I skipped over there and picked up two regular and one almond croissant, and skipped home. I made a coffee, and sat down to sample the prestigious pastries.
They are the rustic, rough-hewn sort, evocative of Honore, but blonder. Superb in every way!
I had already worked up a sweat, but Rebecca goaded me a bit about trying out my new jump rope. Turns out she used to be pretty good at it. It seems she even brought a jump rope outfit!
With her guidance, I gave it a go.
Boy it's tiring! And after that, she had me do the Seven-Minute Scientific Workout.
Incidentally, they have a very old system of keeping the streets clean, that involves diverting water from the Seine. Every morning you see water running through the streets.
Off to Musee D'Orsay, we walked by a favorite left-bank landmark - Shakespeare and Company. It's an English language bookstore, and it's been there for a verrrry long time. Check out the classic Citroen "Deux Chevaux" (2-horse) in front.
The weather forecast today is 100% chance of thunder and lightening storms, with 10-20 mph wind. So we decided to put off our Roland Garros trip until Friday. We'll be going to Musee D'Orsay this afternoon to see 19th century art. And tonight we'll take a train to see our old exchange student, Julien.
There are some very serious and wonderful musicians playing on the streets in Paris. The footbridge between Ile St. Louis and Ile de la Cite is one of the best places. This group is great. They have CDs, and they are ready for the concert hall!
Then we hopped on a Metro. The entrance Rebecca is standing in fron of was designed by the well-known Art Nouveau artist Hector Guimard. The San Francisco poster art, from the psychedelic 60's, drew heavily on Guimard. There are quite a few of them around Paris, and I'm wild about them.
Here's a bit of controversial social engineering to chew on. Check out the "benches." Paris has found a way to keep the homeless from sleeping in the metro stations; they have furniture that works if you want to take a load off while you wait for your train, but not if you want to stretch out for the night.
Musee D'Orsay is my favorite museum in Paris. It houses 19th-century art, including Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Gaughin, and - wait for it - Van Gogh. And, it's a cleverly repurposed building. It started out life at the end of the 19th century, as a train station, the first in the world that was fully electrified. But in just a few years, it proved to be too short to accommodate modern trains, and fell into disuse. Then, it found new life.
I knew this wouldn't do justice to either of them, but that's Rebecca, in front of a famous Van Gogh self-portrait.
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