Paris entry or my collection will be incomplete. So here goes…

I went with Jana, colleague from work, who’d never been before, so we had to do a number of, well, basic touristy things. We did a lot of walking around and some cycling, and did one exhibition a day (which isn’t much by my standards). The weather was amazing, very hot. Paris, of course, was beautiful as always.

Friday

• Walked from the station to rue Montorgueil and had a drink there. Then to hotel, then to the Yves Saint Laurent exhib at the Petit Palais. This was ok. Lots of fashion! :))
• Walked up and down the Champs Elysées (encountered some cutely celebrating Portuguese football fans), then rue St Honoré (posh shops for Jana), through the Tuileries to the Louvre (cuz she wanted to see the pyramid).
• Noticed it was quite late already and went to St Michel for dinner at our traditional little Italian (the name of which I have again forgotten). Then walked around some more, to Notre Dame, where an MJ tribute / memorial thing was underway. Cried a little.

Saturday

• Walked through Montparnasse Cemetery (our hotel was near Denfert-Rochereau) and went shopping at C&A and Galeries Lafayette. Then up rue de Rennes, found bikes at rue Vaugirard and cycled up past the Luxembourg to our second exhib at the Musée de la Monnaie – Willy Ronis, photographer.
• Back on the bike to the Marais for more walking around, seeing shops, and sitting around. Big gay party at the Bastille.
• On the bike again towards Montmartre. Of course, we didn’t cycle up that hill, but parked at the bottom of it and walked. Did the usual, Sacré Cœur, place du Tertre, admired the view, then walked back down and on to bvd des Italiens, where we caught the métro. Had dinner near our hotel.

Sunday

• Took our luggage to Gare du Nord. Found out the bike terminals weren’t working, so walked to the Buttes Chaumont. Coffee, more walking around, then métro to Père Lachaise. Yet more walking around, then métro to 16e for Musée Marmottan Monet. This had a temporary exhib about Monet & the abstractionists (sth like that), about his influence on later painters. This was ok (Monet was great of course, the comparisons were a bit meh).
• Walked to Trocadéro for the England-Germany football match, and then it was very late and we had to run for the train. Which then was declared delayed. But then it wasn’t after all. The End.