Paris 3

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Good news! I rebooted my iPad and was then able to transfer photos from the camera again. Whew! So I will start with the picture of my French meal from last night (see picture). This morning I walked along the Seine River to the Orsay Museum. It is about a mile from my hotel. I got in line and waited about half an hour to get in. The Orsay houses the Impressionists, probably my favorite genre of art. Monet, Manet, Van Gogh they are all there as well as a number of sculptures by Rodin and others (see picture). I had "un café" about halfway through and got done around noon. I wandered into the back streets behind the museum where I found a little French restaurant with a reasonably-priced "plat du jour". After a pleasant meal, I caught a taxi up to Sacré Coeur church (see picture) which is way up on Montmartre hill in the north of Paris. The views of the city are gorgeous. From Sacré Coeur, I walked downhill following Rick Steves' Montmartre Walk which passes by where famous artists like Toulouse-Lautrec and Van Gogh lived 140 years ago, or so. Today it is a tourist hub with lots of street merchants (see picture), including artists doing on-the-spot pencil portraits. I remember the area as being much the same when I was first here with my family in 1973. My next stop was the Arc de Triomphe (see picture). I have been here before, but never to the top. There are 360 degree views of the entire city. It was worth the cost of admission - and the long climb up to the top. I walked a little on the Champs Élysées, which is broad and busy, and then took the Metro to a restaurant I had read about with a view of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately the restaurant is closed on Tuesdays (!), but I found another one nearby and had a nice dinner of gazpacho and osso bucco. Then I took a picture of myself with the Eiffel Tower in the background (see picture) and walked across the river to catch the Metro back to the hotel. It was a full day, but I wanted to get a lot in because I don't think I'll have much time for sightseeing tomorrow.

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Comments

[Ilene]

Hi from Iguazu Falls
All the best Andy and Ilene