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We started the day with a wonderful tour of the Paris Opera House. I’ve attached a short video and some photos. The Opera House was billed as the alternative to Versailles if you want some traditional French opulence. It lived up to the billing and our guide was knowledgeable and funny. What I hadn’t expected is that the center of the ceiling is a huge Marc Chagall painting. It is quite a contrast to the incredible formality of the rest of the building. I asked why he had been selected since at the time (in the 60’s) he wasn’t very famous. She said that Andre Malraux was the Minister of Culture at the time and he liked Marc Chagall so he selected him for the project. What links the painting and the building is that the architect, Charles Garnier, really liked color and tried to use it throughout the building and Chagall has wonderful colors…it’s a pretty tenuous link.
Josh and Madeline left for an overnight trip to Rennes, where Josh had spent his junior year of high school, but Jess and Matt were with us. After the tour, we took the metro to Montparnasse and before we
went to the Cartier-Bresson Museum, we had a wonderful lunch. The salads were unexpectedly pretty and really good. It never fails to amaze me how expensive beverages are relative to food. The salads were about 10 euros and a diet coke was 4.5 euros. I’m drinking a lot more water than I usually do.
Thanks to Matt we had no trouble finding the Cartier-Bresson museum. Most of what was shown was work done by a Japanese photographer who had started with black and white and moved to color. There was a small exhibit of Cartier-Bresson photos on the third floor. We bought a small book with images that Cartier-Bresson particularly liked.
Jess and Matt decided they wanted to head back via a fancy chocolatier and Jack and I planned on going to the European Center for Contemporary Photography. At the stop where we had to change lines, I noticed we were at the Grand Palais and recommended that Jack get off to see the Charles Bruner exhibit I had seen Monday. Since it was sort of sunny and the rest of the week is supposed to be overcast & rainy, I figured it would be his best opportunity.
I continued on and stopped to do a little shopping in the Marais. Much as I like the style of Parisian clothes and accessories, $300 handbags are not in my budget.
We planned dinner at Bistro Paul Bert that was highly recommended by friends and the food tour guide. What a disappointment. The food was mediocre. The only good thing was that when I ordered an Andouillette, thinking I was getting an Anduillle sausage, and it turned out to be rolled intestines, the waiter offered me a different main course. It was very professional and while the steak was OK, at least it was edible. The first course of grilled squid was probperly cooked and the citron tart had uninspired crust, neither flakey not crunchy. I feel like Madelne Kamman! What a curse to know too much about food.
We arrived back at 9:30 and I’m fading fast at 10:15
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